The Centennial Room of the Nebraska Union was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, people lined against the walls, teeming up to the stage and out the doors, hundreds of faces, few over 25. Here to see Ron Jeremy, the most famous name in porn. Jeremy walked up to the stage, sporting typical tacky attire (a purple shirt with a butterfly pattern and light blue Crocs), drawing a roar of cheers from the crowd.

This is one of the ways the anti-pornography movement is undercut, said Susan G. Cole. You bring a celeb like Jeremy up to the stage.

“Ron will tell you,” Cole said, “that everything is just fine. I am here to tell you that everything is not just fine.”

Tuesday night Jeremy and Cole debated the pros and cons of porn in an event hosted by the University Program Council. Jeremy’s argument was that porn is simply an extension of the entertainment industry, a recreational activity strictly for adults. Cole, an activist in the GLBT community and a strong opponent to the porn industry, argued that pornography is not only bad for the people who make it but also is damaging to society as a whole.

After giving opening statements, both speakers took questions from the audience. The tone of the debate stayed relatively serious. But biting humor and a few cutting jabs entered the conversation.
“The truth of the matter is that Ron Jeremy’s time has gone,” Cole said. “He is, when it comes to the reality of pornography in 2010, completely irrelevant.”

Porn was relatively tame in Jeremy’s heyday, Cole said, but the extremity and accessibility of pornography has spiked. It’s harder, meaner and more demeaning than it ever was. Porn is, she said, corrupting human sexuality.

“We think we have control,” Cole said. “We think our sexuality is the last bastion of our individualism, and I say that is actually changing, that we are losing control of what’s turning us on.”

Jeremy said it’s not so insidious as that. “You want to laugh,” he said, “you watch ‘Monty Python.’ You want to cry, you watch ‘Terms of Endearment.’ You want to get nauseous, you watch ‘Cloverfield.’ You want to get sexually excited, you watch a late-night HBO movie or watch porn.” It’s entertainment, he said. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

He also reminded the audience that porn is restricted to those 18 or older. Cole interrupted him, asking for a show of hands, How many had seen pornography before they turned 18? The majority of hands went up.
Jeremy: “You little perverts.”

Article by Micah Mertes, Journalstar
Photo by porn sponsor Fuck You Cash

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