Monday, March 14, 2005

Who Determines What is Considered Pornograhy?

Who determines what is considered pornography in Canada?
Hint: Check the Canadian criminal code. What would you define as pornography if you had to give a general definition? Who do you think has the right to ban images as pornography? Do children need to be protected from explicit materials? How would you protect the children? Is there a difference between pornography and erotica?
Case in point: Most of the books in the series Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews were removed from the high-school library for "pornographic" content because an American board of education decided to remove all school curriculum materials and library books containing any and all "profanity" and "pornography," both concepts ill-defined. The tremendous public outcry made the board backtrack and resolve to review its selection policy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pornography is indeed a difficult category to define. I think what separates pornography from erotica is aggression. You can't equate pornography with sex/nudity if you want to accept the Statue of David as art (although the Vatican did try). The definition of Art also has very fuzzy boundaries and so there may be instances where the two seem to overlap.
I believe that children should be protected from pornography, but not necessarily from sex. Many psychologists believe that humans are naturally sexual beings and a questionning child should be given functional answers, but most people are led to misconceptions from being exposed to pornography.

~nineveh_rains