European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes tuesday july 15,1986 Andrew j. Glass porn has Long history As social phenomenon its too bad Hal the attorney general s com Mission on pornography chose to Devol Only four scam pugs in its 1,960-Page report to the history of pornography As a social phenomenon. Having tapped inc Public till Tor 1500.000, it should at least have offered he taxpayers a firmer fix where its massive report fits in the grander scheme of things. Porm Graphy depicts erotic behaviour for the purpose  sexual Essit Emcil. Anthropologists digging hark into inc human past have Cyl to unearth a culture which shunned pornography. Ancient greek and roman plays and poems Are Replete no Whai the commission no doubt would have identified As explicitly suggestive sexual references. Even i deeply Christian societies until relatively modern times pornography was often tolerated so Long As it managed to Mech Clear of do her religion or politics. However virtually All this stuff whether written Down or drawn rarely circulated beyond a Small Secu Lar and religious aristocracy. These restrictions on distribution lasted into the 19th Century when cheap paper efficient printing presses and the Advent of photography made pornographic materials available for inc first Lime 10 a mass audience.  Merit counted for Little. Hawkers of Pom. Pushing so called French postcards in victorian England inevitably ran afoul of the aristocratic society for the suppression of vice. Some of inc society s Mem Bers blithely continued to collect pornographic roman statues and chinese vases for their elegant country Homes. In America a crusader named Anthony Comstock assailed the National police Gazette a kind of Playboy and Penthouse of inc gaslight Era. Comstock a is largely responsible for i he enactment of Law which with surprisingly few modifications Over inc Vears now constitute the government s Legal machinery to combat obscenity. Shortly before his death in 1913, Comstock announced wild Pride that he had convicted persons enough to fill a passenger train of 61 coaches 60 coaches containing 60 passengers each and the 61st they i guaranteed freedoms. So. In a historical sense the commission s Call for a National assault against pornography Marks another spin of inc wheel. Ils report is a Fine vehicle for an administration Bent on demonstrating its commitment Ellen Goodman to family  the anti pornography commission also Marks a rather shaky Alliance Between the religious right an militant feminists. Both groups share an Abhorrence to seeing women sexually degraded in films books or magazines. The feminists fear however thai a new wave of anti obscenity prosecutions much favored by the Christian fundamentalists could also catch lesbians in the Legal net. Women s roles in our society Are changing rapidly. A female hired As a Telephone lineman or 10 work on a construction Crew can sociologically speaking encounter Macho male altitudes which the would no doubt find degrading. Yet the clash is one of class As much As it is of sex. In any event the whole exercise once again Demon Strates a Reagan Ite propinquity for hypocrisy and for doing things on the cheap. There Are indeed As the commission notes some highly disturbed people who Are drawn toward acts of sexual violence. The solution however if there is one lies Down tie path of medical care. Yet this administration has severely slashed funding for such  is a big business which undoubtedly attracts Cash from the mob. For most people however most pornography soon turns sours and fades in inter est. Denmark for example took All the wraps off erotic sex Only to see a widespread to hum reaction set in within a decade. The new co stocks however would vigorously suppress sexually oriented materials. Should they succeed they will inevitably and perversely also succeeding generating interest in what is being banned thereby giving the pornographic Cycle yet another historical spin. To co a wis a she cries no fears for closing of Playboy clubs forgive me if 1 do not mourn the passing of the Playboy clubs. I was t Elihe closing ceremonies in Chicago or new York or los Angeles. I had no key to Lurn in. You see. No souvenir ears to Lake Home for nibbling. 1 had no nostalgia  past. If there is an afterlife. I Only Hope that the comedian in the Chicago club is right i envision a Bunny heaven where bunnies arc served drinks by Middle aged businessmen in funny Little  for eternity. Over a life Span of 26 years a million men were members of Playboy clubs and 25,000 women encased themselves in the Corse Ltd push up costumes. They Learned to do the Bunny dips and gel the Bunny tips. But the Only thing that remained unchanged on closing night was the age of the woman on Hugh Hefner s Arm. She was 2 2. 1 Don t know Eta cily who killed this Golden Bunny. Pont Teu me this stuff does t cause. Violence -.lec1 i rec of Ihm from different backgrounds with differ eni values. First on any list certainly Hefner s list is his favorite All Lime enemy the authoritarian True believe  the fundamentalists on a comeback Trail. Second arc men who finally outgrew the adolescent image of women As Cottontail. Third Are the Consumers who left the Playboy Market behind graduating from the risque a inc Raunchy. They make an Odd threesome these suspects and yet in Seonis thai they often form the triangular team Itiat debates sexual politics today. They Are be Hind the i using ceremonies of the Playboy clubs. They Are retailing and re rebutting the report of the Altor Ney gym i in s commission on pornography. What labels however simplistic can we apply to such a Trio puritans. Humanists. A rated sexual con Sumers. In the last 30 years. American altitudes toward sex Ual values have gravitated toward these three Distant Comers. In one Comer people rally around an external Standard the biblical arbiter of sexual Dos and Don u. In another people seek some internal Standard of love both erotic and caring As their guideline for sexual intimacy. In the third and darkest Comer Are those who have no Standard at All beyond exploitation. Is it too much of an exaggeration 10 say that on group would dress those former bunnies in purdah another in Independence while a third would strip them Down to genitals the most unsettled Corner of this Triangle is one that holds those humanists for want of a better word who see caring at least Mutual consent As the Basic Stan Dard by which to judge sexual behaviour. We Are. Tor the most part people trying to avoid both exploitation and repression. For the most part we arc successful in private life. But in Public life we find ourselves pushed into uncomfortable Affinity with both puritans and x rated sexual Consumers. When 4,500 7-Elcvcn Horn removed Playboy and Penthouse i for one could not work up my outrage at their disappearance. If i no longer passed a Man idly scanning naked pictures of women on my Way to the toothpaste shelf i could t me that As a loss of Liberty. Yet i know that 1 do not share the same goals or values As the boy Cotters. I surely do not approve the wit of the pornography commission whose letter intimidated these stores