g
r
-f
): n. Sexually
explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary
purpose is to cause sexual arousal. Evil wears many masks in this world, but none so dangerous as the mask of righteousness. The American Family Association (AFA) is a group of Christian Fundamentalists who have come together in a common belief that the world we live in has been corrupted by immorality. They have decided to fight back against this corruption by trying to re-instate the "proper" religious morals given to us by the Bible. These moral views are narrow minded in the extreme and are often full of hate and prejudice. They often voice their beliefs that abortion is wrong, that homosexuality is a sin, that separation of church and state is a violation of their rights, that the media isn't biased enough in favour of Christianity and much more. The more I read articles from their website (http://www.afa.net) the more angry and horrified I become. So why do I keep going to their site? It's like a train wreck. I don't want to see, but I can't turn away. I was thinking of ranting about them in my Rant and Roar section, but there is just far too much that I have to say. That's why I have created this section. Every so often, I will chose an article from their website and analyze it. I don't know if they store their articles on their website or if they remove them after time, so you might encounter some broken links.
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You know, this article really has nothing to do with Kmart being BACK in the porn business:
Kmart has decided
to return to the pornography business. Following a
successful boycott of the company by the American Family
Association in the early 1990s, which ended with Kmart getting
out of
the porn business and being a socially responsible company, new
Chairman Chuck Conaway has made a decision to return to selling
obscene material.
Obscene material doesn't necessarily mean PORN though. I mean hey, I always considered the movie Empire Records to be obscene.... or maybe that's obscenely bad... Either way, I certainly don't consider it a PORN film!
A decade ago Kmart
was one of the nation's number one sellers of
pornography through its Waldenbooks bookstores. The resulting AFA
boycott was so effective that in 1995, when Floyd Hall was
appointed
chairman and chief executive officer of Kmart, he wrote AFA
President
Donald E. Wildmon a personal letter, saying he had directed Kmart
to
get out of the porn business.
"The purpose of my letter today is to inform you and your
supporters
that Kmart, under my leadership, will honor its tradition as a
family-
oriented store that shares many of the same values as your
organization," Hall wrote. "Our mission is to be a
store of choice for
America's families. ...Kmart will continue to uphold our social
responsibility through good citizenship ...."
Oh come on! It's not like they were selling 'Butt-Fuck Sluts Go Nuts' or anything! ...were they? 'Cause I mean, if they were, then I missed out on the good stuff!
However, when
Chairman Charles Conaway took over, he decided to
take Kmart back into the porn business by selling obscene,
violent
music CDs. Much of the music promotes activities such as killing
parents and law officials, gang-raping girls, and having sex with
animals. Many also include the most vulgar profanities.
What's this got to do with porn?
por·nog·ra·phy (pôr-ngr-f): n. Sexually
explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary
purpose is to cause sexual arousal.
Unless people are turned on by these Cds, then I would hardly count them as pornography! I mean, a Britney Speares CD maybe, but not the stuff the AFA seems concerned with.
Wildmon said, "The content
of these CDs is sick, and for a retailer that
purports to be a family store to distribute such filth to our
children is
inexcusable."
I still don't see what this has to do with porn.
Wildmon has written twice asking
Conaway to stop selling such music,
but Conaway has steadfastly refused. Instead, Kmart has labeled
the
CDs with stickers noting their objectionable content.
I still don't see what this has to do with porn!
In a press release, the company
said, "Please be assured that Kmart
does not condone the lyrics contained on Parental Advisory CDs
and
tapes," but that nevertheless, the music will be sold at
Kmart stores. In
a letter to Wildmon, Conaway said the decision to carry
"explicit
music" was merely in response "to customer
demand."
Speaking of customer demand, I want to know what I can do to get Waldenbooks to start carrying 'Butt-Fuck Sluts Go Nuts'...
LACK OF PROTECTION
FOR CHILDREN
In what amounted to Kmart's only justification for the new
policy,
Conaway assured Wildmon in his letter that no one under age 17
would
be allowed to purchase music which contained warning stickers.
Wildmon, however, said such words were hardly comforting.
"Those
labels are nothing more than neon signs shouting out to young
people:
'Here's the good stuff! Here are the lyrics and songs your
parents don't
want you to listen to! Get your older friends to buy them for
you,' " he
said.
And what sort of neon sign do you think you'd be putting up by banning the CD entirely from the store? Kids will want them even more and will simply go to a different store to get them. And oh ya, I STILL don't see what this has to do with porn!
"Kmart's
policy is a sham, meant only to give cover while the company
trades in pornography," Wildmon said.
Ummmm.... what pornography would that be again?
"Even in
stores which follow thepolicy, all a minor has to do to purchase
pornographic music is have a neighbor, an older friend, a total
stranger
-- anyone over age 17 -- give their age to the checkout clerk.
And then
Kmart can boast, 'No one under age 17 has purchased one of these
explicit albums!' That policy will not protect our children, and
our
communities will suffer for it. Anything for a buck is still the
Kmart way."
I still don't see what this has to do with porn.
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