Much Ado About Sex

Seriously, why is it so controversial?

Hi, I’m Jeannette and I can’t believe I made it to the 20th issue of The Sex Beat, a newsletter documenting my research on sex. Last week, someone asked me how I find the time to keep writing this. The answer is – it’s a compulsion. I hope you’re still enjoying the read but if not, it’s easy to unsubscribe.

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Photo by Kristina Flour on Unsplash

I’ve been going through the book Porn Studies (Williams ed., 2004) again to refresh my memory on existing critiques of pornography.¹ 

An interesting concept that Williams mentions in the introduction is on/scenity – when what’s been designated as obscene (and should be off-scene) is brought onto a public cultural arena. 

She writes that there is a tension that takes place between what’s “speakable and unspeakable”. 

An amusing example that Williams gives as an example of on/scenity is a collection of essays called Porn 101: Eroticism, Pornography, and the First Amendment (1999). 

The articles in this collection were initially presented at the World Conference on Pornography and were accompanied by videos, slides, photos and other visuals. Apparently there were porn stars in attendance too. 

However, in the published version of the volume, all these visuals were left out. Ironically, the conference’s keynote speaker had “defended pornography’s right to exist”. 

So it seems like even when there are attempts to “legitimise” pornography, there’s always a “too far” that’s still too obscene. 

There was also a chapter in the book that stood out to me – one in which the phrase “president’s penis” is mentioned more than once. 

Why is the Clinton and Lewinsky scandal still a thing? 

In the chapter titled How to Do Things with the Starr Report: Pornography, Performance, and the President’s Penis, Maria St. John posits Kenneth Starr as a producer and Clinton and Lewinsky as cast. 

The report was not actually a “single, bound document, but a multimedia, mutating text” (p. 29) that included: 

transcripts of the grand jury proceedings, as well as the exhibits entered in this trial: a stained blue dress and the dna kit linking it to Clin- ton, for example; a copy of Leaves of Grass given Lewinsky by Clinton; a letter opener given Clinton by Lewinsky; recovered deleted computer files; audio- taped telephone conversations (illegally obtained but entered nevertheless); White House records; photographs; thank-you notes; and other items of memorabilia (p. 29).

When the printed version of this document was available, St John writes that:

…the Government Printing Office promptly bound and reproduced this document for sale. It was also printed in any newspaper that would have it. At the same time, the House released a copy of the videotape of Clinton’s grand jury testimony, and it aired on all major television networks. A number of servers made the report available on the Internet, and Simon and Schuster simultaneously published two versions of the material: an ‘‘extensive selection’’ and a shorter (559-page) ‘‘reader friendly’’ excerpt. Both books include the transcripts of the grand jury testimonies given by Clinton and Lewinsky.

I laughed quite a bit when reading this chapter, but what’s crazy to me is that up till 2021, it was still a thing people talked about. In fact, it was a whole season on the TV series American Crime Story – according to Wikipedia, 10 episodes that came out on September 7, 2021. 

Maybe I’m too young to get it? 

At the time, I was still in primary school, but I vaguely remember adults laughing about how Clinton didn't know what the word “is” meant. I thought it was hilarious. 

But I also remember wondering why having an affair meant Clinton couldn't be president anymore. Why was it such a career-ending scandal? Am I missing something? 

Perhaps it’s just too culturally distant from me, and I don’t understand the additional factors at play? 

Or maybe it’s because it involves sex?

Yes, we get “the news” in this part of the world – and we have Hollywood to fill in the gaps 😂 So I’ve heard of other political and/or social scandals. But it seems like none of them have ever reached the same level of hype that the Clinton-Lewinsky event did.

Why is sex (and pornography) so incendiary? 

I’ve asked this question before. And I really want to know why. 

Recently, I came across an article about a “hardcore pornography” class being offered by a Utah-based private college. What’s funny to me is that the article was in the Hindustan Times – an Indian news website.²

I followed some of the links in the article and came across the corresponding piece in Fox News that had the headline:

Utah's Westminster College offers 'Porn' class where students will 'watch pornographic films together'

The scare quotes aren’t mine; they were actually in the headline, implying the shock and horror of students watching pornographic films together. The subheading – with additional scare quotes around “analyze social issues” – further implies a disbelief that the students could actually critically analyse those films. According to a fact check piece by USA Today, the course will start in May despite the controversy it seems to have created. 

My question is this: Why was it controversial at all? 

References:

Williams, L. (2004). Porn Studies: Proliferating Pornographies On/Scene: An Introduction. In L. Williams (Ed.), Porn Studies (pp. 1–23). Duke University Press.

St John, M. (2004). How to Do Things with the Starr Report: Pornography, Performance, and the President’s Penis. In Porn Studies (pp. 27–49). Duke University Press.

1.  If you’re curious about other things I’ve been reading lately, check out my latest post in Bibliographies.

2. When I was working as a journalist, I was told that our publication’s best-performing stories were ones about violent crimes and sex 😂 I’m guessing this is why this issue made it onto a news portal across the world. What is it with humans?