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April 25, 2007
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Porn is whatever you say it is
This is a good example of why obscenity laws, not to mention speech codes, just do not work:
BENTONVILLE -- A Bentonville man asked the city to pay his two sons $20,000 and to fire the library director for including what he called "pornography" in the Bentonville Public Library collection."The Whole Lesbian Sex Book" by Felice Newman was removed from the library shelf after Earl Adams of Bentonville complained it is "patently offensive and lacks any artistic, literary or scientific value," according to a letter he wrote and faxed Feb. 16 to Mayor Bob McCaslin.
Adams said his 14- and 16-year-old sons, Kyle and Ryan, looked at the book while the 14-year-old was browsing for material on military academies. He requested the city pay him $10,000 per child, the maximum allowed under the Arkansas obscenity law.
"My sons were greatly disturbed by viewing this material and this matter has caused many sleepless nights in our house," he said in another e-mail to McCaslin earlier in February.
Library Director Cindy Suter initially relocated the book to a less accessible location as Adams requested in his first e-mail complaint. Then Adams asked Feb. 16 for the book to be removed and sent McCaslin a letter threatening a lawsuit.
"God was speaking to my heart that day and helped me find the words that proved successful in removing this book from the shelf," Adams stated Thursday.
Advisory board members voted unanimously April 3 to remove the book from circulation and find a similar resource book, if possible. If not, the book will likely go back on the shelf, Suter said.
Library Advisory Board member George Spence said he found the book crude and agrees it ought to be replaced with a suitable book on the same topic.
"A more sensitive, more clinical approach to same material might be more appropriate for the library," Spence said.
Adams said in an e-mail Thursday he will fight the book's return.
"Any effort to reinstate the book will be met with legal action and protests from the Christian community," Adams stated in an e-mail.
Sometimes people are just so tiresome.
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Comments:
So a 14- and a 16-year-old boy were "disturbed" by looking at a lesbian sex manual.
How are we defining "disturbed" here? As synonymous with "aroused"?
maybe God was also speaking to Adams' heart and telling him that he needed to remodel his kitchen.
his sons can handle the rigid discipline of a military academy, yet are disturbed by this book? Adams doesn't know much about the military.
But, maybe this guy is correct when he says that the book is "patently offensive and lacks any artistic, literary, or scientific value." Moreover, libraries have scarce resources, and money spent on sex manuals could almost certainly be better spent on other, more edifying books (e.g., a complete set of the Loeb Classical Library).
Don't move to a religious neighbourhood (or nation), and you'll be fine.
Well, I am going to weigh in here.
Think about a bell curve. On one extreme, way out at the tip, are people who would censor and redact every single book in a public library. On the other extreme are people who would want legislation passed to see that every possible piece of trash has to have a place in the library - the more offensive, the better. OK, those people don't exist (probably) but you can come in on the curve just a little way and find people on each side. We have to have the extremes fighting a bit in order to have a workable dynamic. The person who decided to put that book in the library will get on some people's nerves (mine) and the person who objected to it will get on others' but they both serve to keep us from plunging over a cliff.
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