Anti-Porn March in Times Square (1979)

[hadrons]

Run time: 01:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1CMeX-GzeU   Posted on YouTube: June 16, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 17, 2008 By DU Member: hadrons Views on DU: 730

 
This is from a 10/20/1979 WPIX Newscast. Gloria Steinem leds a rather large march against pornography thru Times Square. At this point, Times Square was quite seedy and didn't undergo the transformation into the tourist trap it currently is (I live here in NYC, I know.)

There were some counter-protesters too -well actually just guys leaving the XXX shops - but some interesting things on censorship and social justice were said.

[singilarpoint]

1. I was a PIX kid

PIX PIX PIX PIX PIX PIX PIX

[hadrons]

2. I think I remember that ....

Wasn't that when if WPIX called you you played a space invaders-type game and you were able to fire when you said "PIX"?

What were the prizes?

[singilarpoint]

3. YOU ARE CORRECT

You got PIX hats/T'shirts and the like...Ahhhh to be a kid again.PIX PIX PIX PIX!!! Ha Ha!!!

[knixphan]

8. OMG!

Just came back to me.... It was like Activision or Intellivision or something...

and it never made sense because of the 2-second delay. so everyone called in and just said 'Pixpixpixpix'...

:rofl:

[psychopomp]

4. Times Square 1979 looks a bit like Market Street, SF, 1997

Has Market Street been cleaned up, yet?

[tomreedtoon]

5. The golden age of porn. Steinem didn't know what she was doing.

It isn't simply that she didn't make porn go away. She made porn with at least a little bit of humanity go away.

The porn available in your neighborhood video stores today, or off the Internet (thank you, Avenue Q) is far less human. There's no attempt at a plot or character. The people in them look like silicone/steroid monsters that make the Hulk look like a suburban dad. They get together. They have sex. End of film. If you look at the people they don't even seem to be enjoying themselves.

And I know that some of you will argue that all porn is offensive to women, et cetera. You can call some of it "erotica" and claim it is far fairer to everyone involved. Blah. It's all porn. And it's not fun any more. Because clearly, the people performing on camera (and off camera) have no line of descent from the species to which you and I belong.

[disunderestimated]

7. Yeah remember when Playboy was considered "dangerous?"

Now it's positioned as a global identity brand akin to Disney.

[nachoproblem]

9. Her ideological descendents in the 80's and 90's

were in college campuses saying that male lust equals violence against women, period. What they said showed as little clue about men and male sexuality as 1950's and earlier "sex education" texts did about women. Whether she's really responsible for that is debatable, but I can say it was not a good time to be 18 and figuring out your sexuality, if you're male. For that cost I would hope they achieved something like making the atrocities against women of those other eras go away, but I doubt it.

Edit: Right on about the porn BTW. Even though attitudes have relaxed since then, the porn just keeps getting less erotic and more mean-spirited. I don't understand it.

[sasquatch]

6. This is part of the reason why the Boomers are America's worst generation

[woolldog]

10. can you elaborate on that please?

[populistdriven]

11. agreed n/t

[PerpetuallyDazed]

12. Wow! What a different world...

I would have loved to have been around then. The clip reminds me of this great article "The Porn Myth" by Naomi Wolf: 'In the end, porn doesn't whet men's appetites—it turns them off the real thing':

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/trends/n_9437/