Department of Defense: Playboy Is Not Sexually Explicit

In May 2007, pro family groups and citizens signed a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asking that he enforce the Military Honor and Decency Act, 10 U.S.C. § 2489. The Act bans the sale or rental of “sexually explicit material” on U.S. military installations or in military exchange stores such as AAFES, NEX, and MCEX. The statute defines “sexually explicit material” to include recordings, films, videos, periodicals with visual depictions, or materials “produced in any medium, the dominant theme of which depicts or describes nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way.” Here is the response of the Department of Defense. You will note that, incredibly, the Department does not consider such publications as Playboy, Penthouse, Nude, and Nude Playmates to be sexually explicit!

Certainly, the Department does not take the Military Honor and Decency Act seriously. It relies on its own interpretation of the law in Department of Defense Instruction 4105.70, which is have reprinted below. If you read the instruction, you will see that even under it, all the above mentioned publications must necessarily be prohibited from sale. More needs to be done on this matter and we will continue to pursue DOD on this.

3. DEFINITIONS

For the purpose of this Instruction, the following definitions apply:

3.1. Dominant Theme. A theme of any material that is superior in power, influence, and importance to all other themes in the material combined.

3.2. Lascivious. Lewd and intended or designed to elicit a sexual response.

3.3. Material. An audio recording, a film or video recording, or a periodical with visual depictions, produced in any medium.

3.4. Property under the Jurisdiction of the Department of Defense. Commissaries, facilities operated by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the Navy Exchange Service Command, the Navy Resale and Services Support Office, Marine Corps Exchanges, and ship stores.

3.5. Sexually Explicit Material. Material, the dominant theme of which is the depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way.

4. POLICY

It is DoD policy that:

4.1. No sexually explicit material may be offered for sale or rental on property under the DoD jurisdiction, and no member of the Armed Forces or DoD civilian officer or employee, acting in his or her official capacity, shall offer for sale or rental any sexually explicit material.

4.2. Material shall not be deemed sexually explicit because of any message or point of view expressed therein.