LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon told reporters on Tuesday that, if elected, she would define “pornography” as “two naked people, and they are acting out a sexual act, and multiple different sexual acts.”
Dixon proffered her peculiar definition — which bears no resemblance to any legal precedent over the last several decades — during an event appearance, as she ramped up the culture war rhetoric by proposing a statewide ban on what she called “pornographic” books in Michigan schools.
When pressed for specifics, Dixon said that if elected governor she would personally “take a look” at such works to “make sure that we are not having children reading pornographic — or having a teacher read pornographic — material to a child in school.”
A reporter then asked Dixon, a right-wing commentator for a streaming news channel, how she would define “pornography.”
“Do you need me to define pornographic?” Dixon replied. “I mean, I can, if you want me to. So there’s two naked people and they are acting out a sexual act, multiple different sexual acts.”
Dixon then asked the reporter, “Do you want me to send you some so you can see them? That would be fine — I feel like it would be a little awkward.”
“I did not expect to have a gubernatorial nominee define ‘pornography’ at a press conference but nothing about this election cycle has made sense,” TV news reporter Eric Lloyd tweeted later.
During the same event, Dixon called for the resignation of Michigan's Superintendent of Public Instruction, Michael Rice, over LGBTQ+ training.
A Nationwide Culture War Strategy by GOP Leaders
Dixon’s attack on “pornography” is consistent with current efforts by Republicans nationwide to invoke a supposed crisis in public education over material dealing with LGBTQ+ and BIPOC issues.
Voters in Jamestown Township, news site Bridge Michigan reported, recently voted to defund their public library over concerns about Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel, “Gender Queer: A Memoir.” Dixon has also targeted “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a YA title by George M. Johnson, who is Black and identifies as queer.
“All told, local and state officials across the country have banned 1,648 individual book titles between July 2021 and June 2022,” Bridge Michigan reported, “including 41 percent with LGBTQ themes or characters, according to a tally from PEN America, a nonprofit that promotes freedom of expression.”
PEN America released a statement calling this recent book-banning movement “deeply undemocratic, in that it often seeks to impose restrictions on all students and families based on the preferences of those calling for the bans.”
Buddy BeBop vs. Michigan Pornography
Dixon’s holier-than-thou anti-porn tirades have been characterized as hypocritical by her Democratic opponents, who point out that, as an actress, Dixon has appeared in sexploitation titles like “Buddy BeBop vs. the Living Dead.”
The Detroit News reported that Dixon’s IMDB credits include “productions that featured gore and other actors in sexual scenes,” among them a movie described by its own trailer as “offensive” and “disgusting,” and in which Dixon's character gets “eaten by two zombies.”
“News of Dixon’s involvement in these projects come as she remains fixated with distorting the realities of public schooling and healthcare providers in order to push her wrong-for-Michigan agenda,” a Democratic campaign site commented.
“Without providing any evidence,” the Michigan Democrats site continued, “Dixon recently stated that school staff provide ‘sexually explicit materials to children’ and likened them to ‘predator[s] sharing porn with children at the bus stop.’ But when confronted with her own acting background, Dixon argued that her roles were ‘different’ than what she’s targeting in schools because they aren’t accessible to children. As the reporting notes, her movie is ‘still available for viewing’ to anyone with Internet access.”
Political consultant Jeff Timmer opined that Dixon’s appearance in sex-and-gore splatterfests “could be a factor in the Republican primary because of the ‘sanctimonious message’ Dixon has been running on,” the Detroit News reported.
“In a normal time, this would just be weird,” Timmer told the newspaper. “It’s not necessarily a character disqualification. It’s just an indication of just how freaking weird the Republicans have become” under Trump.
The latest Detroit Free Press statewide survey shows Dixon trailing incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 16 points.
