Alex Henderson

The Adult Entertainment Industry

New Report By Sociologist Chauntelle Tibbals Addresses Popularity and Stigmatization of Porn in the United States 

By Alex Henderson
RealmNoir, May 10, 2013

The United States is the largest porn producer in the world. Yet in the U.S., porn is both popular and controversial. And Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals, a sociologist who has spent a considerable amount of time studying the adult entertainment industry, addresses those contradictions in her latest study, “When Law Moves Quicker Than Culture: Key Jurisprudential Regulations Shaping the U.S. Adult Content Production Industry” (which has been published in The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice).

The Los Angeles-based Tibbals, a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California (USC), is quite comprehensive in her research. Reflecting on the history of the adult entertainment industry in the United States, Tibbals discusses important Supreme Court rulings in cases ranging from 1973’s Miller v. California (which established the three-pronged Miller test for obscenity) to 1969’s Stanley v. Georgia (which declared that simple possession of sexually explicit adult material is not a crime even if it is obscene). Tibbals’ study, however, explains that although porn has enjoyed the protection of the U.S.’ largest judicial body (assuming a jury doesn’t find material to be obscene under the Miller test) and has generated huge profits over the years, it continues to have its vehement critics. And those critics, the study points out, range from both radical feminists on the left to Christian Right evangelicals.

“Just like all my other research and projects, this work seeks to show the adult industry’s social and cultural relevance while actually engaging members of the community,” Tibbals told SeXXXandPolitics.com in a May 10 interview. “This project in particular shows how members of the adult industry, through their legal battles for civil rights and free speech, have shaped each member of the wider society. Much of our creative expression has been insured via jurisprudence surrounding porn. I think calling attention to this is very important.”

It has often been said that politics make strange bedfellows, and that is certainly true when it comes to porn. The adult entertainment industry has its share of card-carrying liberals and progressives as well as right-wing libertarians and Ron Paul supporters. Some people in the adult industry voted to re-elect President Barack Obama in 2012, yet some voted for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson (a hardcore fiscal conservative who supports gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana and prostitution). And while liberals and libertarians in the adult industry can find common ground in their defense of porn, the Christian Right and radical feminists of the Catherine MacKinnon/Andrea Dworkin variety have found some common ground in their opposition to it. Christian Right activist and anti-gay marriage crusader Maggie Gallagher, in fact, was on friendly terms with the late Dworkin (who died in 2005) and praised her anti-porn zealotry.

Tibbals, comparing anti-porn efforts on the left with anti-porn efforts on the right, observed: “Unfortunately, the similarities are obvious: both groups seek to limit the speech, agency and life choices of others—both members of the adult industry and adult-aged consumers of erotic content—on the basis of their own values, world views, etc. I find it ironic that both groups, who have themselves struggled for their own basic civil rights in so many ways, would endeavor in the exact same manner against others.”

Tibbals added: “I suppose one major difference would be the alleged rational behind each respective group’s oddly coincident goals. But I tell you—after so many years and so much rhetoric—I am beginning to wonder if they’re really that different. One may say that they seek to limit adult content for spiritual reasons, another may say they seek to limit some adult content for reasons situated in gender inequality. But the fact remains that both groups are attempting to force and enforce rather than engaging in various forms of outreach or education. Now I, of course, realize these debates and the related actions that occur around them are far more complex than just a couple of sentences, as are the many factions and perspectives that exist within each group. It looks to me, however, that regardless of various demographics and alleged rational, the root message is still the same: limit the choices of others. Both groups seem to come together on that.”

Although Tibbals’ study deals with the consumption and acceptance of porn in the United States, some readers might wonder: are other developed democracies going through the same struggles? It depends on the country. Many countries in Continental Western Europe don’t have the type of obscenity prosecutions that exist in the United States. However, the U.K. has one of the most draconian anti-porn laws in Europe: the so-called “extreme porn” law, which states that Internet users can be sentenced to up to three years in prison for mere possession of “extreme pornography” (in the U.S., that law would be a violation of Stanley v. Georgia). And in Iceland, radical feminists have been aggressively promoting a nationwide ban on all Internet porn.

Asked how much she thinks other developed countries struggle with porn compared to the United States, Tibbals replied: “You know, that’s a really difficult question. My immediate response would be ‘less.’ However, I feel like I hear more and more censorship-related stories coming from other developed countries lately. It’s difficult to gauge the real tenor of these issues while being so remote. Are these sensationalized issues or real cultural groundswells? Something else or something in between? Regardless, there seems to be a lot of variability.”

Tibbals, in past interviews, has asserted that there needs to be a lot more scientific research on adult entertainment. And she plans to continue her reporting on the adult industry.

“As much as I am so pleased to get this most recent research out there, it really is just another piece in an overall process,” Tibbals explained. “The adult industry and adult entertainment are important, have been important and will continue to contribute to the evolution of our society. We need to pay attention to this, both in terms of social justice and also, in order to understand our wider social world. All of my work seeks to reach these ends, to show the adult industry as simply another part of wider, dynamic social processes.”

Alex Henderson is a veteran journalist whose work has appeared in The L.A. Weekly, AlterNet, Billboard, Spin, XBIZ, Creem, Skin Two, The Pasadena Weekly, JazzTimes, Cash Box and a long list of other well-known publications. He can be followed on Twitter @alexvhenderson. 

Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals