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obscenity's subversive impact steadi–
ly increased. Five years ago people
would not have tolerated scenes that
now appear on television and in the
theater. But each year both media
offer more daring and explicit mate–
rial than the year before.
On May 12, 1981, a section of the
New York penallaw forbidding sex–
ual exposure of a child for profit was
overturned. The New York Court of
Appeals ruled in a 5-2 decision that
it was unconstitutional to ban the use
of children in sexually explicit
movies, shows and photos in the
state, unless the material was
declared legally obscene according
to community standards.
But what is " legally obscene
according to community standards"
when the U.S. Supreme Court does
not take a stand ? Instead of setting
a national guideline for obscenity,
the Supreme Court ruled in 1973
that local juries would have to
decide if pornography " lacks seri–
ous literary, artistic, political or
scientific value."
All of which leaves the issue in a
state of confusion as in 1964 when
U.S. Supreme Court Just ice Stew–
art Potter defined pornography: "1
know it when I see it."
No doubt what society finds
indecent or obscene will continue
to vary from culture to culture and
from time to time. In Malaysia and
Singapore, for example, the law
strictly forbids both the making
and the importation of movies with
anything resembling eroticism.
"We cannot allow themes which
suggest that violence or sexua l
license is a normal, even fashion-
36
able, way of solving problems or
increasing human happiness.... It
goes against our cultural vaJues and
is likely, in our view, to give rise to
more anti-social behaviour," says
Ong Teng Cheong, Singapore's
Acting Culture Minister.
But in Hong Kong and the Philip–
pines, morality doesn't stand in the
way of profiteers who churn out sex
films faster than any other places in
southeast Asia. Hong Kong's erotic
wave started in 1977, when there
was a lull on the kung fu scene.
Movie producers now rake in rich
box-office profits from erotica.
Straight screen pornography is
illegal in Thailand, but eroticism
has become increasingly visible in
Thai movies, many of which are
produced in Europe and smuggled
into Thailand. " In today's Bang–
kok, economic benefits take prece–
dence over moral considerations,"
said one Thai observer sadly.
Money speaks louder than
morality in Britain as well. "The
fact is that sex shops are about the
only growth industry in modero
Britain. Everywhere they sprout,
neither obscure nor withholding
their toys, but brazenly and, to
sorne, offensively frank"
(Daily
Telegraph,
J anuary 21, 1981).
"Liberated" middle-age couples
in Japan sometimes operate under–
ground porno-viewing clubs in the
face of the forbidding of hard-core
obsceni ty in that country. Film
directors have learned to camou–
flage torrid Jove scenes without sac–
rificing the expl icit.
"Sex and violence are aspects of
human nature, •• notes J apanese
director Nozomu lrumata. "We
weave these into a plot, a moral
story if you like."
"But it isn't simply sex for sex's
sake," commented a Tokyo psy–
chologist. "lt's our surrogate for
the many things we've lost- the
samurai,
the
geisha-as
symbols
of power, meekness and social har–
mony.... Soft-core (pornography]
provides a catharsis."
But an antipornography backlash
is building up in Sweden, where
prosecutions are pending against
various porn shops and a new law
has banned child pornography.
"We wanted everything to be
free; we wanted light and air," says
Hans Nestius, a former sexual radi-
cal in Sweden. "But now 1 realize
that pornography doesn't stand for
openness, for sexual freedom-as
1
used to maintain...."
Mr. Nestius now discounts argu–
ments he once used to fight for free
pornography. Once regarded one of
the more sexually permissive soci–
eties, could Sweden be seeing the in–
efficacy of its widespread liberality?
Another forme r Swedish sex
radical, Maj Fant, said: " 1 don't
think pornography fulfills a need."
In Spain, where erotic publica–
tions domínate many newsstands
and peddlers run shops on the side–
walks, one civil servant complained:
"We have to pick our way through
pornography in the evening paseo
[stroll], and when my children
empty the mailbox they find leaf–
lets advertising indecent books and
films. l f this is democracy.... "
Smut pushers worldwide seem to
have taken over, spreading erotica
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