Jefferson Sessions Raises the “P” Word During Senate Hearings

LOS ANGELES—Leave it to the junior senator from Alabama to introduce the issue of pornography into the hearings on sexual abuse in the military held earlier this month by the Senate Armed Services Committee. It came as no surprise to us, of course, that it would happen; the only question was who would be the delivery boy. Conservative Republican Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (pictured) was high on the list of likely candidates, of course, though so too were Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), David Vitter (R-La), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), to name but a few.

But count on Sessions to do the bidding of Morality in Media every time without so much as a millisecond of introspection. Here’s how he put it when he got a chance to speak during the Committee’s second hearing of the day on the issue, having missed the first because of a scheduling conflict:

“Mr. Chairman, I’d just add a letter, a document here that was given to me from Morality in the Media. Pat Trueman used to be in the Department of Justice. I knew him when he was there. He points out that, a picture here of a newsstand and an Air Force base exchange with, you know, sexually explicit magazines being sold. So, we live in a culture that’s awash in sexual activity. If it’s not sold on base, it’s right off base. There are videos and so forth that can be obtained, and it creates some problems, I think.”

According to ThinkProgress, “Sessions then immediately segued into asking questions about the panel’s responses to sexual assault situations, asking what they would do if “you had a female soldier who had felt she was assaulted by an NCO, higher rank,” leaving his previous comments hanging in the air. He didn’t return to them during the rest of his questioning, leaving his full meaning unclear.”

Well, that’s interesting. More likely than not, Sessions promised his old friend Trueman that he’d put the MiM statement in the record, and wasn’t quite ready to belabor it during the hearing, but his words were heard loud and clear out in the feminsphere. They even prompted a response by The Atlantic’s Wendy Kaminer, who used the occasion to talk about “When Conservative Senators Sound Like Anti-Porn Feminists.”

MiM is ever opportunistic when it comes to trying to exploit little windows of opportunity in order to blame porn for everything under the sun, and there will always be legislators who will do their bidding at the drop of a hat, but in the prevailing culture, where the entire discussion about sex seems to revolve around who to blame for it, porn disturbingly still ranks number one on the easy list of contributing factors (as opposed to it being a reflection of our actual sexual mores). So it is at least refreshing to hear mainstream voices such a Kaminer’s challenge the nonchalance with which some U.S. senators think they can get away with sounding like “feminist anti-porn crusader Gail Dines.”

It turns out, however, that the prevailaing blame-the-porn culture is taking root, at least in some quarters. Under pressure from Congress, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Thursday issued a memo that stated, in part, "This ALNAV directs that the Under Secretary of the Navy, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), and Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) perform a comprehensive visual inspection of all DON workplaces to ensure they are free from materials that create a degrading, hostile, or offensive work environment."

It also says, "DON Commanders, Commanding Officers, Officers-in-Charge, and civilian directors will effect the removal of material that a reasonable person would consider degrading or offensive and document any material discovered during the course of workplace inspections."

Degrading or offensive material is defined as "documents, logs, books, pictures, photographs, calendars, posters, magazines, videos, props, displays, or other media, including electronic media, that contain inappropriate depictions and are detrimental to a professional working environment."

Contraband, which is specifically targeted for seizure, is defined as "materials that are patently lewd, lascivious, obscene, or pornographic, as well as supremacist images, publications, or materials"

If an inspector is unsure whether any material fits the definiitions of material that adds to "a degrading, hostile or offensive work environment," s/he is supposed to remove it just in case.

There are a few limitations to the inspection. "For purposes of this specific inspection," reads the memo, "DON Commanders, Commanding Officers, Officers-in-Charge, and civilian directors will not inspect assigned government laptop or desktop computers (with the exception of visible screensavers), assigned individual barracks rooms/living quarters, assigned desk drawers, assigned cabinet drawers, clothing (e.g., coats), assigned lockers, purses, brief cases, backpacks, private automobiles, and personal electronic devices (e.g., iPads, iPhones, etc.)"

According to Politico, "The anti-porn group Morality in Media said Friday that it 'applauds' Mabus for his order and challenged Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to take it to the next level: 'Will Secretary Hagel follow suit and make this order military-wide?' it asked."