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Politics: On Obscene Obscenity Laws... |
Posted by
Parkbench84 on Monday, December 01, 2003 - 12:10 AM PST
“Any person who knowingly promotes, conducts, performs, or participates in an obscene show, exhibition, or performance by live persons or a live person before an audience is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
When you get down to it, there are some ironically obscene obscenity laws in existence. I think back to Mae West being arrested and briefly imprisoned for putting on a stage show titled, Sex, and how prudish and wrong it is to punish someone for what they consider to be their artistic ideas and visions (or even not artistic; it shouldn’t actually matter,) just because it doesn’t meet a set of assumedly agreed upon values. I mean, who’s to say what’s obscene? If you do not allow children under 18 in, and you give fair warning about what people are about to see, why is that illegal? I find this particular obscenity law to be unjust.
It’s just slightly too puritanical for me to let it slide, at least with no strings attached. I can understand parents not wanting something that is “considered” obscene in their neighbourhood, however, that is not part of the law. If the law was more specific, and stated that in extremely suburban areas you should have better judgement, or we will for you, then I could almost see that as fair; but to prohibit it entirely is absurd to me.
“The average person applying contemporary community
standards relating to the depiction or description
of sexual matters would find that the material
taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest
in sex; and
(3) The material lacks serious literary, artistic,
political, or scientific value;”
I think this definition of ‘obscene’ in regard to this law, is contradictory. First of all, it has too much sway to it. “The average person blah blah blah…” Well, that’s a little too loose for my comfort. People could easily debate what the average person is for the rest of time, and I think that no law should have anything in it that is that easily debatable.
Secondly, I don’t understand why the material has to have serious value. Without being obscene, any of Mel Brooks’ films have no serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, yet they are embraced by society nonetheless; so, why should material that is debatably obscene have to have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. I think that’s a bit double edged.
The way I would show civil disobedience would be to put on an obscene show. I honestly wouldn’t put one on just to show civil disobedience, however, if I thought of an idea, but I was afraid it might be considered obscene, I would go right ahead and put it on anyway, because I think that it is a right that we all should have. I would obviously give proper warning; I don’t see any point in corrupting society of course, but, if it is something I believe in, and I have the desire to stage it, there should be no law impeding me. I would really only do this if it was something I felt strongly enough about to face the consequences. If I did have an idea that came along that I felt that strongly about, I would then have made that choice to face my consequences.
I would expect to either be sent to prison, or more appropriately, sentenced to a hefty amount of community service; possibly even more appropriately sentenced to watching Disney movies while listening to Doris Day records, and drinking wholesome milk for the rest of time.
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On Obscene Obscenity Laws... | Login/Create an account | 8 Comments |
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Re: On Obscene Obscenity Laws...
by Parkbench84 (ParkBench84@yahoo.com)
on Dec 01, 2003 - 01:16 PM
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Sorry if some of this seems utterly random, it was for a class and there were specific questions I had to address. Enjoy...
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Re: On Obscene Obscenity Laws...
by feralucce (Iwouldliketokillyou@gofuckyourself.com)
on Dec 02, 2003 - 10:52 AM
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http://feralucce.vibechild.com
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interesting... thought provoking...
obscenity is defined by the prevailent "moral climate"...since ameria, at least, has been, based on christian morals, the obscenity laws reflect it...
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Re: On Obscene Obscenity Laws...
by Squire-of-Gothos (Brian0049@hotmail.com)
on Dec 04, 2003 - 12:08 AM
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Mell Brooks not obscene! Ha ha! You fool!
High Anxiety
"Too much bondage not enough pain!" That guy.
Seriously though, it's becoming 1984, slowly but surely my firends. I was lucky enough to be in Miami during the little spoken about FTAA protests, were Miami police shot me and thousands of other peaceful men women and teenagers with rubber bullets, tear gas, beat us with wooden batons, kicked helpless women while they where down, etc, etc. (For more information about how utterly horrific this was, go to Indymedia.org) Honestly, they got paid 8 million dollars of Iraqi defense money to dress 3 thousand cops in full riot gear, for days in advance, having them prowl around like it's a police state, and beat the shit out of people. Nonviolent, and this is what we got back. Someone died, indymedia members and legal aids were beaten and arested. You know, good old american freedom of speech and morality in action.
And of course the news says the old, "portestors in Miami lit fires and threw things, cops were forced top arrests them, et al, Ben and J-lo!"
This country perpotrates more imoral and disguisting acts than any stage show could ever hope to.
Fuck America, may they take their holyer than thou retoric and shove it up there asses. And if anyone thinks I should leave if I don't like it, well I'm 17, give me a year and I'll be in Canada, where the college is free, and they don't start wars.
Snoogens..........
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Re: On Obscene Obscenity Laws...
by Anya on Dec 04, 2003 - 06:54 AM
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http://kirashi.envy.nu
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I'm not a professional at American History, but I have a side note to leave as far as the concept of America being based on Christian morals.
While many of them may resemble such, people would be amazed at how the founding fathers were supposedly like. In other words, they were not a religious as a lot of people make them out to be. "God and Country" were used more figurative than anything. We were basically the Australia of the Western Hemisphere, founded by prostitutes and criminals. There were also scholars and philosophers who wrote about religion (especially Christianity)...you'd be surprised what they wrote concerning the topics.
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Re: On Obscene Obscenity Laws...
by chameleon on Dec 04, 2003 - 06:06 PM
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Ooo! That would be some pretty harsh punishment; Doris Day, ack! Obscenity, as far as I'm concerned, is all a matter of perception. I know my moral and ethical limits, and I follow them as best I can. As long as we're talking about obscene famous people, how about George Carlin? You can't get more obscene than him now can you?
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