Jon Swift Just Won The Internet

I honestly can't think of a better argument on the whole "teen porn" thing.

There should be a little ceremony or something.

I actually felt a little bad about the posting I did on the issue, as proud as I am of my nifty little Overton Series, because I implied that the whole teen porn thing was just a stalking horse for anti-porn crusading in general. I thought, maybe, that that was unfair.

Then I saw Lance Mannion get called "odious", "non-liberal", and "less than human" by Ann Barlow for even thinking about looking at the stuff.

Of course, Ann Barlow wrote in to clarify that she's calling the porn industry's practices odious, rather than the people. Unfortunately, that still leaves "non-liberal" and "less than human". Sorry, but "less than human" is worse than both illiberal and odious by a long shot. That's what you call people you want your soldiers to kill. It also doesn't address the problem of Garance Franke-Ruta backhandedly calling Mannion a pedophile.

(That's what you call people you want prisoners to kill.)

Somehow, I don't feel bad anymore.

Oh, and as for the industry practices? Dan Savage actually did a pretty good job of addressing this issue last month. In a response to a letter-writer uncomfortable with their roommate's penchant for BDSM porn, he noted in an interview with at least one small BDSM producing outlet that they're pretty careful about issues like informed consent. They have to be; they live on the bleeding edge of legality to begin with. While that doesn't address the whole "effect on perception of women" issue with erotica, it does suggest that it's at least possible for its producers to be ethical and self-policing.

(Unless Savage was being sold a bill of goods. Which is possible. I doubt it, though, because the blowback would be vicious.)