At Salon.com
We talk to librarians who disagree on whether smut viewing is a defensible First Amendment right
If you found this article while searching for porn that fetishizes bookish bespectacled women, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. In this rare case, we’re talking about porn in libraries, not librarians in porn. That’s because earlier this week, the Los Angeles City Council voted against filtering out all porn on library computers. Just the day before, the Brooklyn Public Library publicly defended patrons’ right to watch any legal adult content of their choosing. The first case was prompted by an incident in which kids were exposed to pornography being watched by an adult on a library computer; and the second followed a physical altercation between a man watching porn on a library computer and another man waiting to use said computer.
little hung up on sexuality
Jessamyn West is quoted in the article – “I think the U.S. is a little hung up on sexuality and policing other people’s sexual expression.”
Agreed. Libraries need to be service oriented and should do more than just provide porn to patrons. Patrons viewing porn would probably also like to masturbate. The computers should be put in private rooms so that patrons can fully enjoy the porn they are viewing. The sexually repressed people that do not agree with masturbation need to realize that we are in 2011.
Library Porn
I have no problem with people viewing porn in the privacy of their own home, or at a porn theater, or at a strip club. But I’m sorry, if you go a public library to view porn, there’s something seriously wrong with you, and I don’t give a damn about your alleged “rights.”
And for those librarians that think viewing porn on library computers is a “right” worth fighting for, don’t be surprised if taxpayers decide they don’t want to pay for porn in the library and library funding gets cut even more.
What a completely pointless battle for librarians to be fighting.
Amen.
Amen.
appropriate behavior?
Would someone holding up a hustler that they are reading in a public place be tolerated?
Well…
I’m actually pretty liberal but after I had to be subjected to two years of sitting at an academic library reference desk watching a guy download porn onto CDs all day, I became pro-filter. My administration wouldn’t do anything about it. I finally got a new job, thank god.
Libraries should own it.
Libraries should own it.
Porn in libraries is a public good.
Depends on the porn
Should we allow porn in libraries? Depends on the porn. Illegal porn? No. Porn on Internet computers? No. Visual porn such as porn movies? No. Porn in print? Depends. For example, straight porn, no. But porn contained in sources having nonporn content such as Playboy, then perhaps. Or porn contained in sources intended to educate such as for safer sex, then yes.
Of course I would answer differently if we were talking about a venue other than a public library. Then I would only oppose illegal porn.
Having said all that, I can’t see how libraries could support this anyway because the porn industry seriously impinges on the rights of the women actors. This interference can be so bad that some women will commit suicide. That is pretty bad. That’s the porn industry. I see no reason for public libraries to support an industry that treats women so poorly.
Of course I would answer differently if we were talking about a venue other than a public library. Then I would only oppose illegal porn.
I reserve the right to change may answers based on new information.