Sexuality is subject to continuously evolving social constructions and drawing a direct line through history is practically impossible. Yet, despite the long descriptions and lists, the Meese Report does not define pornography but simply endorses Justice Power Stewart’s famous words, “I know it when I see it.” In fact, defining pornography is very difficult. The magazines, paperback books, and films collected and meticulously recorded by the commissioners are, despite the dry language, still eroticized text within the larger framework of an anti-pornography discourse. The specific section that I used comes from the description of pornographic materials. This time, the commission decided that hard-core pornography is violence and that, despite no quantifiable evidence, violent pornography was on the rise. In 1986, Ronald Reagan appointed the commissioners of the Meese Report. In the wake of Deep Throat, the seminal pornographic movie that caused such outrage across the United States, Richard Nixon dismissed the 1970 report. In 1970, an earlier Presidential Commission on Pornography had reported that pornography caused no significant detriment to society. This report, directed by Attorney General Edwin Meese, combines the empirical and moral discourse of a group of social scientists, new right “moral majority,” and anti-pornography feminists in an attack on pornography. The text in the images comes from the 1986 Final Report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography.
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