Word: porn
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Some 15 years have passed since the rhetoric of the feminist anti-porn movement was appropriated by social-issue conservatives, who were quick to recognize its value. In the early 1980s, when the notion that pornography caused violence against women was beginning to take hold of some feminists, anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafly included in her diatribes against sex education a note of concern about the effect of pornography on a "man who is already prone to violence against women." Borrowing from anti-porn activist Catharine MacKinnon, Schlafly wrote, "Pornography really should be defined as the active subordination of women...
...America? Channel surf elsewhere and U.S. television begins to seem as though it were run by so many Roman Catholic schoolgirls. In Japan--where TV programming is virtually unregulated and concerns about media amorality are scant--prime-time TV is a mixed menu of soft-core porn, bloodletting drama and violent animation. Log some viewing time in Brazil, and you will find erotic soaps and specials featuring naked women dancing the samba in heels and sparkling body paint. This kind of spectacle could just as easily turn up on European TV, where nudity, sex and tastelessness are also unavoidable. Consider...
...efficient in Germany. Starting in 1993 the country's leading TV manufacturer voluntarily included V chips in new sets. The chip can automatically block out movies that the German film-industry board has deemed unacceptable for young audiences. The chip also filters out all TV shows--including soft-core porn--that individual stations decide are potentially inappropriate. The FSF, a TV industry watchdog group, frequently guides networks in scheduling. In December 1994 it convinced the RTL network to run the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on a weekly rather than daily basis, following public outcries that the show preached combativeness...
...scene, Travis's cab emerges on to the screen from a Dantean burst of steam like a metallic beast as Bernard Herrman's eerie score beats to a crescendo. A close-up of Travis's wide-open eyes reflects the gaudy neon lights of 42nd Street porn shops, as he absorbs the world about him for a fare. At times, his passivity seems to reappear in his actions. Travis sees the "pow-pow" finger motion of a fellow cabbie and imitates it later--in a drastically different context, perhaps suggesting how Travis is shaped by the world around...
According to Scorsese, the key sequence in the film occurs as Travis makes a pitiful phone call to Betsy after the disastrous outing to the porn flick. The camera pans away from Travis on the phone to a shot of an empty hallway, even as he continues his largely one-sided conversation off-camera. At this point, it is as if even the subjective eye of the camera can no longer bear to watch such a pathetic scene. The harsh whiteness of the hallway's fluorescent lighting reflects the emptiness of Travis's monotonous life...