`Real Men Don't Use Porn,' Says Billboard

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - A Springfield group believes quiche isn't the only thing "real men" avoid.

Fifty yards from the entrance to he town's only adult bookstore, the group of men has erected a billboard-sized sign that says: "Real Men Don't Use Porn."

The sign pictures five smiling men who presumably don't: a doctor named Warren Jackson, Navy Capt. John Testrake, astronaut Col. Jim Irwin, someone named Ed Provident, and Charles Mann, who plays football for the Washington Redskins.

The group is called "Real Men of Lane County."

And they pasted the sign about two weeks ago on the side of a building just west of Exclusively Adult.

Marple Fannin, a Springfield family counselor and the group's organizer, says the intention is to make people aware that pornography is degrading.

The message is aimed at men because they are the primary consumers of sexually explicit material, he said.

"If you go down and see the people going into a porno shop, probably 90 percent are men," Fannin said. "It's a man's issue. I think men are degrading women."

Fannin said the informal group - which consists of a couple of medical doctors and others - hopes eventually to rent billboard space and place similar messages near adult bookstores and strip joints throughout the state.

Bookstore owner Steve Mattick said he believes the group is "the same pack of right-wingers" who have opposed his business in the past.

Fannin described himself as a Christian, but said some in the group do not attend church.

He said his group is not affiliated with any other organization.

The billboard came from a Kansas company that produces "family values" material. Fannin said his group has a one-year lease and is paying the building owner $100 a month for the billboard space.

Fannin said he personally would prefer to see Oregon enact a law that would prohibit adult bookstores. But he said the sign would be worth it if it prevents one man from becoming "hooked on pornography."

Mattick said the sign has had no effect on his business.

"There's nothing measurable that I can tell, receipt-wise or foot traffic-wise," he said. "Most people look at it and take it with a grain of salt."