Illegal Depictions
Americans particularly seem, as a group, to be really freaky about sex. For some reason it makes them crazy in outrageous, nonlinear ways. Particularly in these days of heated conservatism and religious zealotry the hysteria can mount quickly. Think for a minute about how society responds right now to subjects like pedophilia, rape, and homosexuality, just to name three in the same sentence, that seem to garner reactions out of all proportion to whatever fear people are reacting to.
Deep down I suspect that it's one reason I write pornography — to tweak people's metaphoric noses and make a few statements about how ridiculous I find the attitudes and mores of the majority. This only works, of course, to the extent that I am perceived as a normal, suburban, white male, although I guess I'm usually quickly spotted as a bit eccentric at a minimum. Nevertheless, I get some mileage out of it.
I write fiction. Fiction means the stories are made up, out of my head, things that never happened. Regardless, there are editors who won't touch stories involving certain situations or characters. For instance, some won't print anything with characters under 21 years old, some avoid priests altogether, some don't like large age differences. Most sex acts find a market, although I did have one editor I enjoyed working with who had an issue with farting. Go figure.
Regardless, these are fiction. They are not depictions of reality, they are not depictions of my desires, they are not coded messages nor instructions, but some people insist on reacting as though they are. And this is nothing confined to just the last few years. I remember an instance a decade ago in a usenet newsgroup* when a brief bit of fiction appeared in a thread that depicted a sexual encounter between a father and his son. I swear I could hear the "oomph" across the network as breath escaped the readers' mouths when they dropped open with a silent "oh no!"
My most recently published story# was a quasi-tragic story about three best friends growing up in Goodland, Kansas, and how they ended up not best friends. Not surprisingly, there were depictions of sexual scenes, and these scenes involved people under 18 years old because the story was about these boys as they survived high school together.
Fortunately my editor and my publisher were not squeamish, but that's far from a universal attitude. This squeamishness persists despite the fact that in most states sex between underage persons, provided they are both underage, is not illegal; nor, for the last few years, has sex between two men been illegal. Not to mention: it's fiction. Naturally, I think there's still work to be done trying to break down some senseless, arbitrary barriers.
This came to mind because Avedon Carol had occasion to write about the difference between depicting illegal acts and illegal depictions, and I'm grateful that she did:
I didn't post anything about the blow-up at Live Journal earlier (mainly because I was obsessing on other things), but it seems they were stampeded into a sex panic by a right-wing hate group and closed hundreds of accounts because they deemed the content "inappropriate" or claimed it was illegal to post depictions of illegal acts. Of course, this last is nonsense, since a considerable proportion of fiction – not just in books, but in movies and television – revolves around the commission of illegal acts and portrays them regularly. Most of them are not explicit sexual descriptions, but the prohibitions on sexual material aren't about the legality of the acts, they are about the sexual nature of the acts (even if they are legal). We still get plenty of assault, murder, and robbery, despite the fact that these acts are illegal. We get explicit portrayals of them, and we even see heroes breaking the law. Portrayals of rape are less explicit – again, because it's sexual rather than because it's illegal. However, the illegal part of rape is okay to show even on television – that is, the fact that a victim is being forced. We also see plenty of depictions of fraud, embezzling, bribery, and blackmail, and everything right on down to illegal parking. (In any case, fictional characters really don't need to be protected from being the subjects of slash fiction, especially if they are, like Harry Potter, 17 and therefore above the age of consent.)
[Avedon Carol, "Wisdom of the Internet", The Sideshow, 3 June 2007.]
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*Yes, that would be "soc.motss". We can discuss details privately.
# "Goodland, Kansas", by Jay Neal, in Country Boys, Richard Labonté, editor. San Francisco : Cleis Press, 2007.
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on Monday, 4 June 2007 at 00.26
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Very interesting and accurate observation.
I, too, have marveled at how blasé parents — adults generally — can be about their offspring taking in all manner of dramatic portrayals of gruesome crimes, perversion and wrongdoing in nearly all its manifestations, provided sex isn't involved. When sex is involved, some parents get the vapors, others go ballistic.
So, it's not too big a deal if Junior plants himself in front of the TV to watch "Nightmare On Elm Street" for the fifth or sixth time. (Fifth or sixth time!?) But all hell breaks loose if his parents find out Junior has gotten hold of a porn tape or DVD, even one where there is no forcing, no fetishes, etc., but rather just a lot of sexual activity.
I suppose the presumption is that Junior can appreciate that Freddy Kreuger's murder and mayhem are make believe and not to be emulated. Whereas, his parents fear that by watching porn Junior will surely be programmed for life to emulate all the wicked goings on he saw.
Of course, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in the psychology of adolescence to know neither assumption is necessarily justified or valid.
I don't mean to suggest that parents have no reason to be concerned about a kid watching porn or that they shouldn't tell the kid how and why they find that objectionable. I just think they'd be wise to lean more toward taking that in stride while at the same time coming up with some sensible concern about rhw kid taking in a steady diet of violence and other criminal behavior.
"Junior, take off that hockey mask and come in here for a few minutes. We have to have a talk about how wrong it is to act out aggressions using a chainsaw, meathook or machete . . ."
on Monday, 4 June 2007 at 04.45
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I wish it was just Americans, but the madness is everywhere. Over here, they're actually about to pass a law against what they call "extreme" pornography that they fully admit they have no evidence will do anyone any good. But it's a nice excuse to bust a lot of people….
on Thursday, 7 June 2007 at 10.29
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"Americans particularly seem, as a group, to be really freaky about sex."
Ever checked out the Muslims?
"For some reason it makes them crazy in outrageous, nonlinear ways."
Sex carries a lot of emotional juice. We are wired for sensitivity to predators and procreation. It is notable that the danger from auto accidents is quite high, but we seem to accept the risk as a routine thing. Stranger abduction of children is quite rare, but it garners a lot of press.
on Thursday, 7 June 2007 at 12.04
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Well Fred, I guess you're quite right: there are lots of other cultural groups that are freaky about sex. I suppose my point was to talk about Americans' particular freakiness, with which I am more intimately familiar, rather than to proclaim Americans unusually freaky when compared to these other groups.
Perhaps it's universal that all cultural groups are freaky about sex but each group is freaky in its own way. (Oh dear, that seems to fall perilously close to becoming a lyric for a pop song of some sort: "Every group's freak-y, in its own way….")