Sex Packs Powerful Media Effect

Updated: 10:12 a.m., June 23, 2006 (typos fixed)

Wow.

That's all I can say, really.

Five days ago I wrote here about an Austin public school teacher ousted for the presence of artistic topless photos of her on the Web.

Then someone linked to the post.

Since then, hundreds and hundreds of visitors have shown up on this Weblog. This site has had more visitors in five days than it gets in a typical month. Dozens of states. Nations, too. Greece. Malaysia. Canada. U.S. military bases.

Being a media scholar who studies emotion and attention, I'm betting that they're looking for the pictures. They're not here. That traffic would probably shut the server down.

Many people want to take sex off of the Internet and television. It just will not happen. The lure is too strong. Appetitive motivation usually wins.

I'd like to think that people (on both sides of the issue) are passionately involved with this issue, and they want to be better citizens. But, no, they're surfing for the topless pictures.

You can read about the popularity of Tamera Hoover here.

You can donate to her legal defense fund here.

If you think Hoover should have been fired, you can spend money on what I predict will be a losing fight against sex here.