How many studies showing a clear link between repeated exposure to pornography and increased likelihood to commit rape will it take before we start to treat this brutal artistic “genre” as the hate speech it really is? Indeed, studies have found that between 75 and 90 percent of child molesters regularly use hard-core pornography.

Of course, you may say, there is not necessarily a connection between “speech” and “action.” I am sure that, despite their advertisements, many editors of Let’s Go do not actually want to attract research-writers by holding out the promise of “plucking” the virginity of young Dutch women. I can accept that the Maxim cartoonist might not believe that anorexia and sexual availability should be held up as models for the ideal Harvard president. And I imagine that the owners of Out of Town News and Nini’s Corner may not really think that rape and child molestation are acceptable forms of sexual expression.

The federal courts agree with me. Although the government monitors membership in organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and subscription to magazines like Southern Partisan because of the clear connection between hate speech and hate crime, the courts do not extend such regulation to pornography subscribers. They have not held that there is a connection between the “art” in works such as “Chester the Molester” and harmful action. The judiciary’s position hasn’t changed even after it turned out that the cartoonist who created “Chester the Molester” had been molesting and raping his own daughter for many years. If it leads to male masturbation, it just cannot possibly be hate speech.

How safe would you feel if 50 men in your House subscribed to a magazine that advises parents to send their sons to schools with lax policies on sexual assault? What attitudes—and behaviors—might be associated with reading such a publication? Now go to your mail room and see how many issues of Maxim are delivered. In Cabot House this month, it was 47. Is that acceptable?

David B. Orr ’01 is a social studies concentrator in Cabot House.