If “Sex Art” Happens, And Someone’s Watching, Is It Obscene?

The nebulousness of the term “obscene” derives from society’s attempts to define it as something that “offends community standards”. Pornography will always and forever be caught in the never-ending struggle between free speech and those “community standards”. And it’s a never-ending struggle of legal & financial resources representing both sides.

As a broadcaster for my alma mater’s radio station, the FCC’s definition of “indecency” and “obscenity” reflects this issue. How do you deem something to be “indecent” content and something to be “obscene” content? Can a frank discussion amongst college kids about issues of sexuality get fined? Or a casual utterance of the word “s**t” or “m-f” in a rap track get fined? The truth is – in both instances it’s possible – depending on who is listening, who is offended & deems it to be obscene, and who files the complaint, and how much energy & resources is involved to litigate the so called “offense”, and what the penalty is (i.e. a $10K fine would kill a college radio station but would be easily paid off by a corporate broadcasting giant).

The key to addressing obscenity is “community standards”. We can virtually all agree that porn w/ kids is obscene. We can mostly agree that snuff, scat, & animal porn is obscene. Then there is a huge diversity of sex acts from BSDM to deep kissing that will be subject to judgement by “community standards”. And those sex acts would be subject to whichever groups complain the most: i.e. those Red State Baptists may consume more porn and wank more than most Blue State infidels, but they also hypocritically complain the most and file the most lawsuits. Then there are other “community standards” based on foreign cultures & religion in which a woman exposing her hair would be deemed worthy of an execution or stoning. Just be glad we don’t live in those communities…