Many recent" common sense" discussions of censorship-the kind featured on popular afternoon talk shows in particular-figure certain gene-alogical traces of the 1986 Meese Commission's report on pornography.'Specifically, one is more likely to hear on these shows some kind of causal link being posited between" pornographic" or" obscene" texts and the physical, psychological, and/or sexual abuse of women. I recently wit-nessed a concerned father express to Sally Jessy Raphael his worry that his daughter might be compelled, as a result of listening to Madonna's song" Hanky Panky," to engage in sadomasochistic sexual practices. At least two things are worth noting here about this" popular" construction of the relationship between texts as" cause" and behavior as" effect":(1) this model, adopted by religious rightists in the case of both the Meese Commission and more recent debates, is one which has in some sense been