LAT: We're Not in G-Rated Kansas Anymore (porn superstores in rural Am.)

[DeepModem Mom]

We're Not in G-Rated Kansas Anymore
Porn 'superstores' are thriving near rural offramps, causing the locals to debate obscenity and privacy, sometimes in court.

By Stephanie Simon, Times Staff Writer


ABILENE, Kan. — Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. "Need batteries for that?" she asks politely, again and again.

Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie. Near the Love Sling of Ecstasy, a wife confers with her husband by cellphone as she studies a tidy display of vibrators, hundreds of them, in every size and color.

Adult "superstores" like this are popping up all over rural America — brightly lighted, clean, as well-organized and well-stocked as a Wal-Mart....

***

In these small towns, the arrival of big, brash porn shops has been unexpected — and divisive.

Debates about morality, obscenity and privacy have played out at church suppers and planning commission meetings — and sometimes, in court....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ruralporn6dec06,0,7176007.story?coll=la-home-nation

[fishface]

1. Moral values hypocrites

Bushs' core constiuents

[girl gone mad]

2. What else is there to do in rural America?

Church is usually only open two days a week, at most.

[Squatch]

7. Methamphetamines?

Ever see the special on crank in the Midwest?

[DeepModem Mom]

17. And Oxycontin --

n/t

[Iris]

23. yeah. And a girl's gotta pay for it somehow. n/t

[Blue_Tires]

26. former KS resident here

and believe me, drug use in 'god's country' rivals London, Paris, Los Angeles and Amsterdam combined (rural KS and MO are the meth production capitals of the US)...literally, the kids/students would tell me, "There's nothing else to do BUT get high"...and I was shocked to see how far their knowledge into the drug world extended (they knew more about production and effects than the average FBI agent)..many of these kids had never so much had been 50 miles from home

[MuseRider]

28. Ever read

Cows Are Freaky When They Look At You: An Oral History Of The Kaw Valley Hemp Pickers? It has always been this way.

[Blue_Tires]

33. i'll look it up

I was in Lawrence, (KU) which is a part of the Kaw Valley...incidentally, drug use was high in Lawrence, too (like many college towns)

[MuseRider]

39. When? That is exactly the area

the book is talking about. I am close by and spent a good amount of time in Lawrence, still do. Great place.

[Blue_Tires]

40. just a few years ago

99-01

[aTm_exrugger]

45. I work in small town oklahoma,

Here it is all drugs and sex. It seems every time I pick up the paper it is talking about some meth lab that got busted. And every time I go to a bar, some guys I know would mention how the hot girl there will sleep w/ you if you got a pick up.

Another thing I remember from a freind is that there are 3 types of women here. The single one with a kid, the divorced one with a kid and the married one with a kid. The only way they do not have a kid is if they just moved or are in high school, and even then you cannot be certain.

[DeepModem Mom]

48. Hi, aTm, welcome to DU --

Someone in a small Midwest college town told me that local druggists would sometimes be disapproving when filling birth control prescriptions for students -- meanwhile, as you say, most of the local girls their age were not in college, and already had children. Sadly, the townspeople would often remark that the students looked younger than their age -- because, I think, having children at a young age, with few economic resources, took an early toll on the girls in the town, who, in fact, looked old for their years.

[LizW]

3. Why not?

There's a "superstore" for everything else. :shrug:

[Jack_DeLeon]

34. I hope Wal-Mart...

doesnt put them out of business...

[BiggJawn]

4. I know a GREAT spot to build one of these. 7 miles west of me....

Outside any town limits, zoned Rural...Be kinda fun to hang out and see how many of the local worthies come in to shop....:evilgrin:

Might even get a PT job... "Need batteries with that? Free instruction?"

[xchrom]

6. i like the way you think!

:P

[Solly Mack]

5. Junction City, Kansas already has a sex shop

been there a while

Called "After-Dark". It's next to the Pop-N-Go on Grant Street. Opened 24/7. To include private rooms for movie viewing.

Oh yeah..just up the road in Ogden, Kansas, there's another sex shop.

Sex shops are nothing new to "rural" Kansas. They can stop pretending they are...

[Fovea]

36. Of course, how can one measure obscenity

by the standards of Junktown/Ogden/Manhattan.
Slave labor from soldiers' families, students, and
working class working girls.

The area is the squalor capital of central Kansas.
And of course, 31mph in Ogden is a *bad idea*.

[Solly Mack]

37. I see you've been there as well

[ramapo]

8. For the Democratic deviates in the Red State

I am sure that no self-respecting, full-of-good-American-values, conservative Republican would ever go to one of those outposts of the immoral, God-hating, terrorist-loving, pornography-addicted, leftist, out-of-the-mainstream, Democrats who happen to live in our great country's heartland.

[DulceDecorum]

18. New Frontier Media Inc.

Why file criminal charges against a lone video retailer, Mr. Spencer argued, when some of the biggest corporations in America - including a hotel chain whose board of directors includes W. Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, and a satellite broadcaster heavily backed by Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. - were selling the same product?
<snip>
Some of the most popular Web properties - which feature quick links to sites labeled ''Virgin Sluts'' and ''See Teens Have Sex'' - are owned by a publicly held company in Boulder, Colorado.

That company, New Frontier Media Inc., has stock traded like any other, and it expects its video network to be in 25 million homes within a few years. It does business with several major companies, including EchoStar and In Demand LLC, the nation's leading pay-per-view distributor, which is owned in part by AT&T, Time Warner, Advance/Newhouse, Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp.
To the astonishment of Mr. Flynt, who began in the pornography business by selling poor-quality pictures of naked girls as a way to build interest in his strip clubs, his competitors in the $10 billion annual adult market are mainstream corporations whose board members are among the American business elite.
''We're in the small leagues compared to some of those companies like General Motors or AT&T,'' Mr. Flynt said.
''But it doesn't surprise me that they got into it. I've always said that other than the desire for survival, the strongest desire we have is sex.''
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/arssgm.htm

And money.
http://investdb.theglobeandmail.com/invest/investSQL/gx.stock_today?pi_symbol=NOOF-Q

[PROGRESSIVE1]

32. Some more right wing hypocracy.

:grr:

[snippy]

9. Probably just part of Bush's ownership society policies.

Everyone should have their own Love Sling of Ecstasy to keep their minds off of how Bush is screwing them.

[Strawman]

20. That's his "bonership society" initiative

Message to rural working poor Bush supporters: go Cheney yourselves! Preferably with the "Bill O'Reilly Assbuster 2000" vibrator available at a porn superstore on a highway off ramp near you.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. ROFLMBO!

"bonership society" :evilgrin:

[Mokito]

10. Supply meets demand

Economics 101

The amount of a commodity or service that people are ready to buy for a given price: Supply should rise to meet demand.

[Endangered Specie]

29. Yup, and Sex is a "normal good", with very inelastic demand

;)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

11. Even here in North Alabama

They had a lot of fun trying to close it down but couldn't.

[masjenkins]

12. anyone ever been through gary, indiana I-80 ?

Oh this just cracks me up.. My husband and I have been through that midwestern corridor many times and always comment on the "porn super stores" .. and the billboards. they just noticed? Thank god for moral values!!! It's about time.

[DrZeeLit]

13. Yes! We drove that last summer and were astonished!

We always thought this was actually part of the "Bible Belt" even though it's a bit north. I never expected what we saw. Porn shops all over the place! Big black stores with hot pink signs. And MANY!!

I live in Vermont where we are supposed to be so liberal and open -- with our Civil Unions and all that. But I have never seen a porn store here. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It's really weird what some perceive to be "truth."

Of course, I also saw HUGE crosses on that drive. Like four story crosses -- very very commercial.

What's worse? Either way -- I don't think the "middle" of the country should be lecturing us.

[masjenkins]

14. yes, the hot pink and black signs!!

lawd,lawd. I live in NYC and Times Square is no longer tawdry. Damn liberal elites.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. That's right -- Times Square is cleaned up for family fun!

n/t

[MuseRider]

27. Where have all these people been?

I can't remember a time when this was not the case. They have always been around here. Drive south on 35 through Oklahoma, cross the border into Texas and what is the very first thing you see? A large, well publicized Adult Book Store.

[fob]

30. Nice nickname there, Tom, or should I call you Grapes "Catch-22"

O'Wrath?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

42. LOL.... Sounds good to me!

[THUNDER HANDS]

16. any way we could set up voting booths in there

Might be a good idea to get people to vote Dem. But, well, I mean, well, I probably wouldn't want to clean it up though. ;)

[Cronus Protagonist]

19. It's the only shit you can't buy at Wallmart!

http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[neweurope]

21. Love that!

Sex is MUCH healthier than war...

[DeepModem Mom]

22. Welcome to DU, neweurope!

[fnottr]

25. seriously though

I know this has been brought up before, but why do so many people get worked up over vibrators and people having sex, but be willing to excuse the death and violence of the war?

[hyphenate]

31. Because they're all a bunch of hypocritical

pompous assholes, that's why. Sex is WAY worse than violence, after all. </sarcasm>

It seems the liberal motto has just gone back to the sixties: "Make Love, Not War." Everything old is new again. I guess we're looking for a rebirth of the good ole days of hippiedom and rock and roll music.

[MuseRider]

24. No different than it has been for the last

50 years. It has always been this way. Whoever thinks it has not is making it up. 15 years ago you could drive down one of the major roads in my town and every single building for 2 miles was a sex shop, topless dancing or a massage parlor, all advertised on major signs. This is nothing new and has little to do with values here or Bush**. The shops pretty much closed up when the Air Force Base population was decreased. Many still remain but I won't specualate as to the cause. There certainly is one but I don't think it has a lot to do with Bush** or religious values.

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. Don't forget

all the juice bars on the road to Warrensburg, MO - very close to the air force base there.

I'm in KC.

[VegasWolf]

38. What's the problem? It gives you somplace to go after church on Sunday.

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. Did you ever hear that funny commercial

for Dicken's Cider?

"Every Sunday after church, the little woman likes to have a little Dicken's Cider"

[VegasWolf]

41. Wonder if the gay dvd's are hot rentals? n/t

[yorkiemommie1]

43. we wouldn't want to prevent those obgyns and others

from 'practicing their love with women all across this country'

[WhiteTara]

44. I was driving through Oregon last week and found

HUGE billboards for sex shops in little towns of maybe 4,000
or so.  It was really creepy and my first thought was ah yes,
they are really so moral.

[really annoyed]

49. Driving Through TN....

I was on the freeway, out in the country somewhere....

All of a sudden, here comes this huge adult store. And what is planted right in front of it? This HUGE cross! You could probably see this cross for miles.

It gave me a good laugh.... Some "moral" folks were paying attention, I guess, hehehe....