Quote:
Originally Posted by RawAlex
There is no true limit in the law, because tastes change.
Those of you out there will remember that on "I Love Lucy", they had seperate single beds in their bedroom. That's right, married couple that were portayed as sleeping apart on TV because the world wasn't ready for a married couple together in bed.
That is an extreme case, but it does show how things move and slide over time.
40 years ago, pretty much any porn would have been considered obscene in one manner or another. Now we have a clear indiction that Bukkake is okay, which is huge. That covers facial cumshots, group sex, etc. Huge.
Gagging is one of those things. I never though much of it mostly because it doesn't seem to be enjoyable. Just not my style I guess.
I think the porn industry could easily exist with more bukkake and a little less gagging...
|
I don't think at all that this says that bukkake is OK and something else is not.
I think all it says is that the "community standard" in Phoenix was slightly defined for this case. You could have a different case, different jury, decide that something more vanilla was obscene. That's the biggest problem with obscenity cases is that they are extremely subjective. There is no line drawn in the sand. Even this case doesn't draw a line, it merely provided a definition for this scenario and that's it.
I truly believe you could show that tape to a different set of jurors and get a no problem vote, whereas something completely different could set off an entirely alternate set of jurors. 12 people chosen to represent a population of over 2 million is not a good representation at all. The way they go jury hunting is also extremely inappropriate; if they want a true random representation, then if you get called for jury duty, your number gets drawn from a hat and boom...you are on the case.
Many of these problem areas of law need to be more specifically visited and defined, not just left for cases to decide arbitrarily.
The entire copyright discussion is entirely along this line of thinking. Draw lines in the sand and say .... DON'T CROSS THIS LINE, IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE PUNISHED. If gagging is obscene.... define it as obscene... define beastiality, child porn, etc etc.... make them the letter of the law. if someone pushes the boundaries with something new..... they are OK until the law is amended to include that action as well. If something in the law becomes outdated, the law should be revisited and amended to remove exclusions if the public deems that it should be (who knows... in the future, gagging may be a perfectly acceptable sexual action, right???)
my
