JONESBORO, AR – They are some of the most well-known in their professions, and Wednesday night they debated at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro about pornography.
Ron Jeremy went from a special education teacher in New York City in the mid-70s to one of the porn industry’s most visible performers. About the same time Jeremy was launching his career, Susan G. Cole was protesting against it.
Cole’s main points were that she isn’t against sex or sexual expressions, but she is against women being abused via sex.
“The vast majority of women who go into pornography are products of the sex trade,” Cole told the audience. “They got there out of desperate situations; escaping desperate situations, and are happy to be in the pornography industry, because it’s a step up from the regular street prostitution trade.”
Ron Jeremy said most women in the industry want to be there, and that many of them own porn-related businesses.
“When they say that young girls are being affected by porn that’s hog wash. Your role models and your fantasy items, and the people you look up to and try to emulate are not pornographers, because we’re for an audience that’s 18 or over. That’s what porno is, it’s 18 and over. Those are not your impressionable years,” said Jeremy.
After about 30 minutes of speaking, the audience had the chance to comment and ask educational questions of both speakers. A mother admitted she and her husband watch porn including Jeremy’s movies, but that she believes porn is making too much of a negative impact on teenagers and college students, and that it can lead to people wanting to watch and make child pornography.
Students said they had different reasons for showing up, and interesting conclusions about each speaker’s responses.
“I was just curious what he’d actually have to say and you know what is there to talk about really. Anti-porn; it’s like OK what have you got, other than, you know, devaluation of women, which he makes some pretty good points about the whole, you know, they run the business half the time,” said Jay Bir, a sophomore.
Alana Mays, a senior, adds, “I believe that they both have points. I think that Susan Cole, who is the anti-porn woman, I think she makes some good points about it being condescending towards women, but despite that, I think Ron Jeremy’s points exceed all that with everybody has the right to watch what they want.”
Ron Jeremy and Susan Cole will be at Virginia Tech University on March 16th.