Sex Wars at Penn State

Life at Penn State University is in sad shape, most noticeably the fabled Joe Paternos teams attempt at playing the game of football. But off the field, matters are even worse. Take a look at this educational institutions sense of sexual morality, assuming it can even be said to have one.

In the fall of 2000, Penn State hosted a gathering with two names one being Womyns Concerns, the other being unprintable because it contains a vulgar synonym for the vagina. The event received more than $9,500 in PSU funding. Thus far in 2001, the campus has hosted two more exceptionally distasteful sex-related events. Penn State is really into this stuff, it seems.

The Allentown, Pa. newspaper the Morning Call reported that the attractions at Februarys Sex Faire, which wasnt university-funded but was held at a PSU dormitory, included one game called Orgasm Bingo, another called Pin the Clitoris on the Vulva, and anatomically correct gingerbread men and women accompanied by an Eat Me sign.

Then, earlier this month, that shining star of American liberty, Hustler magazines Larry Flynt, spoke at Penn State under the auspices of the universitys Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment. The centers co-director described Flynt to CNSNews.com as an exceedingly complex man who cant be easily categorized into black or white. Translation: If you think hes disgusting, youre just not enlightened enough to understand him.

In the account of the Penn State campus paper, some of what Flynt said at PSU dealt with the skin-magazine trade (he accused Hugh Hefner of very much still living in the 50s, presumably because Playboy is more restrained than Hustler). A lot of it didnt (he called President Bush an idiot).

But Flynts remarks, no matter the topic, were sex-related for these simple reasons: Ultimately, he was invited to appear at Penn State only because he is a public figure, and he is a public figure only because hes an accomplished pornographer, and a trailblazer of a breathtakingly crude form of porn at that. If Flynt were an orthodontist, an insurance salesman, or a bartender, no one would be interested in his political blatherings. The Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment certainly wouldnt be.

Penn State would surely tell us that to welcome Flynt is not to fully endorse what he represents, but what this taxpayer-funded institution is doing is to confer credibility on him, and respectability on the profession he champions. It explains why, as CNSNews.com reports, one result of Flynts appearance may be that university representatives will face a grilling early next year when the state legislature holds appropriations hearings.

Its just another step in pornographys long march through the institutions.

The Comedy Central cable network runs a considerable amount of ultra-raunchy programming, so its no surprise that the networks first original film, which goes into production early next year, will be called Porn n Chicken. The movie has a connection to the world of higher learning, since its based, notes the entertainment web site Zap2it.com, on the true story of Yales Porn n Chicken Cluban underground group that gathers weekly to eat fried chicken and watch pornography.

And the other day, a piece in the Sunday Times of London stated that an estimated one in seven British teenagers are registered to check into the virtual Habbo hotel. And what happens at the Habbo? The teens simulat[e] adult affairs by checking inunder assumed namesGirls using the siteroutinely offer strangers sexual favors, which they describe in lurid detail. The paper added, Predatory adults appear to use the site to try to contact teenage girls.

Few in the entertainment community have done more in their careers to promote the culture of sexual permissiveness than has the performer Madonna. From the glorification of her erotic lifestyle to the bashing of religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular, she has influenced an entire generation of youngsters to accept the lewd as normal.

Theres a body count to quantify the consequences of Madonnas sexual promiscuity, though obviously it must not bother her one bit. The New York Post reports that a new biography of her reveals that shes had eleven abortions.

Ah, consequences. It often seems that theres nothing the makers of modern popular culture would rather do than portray sex, and that theres nothing that would bother them more than to talk about its consequences.