Maryland- Sandwiched by a two-hour documentary on the pornography industry and 60 minutes of blowjobs, three women spoke against government regulation of explicit films to about 150 students at the Hoff Theater last night.
A two-part series on showing the culture-changing movie Deep Throat, www.xxxdeepthroat.com, which is the most profitable movie to date, was promoted as a chance to educate students on the effects of pornography.
"I don't think anything should be regulated. If you don't want to see it, don't go," said Judith Hanna, a senior research scholar in the dance department, to an applauding crowd.
Inside Deep Throat, a documentary detailing the making of Deep Throat and how it became a catalyst for the porn industry, raised the questions of whether pornography should be regulated.
Susan Dwyer, a UMBC professor who has written numerous articles on pornography, said regulating the porn industry isn't the correct thing to do.
The government does not have the authority to make law on strictly moral grounds, she said, but she encouraged an open discussion of problems people have with pornography.
Bianca Laureano, a women's studies graduate assistant, said everyone has a different moral compass. Some people, for instance, are stimulated by pain, defecation and the need to control someone, she said, while the same acts are disturbing to others.
Laureano also called pornography empowering, citing her identification with Vanessa del Rio and her ability to "devour" any man or woman on screen.
Dwyer and the rest of the panel acknowledged pornography was far from wholesome family entertainment.
"In the act of consuming sexually explicit material, we do some damage to our moral character," she said, particularly when it's used as a substitute for sexual education.
"[Pornography] shows you all the places on the human body you can put a penis," Dwyer said.
Dwyer said in recent years she has seen the introduction of violence, including using knives and chisels, in pornographic films. She began studying explicit films in 1984.
Mollie Wander, general manager of the Hoff, said the panel discussion met her educational expectations, justifying the potentially controversial showing of the hard-core porn.
Several members of the audience attended because they were in Laureano's women's studies class.
Precious Muhammad, a sophomore Chinese and international business major, said she didn't think she would have come if she hadn't been in the class. "I probably wouldn't have been exposed because it wasn't publicized that much," she said. She left after the panel discussion ended.
Other students said they were drawn to the event out of curiosity.
"It's always interesting to me when they're talking about something that's fun and important," said senior English major Chelsea Harrison.
