Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["John D. Foubert" <>]

SAPC Colleagues,

I recently won a small victory in the war against pornography. The 
convenience store on our campus at William and Mary was selling 
Penthouse, Playboy, and Hustler magazine. I wrote the head of Campus 
Dining -- a contractor from ARAMARK. A few days later he took the 
magazines off the shelves! Here is my email to him, and his response. 
I encourage others to use this same technique. Please use/modify my 
letter if it is helpful to you; no need to give me any credit for it.

Dear Mr. DiBenedetto,

I am John Foubert and I am an Associate Professor in the School of 
Education. My main area of research is in the area of preventing 
sexual assault and other forms of violence against women. As part of 
this, I have done research on the effects of pornography on college 
men, including exposure to magazines such as Playboy, Hustler, and Penthouse.

Earlier this calendar year I was in the University Center, now called 
the Sadler Center, and was surprised to see that Playboy and Hustler 
Magazine were being sold in the Student Exchange. This past week I 
visited the Student Exchange again and saw that Playboy and Penthouse 
were on sale.

I write to ask that you give thoughtful consideration to no longer 
sell these magazines on our campus. As a fellow member of the William 
and Mary community, I ask that you do this for the following reasons.

First, the use of these magazines by men put women on our campus at 
risk for harm. I state that not as my opinion, but based on the 
research that is available on these specific magazines. I know it is 
unlikely that you take the time to read all of the research on every 
product you sell in your stores so I will fully understand if you 
haven't seen or read all the research on the effects of using these 
magazines. I hadn't read this research until a few years ago myself. 
Broadly speaking what research shows is that men who use pornography 
are more likely to be aggressive, are more likely to be sexually 
aggressive, and the more men use pornography the more likely they are 
to commit rape. A study done specifically on the magazines being sold 
in your store found that men who use Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler 
and other similar magazines are more likely to use verbal coercion 
and use drugs and alcohol to get women to have intercourse -- with or 
without consent. Using these magazines was positively associated with 
the likelihood of using force in sexual situations. Using these 
magazines was also significantly correlated with users likelihood of 
raping (Boeringer, 1994).

Second, Aramark is a company that believes in social and corporate 
responsibility. According to your national website, "ARAMARK seeks to 
responsibly address issues that matter to its clients, customers, 
employees and communities by focusing on employee advocacy, 
environmental stewardship, health and wellness, and community 
involvement." The website also stresses that "We work with clients 
and suppliers to develop innovative product and service options that 
operationalize their corporate social responsibility objectives." And 
furthermore, "Our Board of Directors has adopted governance 
principles and committee charters to ensure that ARAMARK conducts 
business with the utmost integrity and according to the highest 
ethical standards." Given these high standards, I am sure that 
Aramark would want to be on the side of responsibly addressing issues 
of health and wellness of its clients and customers. Selling 
materials that put its customer base at risk for sexual assault runs 
counter to this principle. Knowing that Aramark works to 
operationalize corporate social responsibility and work with the 
utmost integrity and highest ethical standards, I don't think your 
company wants to be distributing pornography.

I hope that you find my suggestion helpful and convincing. I look 
forward to your response.

Sincerely,

John Foubert


-- Boeringer, S. B. (1994). Pornography and sexual aggression: 
Associations of violent and nonviolent depictions with rape and rape 
proclivity. Deviant Behavior, 15, 289-304.

RESPONSE:

John thank you for your email and first let me apologies for the 
delay in responding to you, I needed to do a bit of research. I have 
taken a look at our magazine selection in the Exchange and removed 
the magazines you mentioned. I will continue to review our selection 
going forward.
Again thank you for assistance in this matter.
Phil Dibendetto
Director of Dining
The College of William and Mary


****************************************************************************
John D. Foubert, Ph.D., LLC
Associate Professor of Higher Education
The College of William and Mary
School of Education, Jones 320
P.O. Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA  23187-8795

(757) 221-2322
(757) 221-2988 (fax)
http://jdfoub.people.wm.edu