Pornography

INTRODUCTION

This article examines symbolic politics of pornography in America. Public opinion polls and other data indicate that most Americans are as ambivalent about pornography as they are about most issues relating to sex, but an intense minority of 4 to 7 percent of the population sees pornography as a major problem facing the country-a more serious threat than economic problems, the environment, or even nuclear war. After examining the shape of contemporary public opinion, this article employs a very broad definition of pornography that would include most explicit materials intended to produce sexual arousal and discusses the traditional/conservative, libertarian, and various feminist approaches to pornography. Then the referential and condensation symbol aspects of the issue are discussed. Pornography is a very poor referential symbol because it means different things to different people and is probably synonymous with violent sexually explicit material for most Americans. Pornography is a...