NASHVILLE, TN — As the annual White Ribbons Against Pornography (WRAP) campaign winds down this weekend, expect white ribbons to flutter on lapels and from cars and homes across the state of Tennessee. At the behest of Girls Against Pornography, the Tennessee House of Representatives has issued a proclamation declaring October 26th through November 2nd WRAP Week.Tennessee is one of a handful of states to make the week official.
According to the official document, the wording for which was provided by Morality in Media, “pornography degrades and dehumanizes both female and male participants.” It also “presents youth with a false and distorted image of human sexuality, devoid of love, commitment and responsibility” and “features criminal and other anti-social behaviors, including adultery, bestiality, incest, child abuse, prostitution, teen promiscuity, unsafe sex and the degradation, rape and torture of women.” In addition, “pornography leads males and females into sexual addictions that prevent and tear marriages apart” and “the explosion of obscenity helps create the demand for women and children trafficked into sexual slavery.” Finally, according to the proclamation, “so-called ‘adult’ pornography is used by adult predators both to stimulate themselves and to entice, desensitize, and instruct their child victims…. [C]hildren molest other children in imitation of what they see in pornography.”
While Tennesseans flaunt ribbons, the people of Lancaster, PA, and Oklahoma City, OK, hold prayer vigils in front of government buildings and adult businesses, flood local newspapers with op-ed pieces, splash ads proclaiming “Pornography Is Illegal. It Is NOT A First Amendment Right!” across local media (including billboards) and organize a “victims of pornography” speakers bureau.
WRAP was founded in 1987 by Norma Norris of Butler, PA. MIM signed on shortly afterward and took the anti-porn message to a national stage. Most WRAP activities are coordinated at the local level, but in recent years several national anti-porn groups have joined the fray.
Concerned Women for America is one of them. According to CWA spokeswoman Janice Crouse, a growing number of Americans are “fed up and frustrated with the firehose assault” of pornography on modern society.
“What we are seeing is that people who start out seeing adult women in porn scenes tend to want to see younger and younger women and more and more violent scenes,” she told the Christian news website OneNewsNow.com. “So it’s an addictive kind of behavior that ends up degrading and debasing the people who are involved with it.”
“It harms marriages,” Crouse added. “It harms people’s images of womanhood and of sexuality.”
MIM contracted Harris Interactive to conduct a survey in July 2006 in order to gauge support for CWA and other affiliated family values organizations. According to MIM, the poll indicated 73-percent of adult Americans think viewing pornographic websites and videos is morally unacceptable. In April 2008, a second Harris Interactive poll conducted on MIM’s behalf revealed 75-percent of adult Americans would support the next president were he to do all in his constitutional power to ensure vigorous enforcement of federal obscenity laws.
Although MIM has not revealed the size of its polling samples, it did release a few demographics. Support for prosecuting adult entertainment was strongest among Republicans, women, married people, those in the 45-54 age group and those living in the South or Midwest.
It is doubtful many of the respondents work in or around the $5-billion-a-year adult industry.
