News content, not ads, is what the alternative press should be known for, said Jane Levine, publisher at Chicago Reader, which last year tightened restrictions on adult ads, even though they were generating about $300,000 a year in ad revenue. Alternative publications "are the ones who challenge the building developments and question the cronyism much more than the dailies do," she said.
"Community standards" come into play when discussing whether somebody has crossed the line of public taste. In 1970, lawyers for Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, tried to use a community-standards defense to justify the Lizard King's 1969 performance in Miami, which included degrading the audience with profanities -- "You're all a bunch of fucking idiots!" -- and allegedly exposing his penis. At the time, profanity and full nudity were included in Woodstock, which was playing in movie theaters, and in stage productions, such as Hair. Morrison had the misfortune of being arrested in Dade County, Fla., the same backward place that 31 years later would bungle the Bush-Gore election. A Dade County judge rejected Morrison's community standards argument, but the singer still escaped with only misdemeanor convictions. If mainstream magazines displayed in traditional retail outlets provide a gauge for what is acceptable to a community, it's no wonder that alternative weeklies get few complaints about their adult ads. They are hardly saucier than what's displayed on racks at many local businesses. A recent trip to a 7-Eleven in east Fort Worth found sexy magazines displayed at the checkout counter. The cover of the April Maxim showed a topless woman barely covering her breasts with her arms, and a headline that read, "Best Sex Ever!" Several other magazine covers showed similar cleavage and racy headlines. The store manager, who asked not to be named because of corporate policy, said he has received only one complaint in the past year, and that was, ironically, from a woman wearing short shorts. "We have it because the people want it," the manager said. Similar magazines were on sale at Eckerd Drugs, where zesty covers on fitness, automobile, and men's magazines were displayed at eye level to an average adolescent. Teen-age singer Britney Spears, pop culture's most overtly sexual "virgin," was featured on two covers, although in surprisingly chaste poses. However, Men's Workout showed a male model wearing nothing but briefs and using a fist to only partially hide an obvious bulge. Raw, a wrestling magazine, showed a nude woman whose private parts were obscured only by two pieces of broken tabletops, held in place by two burly wrestlers. At Minyard, more of the same magazines were displayed on an aisle rack and at checkout counters. Claudia Cavazos, 27, of Fort Worth, was shopping with her two daughters, one of whom is 5 and inquisitive about the carnal nature of magazines and television. Magazine covers are risqué, but not worth complaining about, Cavazos said. "For a community store like this, that's not appropriate, but I'm a real laid-back person," she said. "If my daughter is looking at them, I say, 'Don't look.' But if I don't have it in my house, it doesn't bother me. You teach your kids at home what's right and what's not. Of course, if you asked my mother, she'd say ban them all."
My mother might also say ban them all, but I don't want to put words in her mouth. I gave her a call about the ads and the display of so much skin in public places. "They offend me like pornography does," she said. "It's just this deep-seated feeling about what's right and what's wrong, and that's wrong. It's making sex something dirty, or something like, 'OK, do we go to the movie tonight, or do we go to Bass Hall, or do we go somewhere and have sex?' It's like sex is entertainment. That's not the way I personally view sex." She considers the Weekly's news content meaningful but said quality articles are tainted by inclusion along with tawdry ads. "It discredits your newspaper as far as being legitimate journalism," she said. "I would like to be proud of you, and you write some good articles, but that's been a problem for me since the beginning. It doesn't have the respectability that the Star-Telegram has. For the most part I've just ignored that section back there." The items that bothered her most were personal ads and Savage Love, a question-and-answer column that delved into the deepest recesses of sexual curiosity. Savage Love offended many readers, prompted complaints, and got the Weekly yanked from distribution sites. Newquist stopped printing the column when he assumed control. Mom was unaware that the column and personal ads had been ousted. Knowing they're gone, she admitted feeling better about the Weekly. Dump the adult ads, she said, and respectability is within reach. Sorry, Mom. Those who work at alternative newspapers hope they will never become conventional -- at least in their willingness to provide in-your-face journalism -- even if they've made baby-steps in that direction. In fact, I sort of miss Savage Love. Oh well, if I need a porn fix, I'll go stand in the grocery store check-out line.
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