Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ncsu.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!harpo!decvax!mcnc!ncsu!mauney From: mauney@ncsu.UUCP (Jon Mauney) Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: More Real Dirt on Porn Message-ID: <2526@ncsu.UUCP> Date: Wed, 7-Mar-84 10:32:18 EST Article-I.D.: ncsu.2526 Posted: Wed Mar 7 10:32:18 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 8-Mar-84 08:46:35 EST References: <2520@ncsu.UUCP>, <7183@watmath.UUCP> Organization: N.C. State University, Raleigh Lines: 34 > Did you really understand ``A Streetcar Named Desire'' to be advocating rape > and wife beating or are you saying that you did as a debating technique? I > found the movie to portray an extremely undesireable hellhole of violence and > insanity. I must admit that my actual reaction to "Streetcar" was not that described in my previous article. However, if everyone thought the way I do, there would be no more rape, no more war, no more FORTRAN. I deduce that not everyone thinks the way I do. I therefore postulate the possibility that somewhere a latent Stanley Kowalski sits down before the tube, and says to himself "Hey! this guy on the tube hits his wife and throws her radio out the window, and she loves him all the more! I'll have to try that." A priori (and without a psych degree) I would have to wonder about the desirability of showing "Streetcar" on TV. > I am not suggesting rules to distinguish ``porn'' from serious movies. > I am suggesting distinguishing between movies with negative social value > from those that aren't terribly damaging. In a word: How? One could have a screening board that makes judgements before a film is released. Can you be sure they would pass "Streetcar" ? Can you be sure they would only judge violence, and never ban something because it promotes other undesirable activities, such as homosexuality or socialism? One could send a team of scientists to observe the audience at sneak previews; said team would, of course, have to follow the audience home. That is the choice: unreliable a priori judgment, or preposterously expensive empirical data. The simple question is "Who will decide?" The simple answer is "No one group." Treat the disease, not the symptoms. -- _Doctor_ Jon Mauney, mcnc!ncsu!mauney \__Mu__/ North Carolina State University