Puritans and pubic hair
CANADA MORAG ALEXANDER
Ontario—Not too long ago, Toronto was the place where respectable folk customarily put their liquor bottles in their neighbours' dust- bins. Today, Toronto is the place where respectable folk can stroll along Yonge Street and browse among the best selection of pornography to be found this side of the Atlantic. It isn't necessary for solid citizens to glance furtively around before stepping into any of the book stores in and around Yonge Street. The book stores are legitimate: they sell a wide range of popular paperbacks, best-sellers, Pen- guin classics and text books. It's easy to miss the sign that says 'adults only,' and to walk up the few steps into the red-carpeted gallery to find the sort of pornography on public view which, in Soho, is reserved to the back rooms.
Pornography has always been available in Toronto but in the last three years the amount and variety has increased considerably, due to a series of Supreme Court decisions in the United States. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled that Fanny Hill was not pornography, and accepted the principle of redeeming social merit as a defence against charges of obscenity. A series of books published by Edward Misk- bin, a New York pornographer, were ruled to be obscene because of the absence of redeem- ing social merit. The Ralph Ginzburg case, however, has done more to confuse the issue of the United States law than the two previously mentioned cases have done to clarify it: Ginz- burg was sentenced to five years' imprisonment
not for the obscenity of his quarterly, Eros, but because of what the court called the `titillation' in the advertising. The net result of the Supreme Court rulings is that the American pornographers do not know what the law is. Some think it worth their while to stay and risk police harassment, others take the easy way out—the road north to Canada.
The official morality of Canada contrasts sharply with a pornography trade which is the most open in the western world with the ex- ception of the Scandinavian countries. What is significant about Canada, though, is not so much the openness as the extent of the trade.
In any corner store in Canada, pornography is available at the same counter as the sauerkraut or Diet Pepsi; every town with a population of 100,000 has a confectionery store which sells Time, Macleans and bard-core pornography. The big cities, however, cater to the specialists in all aspects of pornography and Toronto's share of the trade is increasing.
The pornography business is a profitable one. Paperback pornography costs from three to six times the price of popular paperbacks, depend- ing on the quality and content. In the cheaper ranges the quality is generally better than that on sale in Britain—there are no badly printed pages held together iy staples. Graphic pornography is on sale in sealed polythene wrappers: the lowest priced are the girlie magazines of the Playboy type, but without Playboy's pretensions to intellectual respecta- bility; sunbathing magazines (with pubic hair) cost more; highest priced are the graphic per- versions.
Most pornography on sale in Toronto originates in the United States, although a small amount comes from Scandinavia. The relaxa- tion of the laws in Denmark and the subse- quent drop in the sales of pornography there have led to more vigorous attempts by several Danish firms to establish a Canadian export market. In November 1968, promotional material sent out by one of these firms was seized by the Post Office and ordered to be returned to sender. It is more difficult for the customs officers on duty at the busy border crossings near Toronto to do anything about the us traffic.
Apart from the difficulty involved in trying to seize pornography at border crossings, the Canadian crirmnal code does not define por- nography or obscenity, and since prosecutions are rare, there are few guidelines. The police know that pornography is on sale everywhere, but they ignore it as long as the commerce is quiet. Yet the respectable veneer remains on Toronto the Good: recently the proprietor of an art gallery on Yonge Street was ordered by the police morality squad to cover the genital area of a charcoal drawing of a nude (with pubic hair), while, a few doors along, the proprietor of a book store displayed—under the 'adults only sign—Vicious Virgins and Locker Room Lovers.
Perhaps it is in keeping with the policies of a government which is intent on liberalising the public attitude to private morality that nothing has been done to clarify the law on pornography. Any definition would have to lead to a tightening of controls, since Canadians in general, as well as Torontonians in particular, are not yet ready for the abolition of censor- ship. As long as Toronto can have its porno- graphy while maintaining the pretence that it does not exist, the city will remain the porno- graphy centre of North America.
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