Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (1986)   Last| Home | Next

PART 4: CHAPTER 9

The Imagery Found Among Magazines, Books and Films in "Adults Only" Pornographic Outlets

Among the most common inquiries made to the staff of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography was a request for information on the content of currently available pornography in the United States. The only pertinent data available to the Commission was a single report in the American Journal of Psychiatry,[2252] and brief descriptions which have appeared in current periodicals and other works.[2253] In order to provide data concurrent with the deliberations of the Commission, the Commission through its staff investigated the content of currently marketed materials.

Method

Six major cities were selected for inclusion in the investigation, based in part on their proximity to the Commission offices in Washington, D.C. The six cities selected were Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts. In each city, "adults only" pornographic outlets were selected randomly by listing all of the identifiable outlets and selecting specific outlets for investigation using a table of random numbers.[2254] The investigative instruments were designed to identify the city, outlet, type of material (magazine, book, or film), and a variety of specific details about the forms of conduct portrayed and the participants portrayed. In addition to a coding form which was completed for each item included in the investigation, the other materials available for sale in each outlet were also recorded. In each outlet, the total number of magazine titles, film titles and book titles was recorded.

Completion of the coding forms was done by trained investigators.[2255] In addition to their investigative experience and training, the coders were trained specifically for this project in a uniform training session in which all were instructed on the forms to be used, the manner of completing the forms, the technique for random selection, and the distinctions necessary to complete the forms (e.g., the distinction between whipping and spanking) and the specific selection procedures to be used. These selection procedures included selecting every magazine sold as new merchandise which had one or more photographs on the front cover, every fifth book going from left to right and from top to bottom which had one or more visual depictions on the front cover, and every fifth film with one or more photographs on the box front. Pamphlets, packets of photographs, and tabloid newspapers were excluded. For magazines, books and films, duplicate titles were eliminated so that a particular issue of a magazine was only coded once. If multiple copies were available for sale, that item was only coded once.

The following number of outlets were investigated in each city: Washington, D.C., four (4); New York, New York, three (3); Baltimore, Maryland, three (3); Boston, Massachusetts, three (3). An effort to study outlets in Miami, Florida was aborted when an individual requested that the investigators discontinue their work. Eighty-five forms were coded in Miami, before the investigation was halted and these specific items are noted in Miami are contained within the list of specific titles observed. Likewise, an effort to study two outlets in Philadelphia had to be terminated because the investigators were asked to leave the premises by a person purporting to "represent the owner." In neither Philadelphia outlet was data collection completed. A total of 350 magazines, 115 books, and 105 films had been coded in Philadelphia before data collection was halted. The specific titles observed in Philadelphia are, however, included in the list of titles which follow.

Results

In all stores surveyed magazines and bookstores with depictions of vaginal intercourse between one female and one male were in a minority among the types of sexual activity depicted.

There was geographic difference in only a very few types of sexual activity depicted on the covers of books and magazines displayed for consumer purchase. Films and magazines which depicted actual photographs of sexual encounters between humans and animals were seen in New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Miami, Florida, but not in Washington, D.C., Boston, Massachusetts, or Baltimore, Maryland. Stores in at least two cities, Boston and Baltimore, had magazines which depicted and featured sexual activities involving one or more persons with amputated limbs. Materials depicting actual scenes of urination and/or defecation were present in some of the locations but not in others. All outlets, with the exception of one store in Baltimore and one in New York, had paperback books which featured the preceding themes as well as incest and child molestation. Every store surveyed featured magazines with photographs depicting bondage, simulated child pornography[2256] and various other paraphillic activity[2257] in significant percentages.[2258]

In addition to visual and written materials, every store surveyed sold dildos, vibrators, "aphrodisiac" pills, lotions or cremes for sexual use and condoms. Many of the stores sold other devices such as knives, throwing stars, "police" badges, whips, handcuffs, vials of "poppers" anylnitrite or butylnitrite, lingerie, restraints, penis rings, odorizers, studded collars and leashes, blow up dolls, artificial vaginas, penis "enlargers" and a variety of other items.

These findings are supplemented by observations, by the same investigative team members, of the types of materials sold at outlets in Houston, Texas,[2259] New York, New York, Miami, Florida,[2260] Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois, that determined similar types of materials were sold in each city reviewed.

In the sixteen stores specifically surveyed the following number of titles of written and visual material were found:

CITY

MAGAZINES

BOOKS

FILMS
Baltimore (BA)

938

196

796
Boston (BN)

1,372

1,365

290
Miami (MI)

85

0

0
      (partial)

 

 

 
New York (NY)

454

320

1,700
Philadelphia (PA)

350

115

105
      (partial)

 

 

 
Washington, D.C. (DC)

1,145

1,920

680
Totals

4,644

3,916

3,571

Of the totals listed above 2,325 separate magazine titles, 725 book titles and 2,370 film titles were found. The titles of the magazines, books and films found follow:

Magazines

PAPERBACK BOOKS

FILMS