ODSA knew of planned explicit movie screening

   By Joe Kilian 
   
   The Office of the Dean for Student Affairs knew months in advance
   about an Independent Activities Period project that culminated in the
   presentation of a sexually explicit film, according to Ruth Perry,
   director of the Women's Studies Program. 
   
   The Dean's Office did not, however, require the group to show the film
   to the Ad Hoc Pornography Screening Committee. 
   
   The Women's Studies Office sponsored a screening of Not a Love Story,
   a sexually explicit film about pornography, as part of a Jan. 29
   Independent Activities Period activity, "Pornography in Film and
   Advertising: Killing Us Softly and Not a Love Story." 
   
   The MIT policy statement on sexually explicit films declares that "no
   x-rated or unrated sexually explicit film should be shown without
   prior review by [the screening committee.]" 
   
   Dean for Student Affairs Shirley M. McBay could not be reached for
   comment. 
   
   Perry said that the Dean's Office "has known about this IAP project
   for months -- a study group culminating in the showing and discussing
   of this film and Killing Us Softly." 
   
   Perry said, "the Dean's Office showed this film two years ago ... if
   that doesn't constitute approval, I don't know what does." 
   
   The Lecture Series Committee (LSC) showed The Opening of Misty
   Beethoven, a sexually explicit film, on Registration Day in the fall
   of 1981. McBay forbade another screening planned first for Dec. 14,
   1984, and then for last Friday, on the grounds that the screening
   committee had not reviewed the film. 
   
   Perry responded to a protest letter from Gordon E. Strong '85, an LSC
   representative on the Screening Committee. Strong had written to
   screening committee Chairman John Hildebidle to protest the showing of
   Not a Love Story. 
   
   Strong stated that the activity's sponsors did not notify the
   committee of their intent to show the film six weeks before the
   screening, as required by the MIT policy. 
   
   The timing of Strong's protest of the showing of Not a Love Story
   "makes it seem like retaliatory harassment directed at the young women
   who are already upset and threatened by the showing of pornography
   films on campus," Perry wrote. 
   
   She also stated that Not a Love Story is unrated, contrary to Strong's
   statement that it was x-rated. 
   
   LSC Chairman Rim Cothren G disagreed. "Whether the film is x-rated or
   unrated is beside the point in this case. ... It is an explicit film."
   
   
   The screening committee will not take any direct action on Strong's
   letter, Hildebidle said. 
   
   The protest "should have been addressed to" McBay, he said. The Dean's
   Office is "overseeing the whole process in which we are just one
   part," he continued. "We are, in fact, an advisory committee to the
   dean." 
   
   Hildebidle would not speculate whether Not a Love Story should have
   been presented to his committee for review. "It's hard for me to make
   a judgment because I haven't seen the movie," he said. 
   
   Perry and Cothren disagreed on the interpretation of the phrase
   "sexually explicit." She noted that the first paragraph in the
   guidelines contains the phrase "sexually explicit or pornographic." 
   
   Perry stated that the condition of being pornographic is included
   "parenthetically" wherever the term "sexually explicit" is used. 
   
   "Not a Love Story is not pornographic. It is about pornography," Perry
   said. 
   
   Cothren said, "I think as long as you start reading things into the
   policy that [are] not explicitly stated, you run into trouble. We ran
   into that last year." 
   
   Hildebidle said LSC has been the only group to contact him about
   screening films. He attributed it to the large number of movies LSC
   shows compared to other groups. "I don't think the procedures are
   inherently aimed at LSC," he said. 
   
   LSC has no immediate action planned concerning the incident. "We are
   kind of waiting to see if the Dean's Office will do anything," Cothren
   said. 
   
   
   

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Copyright 1985 by The Tech. All rights reserved.
This story was published on  Tuesday,  February 5, 1985.
Volume  105, Number 1
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