Alex Henderson

A Brownback Sequel

By Alex Henderson
February 5, 2007

In October, Sen. Sam Brownback called for a new investigative government commission that would examine adult entertainment's effects on society — along the lines of the Meese Commission on Pornography. The Kansas Republican is a blistering opponent of adult entertainment, which he believes has had "devastating effects on families and children"— and presumably, Brownback is hoping that a sequel to the Meese Commission would provide "evidence" that sexually explicit material is harmful to society, demonstrating the need for more obscenity prosecutions.

Whether the Meese Commission sequel that Brownback envisions will actually become a reality remains to be seen; at this point, it is merely a suggestion. Several prominent figures in the adult industry who were interviewed for this article, including Layne Winklebleck (legislative affairs associate for the Free Speech Coalition), 1st Amendment attorneys Gregory Piccionelli and Lawrence Walters and former adult film star Bill Margold, all told XBIZ that they would welcome a serious scientific study of the societal effects of adult entertainment because they believe that such a study would show adult entertainment to have many positive effects. However, all of them fear that the commission Brownback has in mind would not be a serious scientific study but rather, a kangaroo court with a strong anti-erotica bias, which is exactly how many adult industry supporters view the Meese Commission.

Held in 1985 and 1986 — when Ronald Reagan was serving his second term as president of the U.S. and Edwin Meese III was his attorney general — the Meese Commission was not the first time the federal government studied adult entertainment. That commission was preceded by the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, which was appointed by President Johnson but did not conclude until 1970, when Richard Nixon was president.

Johnson's commission decided that there was insufficient evidence that exposure to explicit sexual materials played a significant role in the causation of delinquent or criminal behavior — a conclusion that Nixon vehemently disagreed with. Reagan ordered the creation of the Meese Commission, Walters explained, because social conservatives were so disappointed by the 1970 commission's findings.

"The Meese Commission was a direct response to the 1970 commission, which came to the conclusion that there is no harm caused by pornographic materials," Walters recalled. "Richard Nixon didn't like that conclusion at all, and Ronald Reagan and Ed Meese didn't like it at all — and so, with the Meese Commission 15 years later, the instruction was clearly given to come up with a different result this time and to make sure they found that there were serious social problems associated with pornography. The Meese Commission was a nonscientific value judgment that used a bunch of emotional arguments as to why adult material is problematic and harmful, and I expect that with the commission that Brownback is calling for, there would be the same type of nonsense and junk science this time around. There would be no objectivity, no balance and no recognized experts in the field."

One person who Walters believes would be a valuable participant in a genuinely scientific study of adult entertainment's societal effects is Dr. Marty Klein, a well-respected marriage counselor and sex therapist who has written five books. Because Klein is both a proponent of adult entertainment and someone with a long history of fighting to keep marriages together, Walters asserted, he is exactly the type of person who should be heard in a "Gonzales Commission" (as in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales) or "Brownback Commission," should such a commission be assembled. But Walters seriously doubts that Brownback and others on the Christian right would welcome the input of Klein and other professional sexologists.

Phil Harvey, president of Adam & Eve/PHE Inc., doesn't think that a Meese sequel will come about; the anti-erotica findings of the Meese Commission, Harvey said, have been seriously discredited in the scientific community, and a Meese sequel during Bush's second term would only make the Bush administration look ridiculous.

Hollow Argument
Harvey asserted, "The negative secondary effects of adult entertainment that are often claimed — like loss of property values, an increase in violent crime and so on — have all been found to be hollow. In fact, there is new scientific research demonstrating that the increase in pornography on the Internet is associated with a decrease in rape."

But, Harvey added, Brownback and similar anti-sex ideologues are not going to be swayed by authentic scientific studies.

"For the group of people who despise the presence of sexuality in our culture," Harvey explained, "the key is to keep fighting. Sexuality scares that group of people, who believe that sexuality is harmful and that any form of sexuality that is visible in our society is a terrible thing. And they believe that it is their duty, under God, to do everything they can to suppress sexual material in America and the presence of sexuality in our culture. The proof of its badness is always going to elude them because the proof is not there, but that isn't going to slow them down. They feel it is their moral duty to stamp it out, and even if they can't stamp it out, they believe it is still their moral duty to at least attempt to stamp it out."

Alternative Tactics

Piccionelli explained that because vanilla adult entertainment has become harder to prosecute for obscenity, Brownback and his supporters are trying to find other ways to attack it — and one of them is claiming that adult entertainment is addictive.

A Brownback Commission, Piccionelli said, would probably use pseudo-science in order to promote the theory that adult entertainment, like heroin and cocaine, needs to be regulated as a controlled substance.

"Brownback's desire is to manufacture data supporting his thesis that pornography is a substance that should be regulated like drugs because of its physiological effects on human beings — and as a person with a background in molecular biology, I have to tell you that his thesis is about as absurd as it gets," Piccionelli said. "There is nothing about the visual or auditory images of adult entertainment that, in and of themselves, have any kind of addictive, negative effects. But Brownback thinks that if he can convince people that adult entertainment is an addictive substance, he can regulate it as a substance instead of regulating it as speech and having to worry about the 1st Amendment."

Piccionelli continued, "I think that if there was an honest appraisal of the effects of adult entertainment, the adult industry would come out on top. The problem is that if a government commission on the effects of porn is established at the behest of someone like Brownback, it isn't going to be an honest appraisal — it is going to be a witch hunt. But I don't think that the type of commission Brownback wants is going to come about, and one of the reasons is the Democrats."

Brownback, Piccionelli noted, lost a lot of allies in Congress on Nov. 7, when the Democratic Party regained control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Staunch Brownback supporters like Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum (who shares Brownback's total disdain for adult entertainment) were voted out of office — and cumulatively, Nov. 7 was, as President Bush put it, a "thumping" for the GOP.

David Sutton, president of the Las Vegas-based adult film company VCX, said that Brownback's idea for a Meese Commission sequel probably won't get much support from the Democrats who now control both houses of Congress. Sutton was quick to add, however, that the executive branch of the U.S. government is still controlled by a party that is quite sympathetic to Brownback's anti-sex agenda.

"Having the Democrats controlling Congress doesn't mean that the adult industry will be getting a free pass in the next two years," Sutton emphasized. "Even though there will be a Nancy Pelosi-controlled House of Representatives, there are still a lot of executive powers that the president holds — and Bush still has the power to do a lot of damage to the adult industry without having to rely on either the House of Representatives or the Senate to get it done."

Sutton noted that Bush could conceivably ask Gonzales to oversee a Meese Commission sequel if he likes Brownback's idea. But Margold, who testified before the Meese Commission in 1985 and now heads the organization Protecting Adult Welfare, seriously doubts that Brownback will get his way. The Bush administration, Margold stressed, has more detractors than supporters at this point and would lose even more credibility by going along with Brownback's idea.

"The intent of the original Meese Commission was to prove to the world that the X-rated industry was why everything was fucked up," Margold said. "But so many things are fucked up now that the government can't blame everything on us. They can't blame Iraq on us. They can't blame immigration problems on us. They can't blame the rape of the environment on us. The government has so many other things to tend to, and I just don't think anybody would take a Brownback Commission or Gonzales Commission or mini-Meese or whatever you want to call it seriously.

Another Meese Panel?
"But if there is another Meese Commission, I would be glad to testify again, and I'll say many of the same things that I said at the Meese Commission 21 years ago. I'll tell them that in a society that is drug-infested, violence-racked and polluted by chemical greed, no one has ever died of an overdose of pornography. I'll tell them that we are a nation of hypocrites who jerk ourselves off with the left hand and deny the X-rated industry with the right hand."

Walters emphasized that if adult entrepreneurs want to avoid being the targets of anti-erotica crusaders like Brownback in the future, they need to become seriously politicized between now and 2008.

"I honestly believe that the adult industry has the power to sway the next presidential election," Walters said. "The adult Internet industry needs to decide on a candidate, take political action and put political messages on the front of their adult websites. For example, if you like visiting this website and if you want to continue doing so after January 2009, then vote for this person."

Winklebleck asserted that if Brownback continues to push for a new government commission on erotic entertainment, the adult industry must speak out and make sure that it isn't another hatchet job along the lines of the Meese Commission.

"In truly open hearings, where the adult industry's best scientific evidence could be presented, we could win the debate hands down," Winklebleck said. "We won the debate with the 1970 commission and would also have won the debate if the Meese Commission hadn't been so slanted and biased. I think that the adult industry should welcome a commission on the effects of adult entertainment, but only if it is truly scientific and only if we can have some of our best scientific minds there. Science is on our side."