Clash of Civilizations

Abstract

On July 9, 1986, the attorney general of the United States, Edwin Meese III, received the final report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography. President Ronald Reagan had given the commission the mandate to investigate the effects of pornography on American society. The commission’s very existence, as well as its specific terms of service, reflected the concerns of the government, politicians, religious leaders, and educational and cultural authorities over the mainstreaming of pornography. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the pornography industry had exploded, spreading from the seedy “red-light” districts of America’s major cities to the comfort of the suburban home through new media outlets that employed new distribution technologies. The videotape and the videocassette recorder had been invented and soon became the “ideal medium” for the production, editing, and distribution of relatively cheap adult videos for rent or purchase.