We begin this book, as we began the study upon which it is based, by acknowledging our assumption that the term pornography is a value judgment. We assume that sexually explicit material can be and is invested with valences by individuals in a manner consistent with their overall network of value orientations, socialization patterns, and selfconcepts. We assume that the labeling of sexually explicit materials as "pornographic" can adequately be understood only in the wider context of the

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... gical structures and processes of the society and the psychological structures and processes of the human personality. At the time of our study (1969)(1970), the legal test (determined by the Warren Supreme Court) of whether or not sexually explicit material could be prohibited constitutionally rested on four criteria, all of which reflected the centrality of value judgment. Material was pornographic or obscene if: (a) to the average person (b) the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appealed to prurient interest in sex; (c) the material was patently offensive because it affronted contemporary community standards relating to the description or representation of sexual matters; and (d) the material was utterly without redeeming social value (