Dawn Hawkins' Terrifying Porn Flight

JESUSLAND—Over the weekend, we received word from Morality in Media PR flack Dawn Hawkins—in the form of a solicitation for donations, natch!—about a terrifying flight she took from Baltimore to Detroit where <gasp!> some old guy who was in the seat "directly in front" of her was looking at "violent child-themed pornography," the sight of which rendered her "speechless for a moment." Of course, we should pause for a moment to ponder just what Dawn considers to be "violent child-themed pornography." We already know that Morality in Media (and likely Hawkins herself) considers anything that depicts nudity to be "pornography," and if those in the photo or video are young-looking, to them that's "child-themed" no matter what age the performers actually are. And of course, people engaging in consensual BDSM activity, whether clothed or unclothed, are bad, bad, BAD no matter how you look at it. So when Dawn writes that, during the moment that she was speechless, the guy had "enough time to... flip through at least 8 images of very young Asian girls, one of them was of a girl whipping another girl," it's probably worth taking that description with a grain of salt—as is the concept of how she could see this guy's iPad screen if he was sitting directly in front of her. Who knows; maybe she has x-ray vision? But as a good Right-thinking American, Dawn leapt into action, because she "couldn't help but say something." "I asked, somewhat loudly, 'Are you really looking at pornography right now? On an airplane at 6 am [sic]? Are you really looking at porn right here?'" It will probably come as a surprise to Dawn, but normal folks think about naked people a lot of the time—even as early as 6 a.m. and sometimes even after midnight... or as late as 4 or 5 or—oh, what the hell?—6 a.m.! So when the guy told Dawn she didn't know what she was talking about—and it's certainly possible she didn't, since her idea of "pornography" would probably encompass half the billboards in Los Angeles—she doubled down and said loudly, "You are! You're looking at porn! I can see it on your screen." For some reason, we're reminded of the (probably apocryphal) story of the woman who called the police to report that her neighbors were "having sex right out in the open!" When an officer arrived and asked to see what the woman was talking about, she led him to her upstairs bathroom and pointed to the small window above the toilet, saying, "There they are! That couple next door has no sense of decency, having sex in the middle of the day with the window open and the shades up where anybody can see it!" So the officer walked over, took a glance out the window and said, "Lady, you're crazy—I can't see anybody doing anything out there." "Stand on the toilet!" the woman exclaimed. "Stand on the toilet!" Anyway, by this time, everyone in the cabin was looking at her, so Dawn told a nearby flight attendant, "Sir, this man is looking at pornography right now. Will you please do something?" Supposedly, the guy refused, saying there was nothing he could do, but if this were a true story rather than an apocryphal one to solicit cash for MiM's shrinking coffers, the attendant's more likely response would have been to ask the guy either to better shade his screen or switch to some different material—or if the images had been actual child porn, the attendant probably would have reported the guy at least to the other attendants and possibly the pilots and/or airline staff at the landing gate. However, according to Dawn, the guy did put his iPad away while she was ranting. But of course, that wasn't enough for a True Defender of the Faith™! "A few seconds later, in a quieter voice directed at the man in front of me, I said, 'I am on my way right now to speak at a conference about pornography and sex trafficking. You are contributing to the problem. You are victimizing and exploiting thousands of women. I cannot believe you would do that right here on an airplane.'" Yeah; actually, we can't believe this guy was "victimizing and exploiting thousands of women... right here on an airplane"... and apparently at least one other passenger felt the same: "THEN, an older woman in her 50s stood up, turned around and said to me, 'Be quiet. No one cares.'" [Emphasis in original] "Words cannot explain how I feel right now," Dawn writes. "It is bad enough that a man was looking at violent child-themed pornography in public, right in front of me. It is bad that the airline would do nothing about it. But, I cannot believe that a middle-aged woman would be so ingrained with this pornified culture, that she would say 'No one cares.'" Yeah, Dawn, it's just amazing that some people (dare I say "most"?) find depictions of nudity and sex unremarkable—though I can understand how someone who makes her living trying to censor other people's access to such depictions would be shocked that someone would actually tell you the truth to your face. And again, we only have your word that the material was "violent child-themed pornography"; it could just as easily have been adult women going topless and practicing a bit of domination play—and which scenario seems more likely to have been displayed on a commercial airline flight? "During the flight, I went through a million emotions," Dawn continued. "I felt hopeless and as though there's just nothing we can do to stop this." Gosh, that's a lot! We're guessing that even in the most stressing of circumstances, most of us would go through about 999,900 fewer emotions than you did. And you definitely should feel hopeless: Sex and porn are here to stay. And then comes the pitch: "But, then, I remembered, that even though I felt alone, I know that millions of Americans are on my side," Dawn imagines. "I am not alone in feeling like this is extremely exploitative of women. I am not alone in feeling like this is wrong. I realized that we just have to fight harder. We have to be louder. We have to make sure people understand that pornography harms. This woman has no idea that pornography is wreaking havoc in the lives of millions, tearing apart countless families, destroying our kids' chance of having a normal relationship, contributing to the demand for sex trafficking and so much more. She is WRONG! Millions care. You care." Yeah, but what we care about is know-nothing religious busybodies trying to be the "porn police" for all of society, so FUCK YOU for claiming that sexually explicit material made by, for and with consenting adults hurts ANYBODY who doesn't already suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder—one symptom of which might be standing in the middle of an airplane aisle ranting loudly about what some other passenger is looking at on his iPad.