One of the most polarized Presidential elections in recent history, with two candidates representing two vastly different visions of the future of America, will fall in the middle of Protection From Pornography Week.
After 15 years of celebrating the week beginning on the last Sunday of October as Pornography Awareness Week, anti-porn activists have followed the example set last year by the White House and given their annual week of campaigning against pornography a new name – Protection From Pornography Week.
This year Protection From Pornography week will begin on October 31 and last until November 7 – a time frame that includes Election Day.
Morality in Media, an anti-obscenity group, promotes the event annually through press releases and their Website. Morality in Media encourages activists to hold meetings, request sermons on the evils on pornography at their local church, and file obscenity complaints with both local and federal law enforcement officials during the week.
This year Morality in Media is encouraging members to send a letter to the campaigns of both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry that calls to the candidates “an unequivocal written Campaign Statement expressing your concern about the floodtide of obscenity and your support for vigorous enforcement of federal obscenity laws.”
Pornography has not been a theme in either candidate’s campaign, though Bush’s base of support includes the ultraconservative religious right wing.
President George W. Bush was the first to use the phrase “Protection From Pornography Week,” coining it last year in an executive proclamation recognizing the week, a proclamation virtually ignored by the mainstream media.
No doubt the name change has something to do with the obvious double meaning of “Pornography Awareness Week,” a name that had been sarcastically seized upon by adult entertainment businesses including Adult DVD Empire, Adameve.com and Playboy Radio.
Bush was the first president to have acknowledged the week, though several state legislatures and city councils, including the Los Angeles City Council, have recognized the event in the past.
The American Family Association claims to have started Pornography Awareness Week in the early 1980’s. Since 1987, it has become associated with White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP), a campaign that calls for people to wear white ribbons in an attempt to “raise awareness about pornography,” according to literature on the AFA Website.
Morality in Media picked up the WRAP campaign and spread the concept nationally.
Anti-porn activists use the week to hold press junkets and encourage legislation that would effectively ban adult entertainment.
