Picky picketing

THE LATE U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote in an opinion on a 1964 obscenity case that he would not try to define hard-core pornography, “but I know it when I see it.”

In subsequent years, the court never did come up with a definition of obscenity, but said it depended on “community standards.”

The bottom line is that adult pornography is legal and protected by the First Amendment. This excludes video or photographic depictions of sex acts between adults and children.

Adult World on Upper State Road in Montgomery Township, therefore, has the right to sell a legal product to adults who wish to purchase it.

At the same time, a group of Christian protesters has the right to picket outside the store trying to dissuade people from patronizing the establishment. The “No More Porn Tour,” organized by Mark Houck of Quakertown, is targeting adult book stores and theaters in the five-county Philadelphia area.

The men protest weekly outside Adult World, waving signs reading “Real men love women” and “Real men don't exploit women.” Store manager Amy Ganzel said the protesters scare some customers away, costing the store from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand dollars a day in lost business. But it has enough customers that the store has expanded.

Does pornography exploit and degrade women, as the protesters contend? Yes, women are treated as sex objects, but that's the case with many mainstream movies, television shows, commercials and rap videos.

In an ideal world, men would not want to view pornography. Ideally, men also would not beat women, verbally abuse them, cheat on them or impregnate and abandon them. Mistreatment of women certainly is a bigger sin and societal problem than pornography.

If the protesters want to focus their energies on pornography, that's their right. Their picketing, however, is more likely to send Adult World customers to porn Web sites than to church. If the protesters really want to improve the lot of women, they might consider shifting tactics and volunteer at a shelter for homeless or abused women.