Should anyone who enjoys viewing pornography be barred from supervising other people? That’s the conclusion that a Canadian feminist group has reached in the wake of an Internet pornography scandal involving a high ranking Canadian naval officer.
In some respects, the Canadian Navy’s crackdown on Commodore Eric Lerhe seems excessive. While traveling alone in San Diego in April 2000, Lerhe used a military-owned laptop he had with him to access an Internet porn site while he was off duty. Lerhe used an account he paid for himself to access the Internet, and although the military does have strict regulations barring people from using government equipment to view pornography, as the Boston Globe reported, “the rule is usually interpreted to mean workplace equipment, not a laptop while on personal time.”
For accessing a few pornographic JPEGs on a site described as similar to Penthouse, Lerhe’s career is effectively over. He’s been stripped of his command and could face a dishonorable discharge.
But if that’s a bit of overkill, consider the claim made by Geraldine Glattstein of the Ontario-based Woman Against Violence Against Women. According to Glattstein, “It’s dangerous for women to be supervised by someone who looks at those kinds of Web sites.”
Anyone who looks at a web site along the lines of Penthouse or Playboy is unfit to supervise people? If my boss (who is a woman) happens to read Penthouse, I should consider her “dangerous”?
Bizarre.
Source:
Web porn grounds Canada Navy man. Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, June 21, 2001.