Southern California – home of the surfer, the skater and… the Porn Star? And no, I don’t mean failed actors and actresses in West Hollywood.

Porn Star is a trendy and controversial clothing line based in Santa Barbara that has its roots in the punk scene. Back in the early ’90s, twin brothers Sean and Barret Murphy fronted a band of the same name. But after noticing the popularity of the clothing sold at their shows, they quit the music business to start their own apparel line.

If you haven’t seen their clothes around town, you’ve probably seen them on television shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Ben Affleck has been spotted wearing Porn Star clothes in his downtime. You can find the clothes at specialty stores such as New Deal and occasionally Urban Outfitters – just don’t try to wear them to Santa Barbara High School, where it’s against the dress code.

Such restrictions don’t bother company President Jason Yardi, who says that, “if someone is under the age of 18, they probably shouldn’t be wearing our clothing.”

The labels on Porn Star clothing even say, “must be 18 or over.”

The bigger and more relevant issue here is why people over the age of 18 wear these clothes.

“People buy our clothes for the shock appeal,” Yardi said. “It’s aggressive.”

Wearing something that has “Porn Star” written on it certainly is a fashion statement. Carol Mosely, Rape Prevention Education Program coordinator at the Women’s Center, called the clothing a “cultural product.”

“They are using a message to sell their product,” Mosely said. “People aren’t buying it just because it’s a well made shirt or a pretty color.”

So what exactly is the message Porn Star is selling?

“I can’t really pinpoint it,” Yardi said. “There aren’t a lot of brands like ours.”

Indeed. The choices seem to fall into one of two categories – punk or poser. On the one hand, the clothing seems to be fairly consistent with the punk ideals the company promotes. And with the endorsement of bands such as Blink-182, they must be punk, right?

Even the office sounds pretty laid back.

“There aren’t any guys in suits around here,” Yardi said. “I’m the president of the company, and I’m wearing shorts and a T-shirt.”

I’d had a pleasant conversation with Yardi and almost decided that I was taking the whole thing way too seriously and needed to lighten up. Then, I looked at the Porn Star website.

The pictures are almost entirely of girls. And by girls, I mean tits and asses. So I decided to e-mail Yardi to see if he could reconcile such blatant objectifying of women with the aforementioned punk ideology.

“We find humor in the roles of men and women with a little tongue in cheek comedy,” he said, “and a little shock value, which is one of the fundamental elements of the punk movement: to shock the establishment.”

Porn Star certainly isn’t the first company to use sex to sell its product. But as Mosely said, “There’s a difference between sex and objectifying women.”

Not that this is necessarily Porn Star’s intention.

“They’re just a business trying to sell shirts,” Mosely said. “They’re not doing this because they want women to stay in a certain place.”

In fact, Porn Star claims that its shirts are doing the exact opposite.

“We make shirts that are empowering for women and have humor directed at men,” Yardi said.

I find it difficult, however, to find the empowerment in a statement such as, “Show Me Your Tits,” which is one Porn Star’s more popular T-shirt slogans.

My favorite Porn Star shirt says, “Masturbation is not a crime.” Even now in the 21st century, masturbation remains a taboo topic, especially among women (unless of course you write “The Wednesday Hump”), and I applaud Porn Star for pointing that out.

Where exactly one draws the line between humor and offense is, of course, relative. Even Porn Star has a line that it won’t cross.

“We do turn down a lot of art which we consider over the edge or too offensive,” Yardi said. “In the end, you want a design that will make people laugh because they relate to our humor and what we are about, and this makes people happy.”

At its best, that is exactly what Porn Star does. I admit that I laughed while reading some of the slogans. But there are some deeper issues that need to be discussed. Porn Star’s target audience is people between the ages of 18 and 26 – the vast majority of UCSB students.

And people are buying it. There is something about a shirt that says “Kiss My Ass” that makes you feel like you can take on the world. It’s fun to be a punk.

But is Porn Star really punk? One of the things I like about the punk scene is that it’s not about looks or objectifying women. It’s not about discrimination or prejudice of any kind. Another look at the website shows pictures of the cars Porn Star employees drive. Yardi himself drives a BMW M3.

As consumers, we are privileged to be able to pick and choose which companies and ideologies to support financially. As a woman, I’m offended by some of Porn Star’s merchandise. On the other hand, I’m all for pushing boundaries and supporting local companies. In the end, it’s all up to personal taste anyway – the Constitution protects that.

Just be conscious of the message you choose to express.