Pornography and Censorship

I believe that the censorship of pornography should be nonexistent. Besides the fact that the First Amendment clearly states that the people of the United States have freedom of speech, there are many other reasons why pornography is being wrongfully prosecuted. The porn industry grosses about five billion dollars in revenues just in the United States every year (Jeremy). This shows not only that porn is widely accepted by most people but that porn also helps the economy. Looking more closely to the economic benefit of porn, my research shows that porn employs more than one million people, ranging from actors to store owners, giving the industry a very large and profitable work force (Jeremy). Job wise this also gives some people such as a high school drop out a chance to make a much larger salary then they normally would.

Although I see porn as a very good thing some people believe it to be a degradation of men and women. To them porn is just another thing they believe should be censored or banned. Looking at a census and research from William Boei's paper, I have found that most of the protagonists against porn are either feminists or religious groups. Given the ideas that both these groups hold, I believe that they do not give porn enough credit and see the issue as very one sided. One of the ideas these groups believe in is that all people in pornography are unintelligent and are forced into the job (Jeremy). On the contrary the porn actor Ron Jeremy has a college degree in medicine and has gone back to school many times to further his learning. Although there are the exceptions, many of the actors in porn have not gone to college and some have dropped out of high school. But is this really a bad thing? This does not mean that a porn actor or actress is not intelligent; it just means that the individual chose a job that required no further schooling. The assumption that all individuals in porn are unintelligent and forced into the job is like saying every person in this country who chose to not pursue any further learning past high school is unintelligent and incompetent. Obviously this idea is flawed and should be taken into consideration when judging other people.

Another topic brought up in William Boei's paper is the idea that many of the actors and actresses of porn have S.T.D's. This is a very misinformed idea according to William Boei's , in his paper he reviewed the extensive testing a porn actor or actress must go through every month. These tests consist of getting blood drawn, urine tests, and physical examinations. Not only are the actors tested, most women in this profession only have a few partners they will appear with. One such actress is Jenna Jameson who will only perform with three different men. While porn is basically safe and disease free many people have the idea that men and women in porn are selling themselves, much like a prostitute. Although they are paid to perform sexual acts, porn actors and actresses differ from prostitutes because they must sign contracts and go through screenings. Pornography is also considered an art and there for is protected by the First Amendment (Senate Judiciary).

Given the information from William Boei's paper, I believe that porn is a very legitimate