Betty Dodson with Carlin Ross

Better Orgasms. Better World.

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The U.S. Constitution grants an absolute right to free speech. Until recently, it was one of the best protected rights in the United States, as ruling after ruling by the Supreme Court determined that sexual speech is protected in a wide diversity of circumstances. The obscenity protections in a famous 1973 decision called Miller vs California. This decision made it nearly impossible to be prosecuted for obscenity. Everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Larry Flynt benefitted from this - and as a result, so did we. Many other forms of speech were protected under this safe umbrella.

Then came the Internet. Restricting sexual speech in a series of incremental rules and regulations, that right is being tightened like a noose. If someone suspects you might have kiddy porn on your computer, you and your computer can be confiscated. There are rare cases where someone receives an email and gets prosecuted. Kids are being prosecuted for sending nude pictures of themselves. If you have ANY nudity on your computer, you can get arrested going into Canada, thanks to the "Andrea Dworkin Laws" passed in that country. Be careful.

What about nude art photography, legal and honest and done with good vibes? Any publisher of nude images lives daily with the knowledge, not the paranoia but knowledge of the actual conduct of law enforcement activities, that they can be investigated at any time on "suspicion" of illegal images; in effect, a thought crime. Alexander Cockburn covered this in the case of the guy who was arrested for indecent exposure last month while making coffee naked in his kitchen before dawn. A cop's wife looked in the window and saw him and charges were filed. If convicted, he could have sex offender status, as indecent exposure is considered a sex offense in many states.

It gets worse. There's something called §2257, a federal record keeping requirement put into place in the 1990s. In order to have access to your right to free speech, if you do nude photos, you must have highly specific records on file and available for inspection in a specially marked file cabinet with a staff person sitting there 40 hours a week, presumably to be ready for a warrantless inspection.

In theory, one needs to keep three forms of government ID on file for each model. Now, who exactly has three forms of government ID? Girls running around Baha on spring break? A cop does; a nurse might; a federal employee will. But you're lucky if a 25 year old model has a passport, which along with a valid driver's license is considered positive identification and proof of age, good enough to vote, purchase alcohol or a weapon. The constitutionality of this regulation is under question, and it is rarely used (two cases that I know of), but it's there as a looming threat, and the threat (once again) is associated with sex.

This creates a chilling effect on a guaranteed right. You may conduct myself lawfully and yet live in fear; because the issue is associated with sex. This is why Betty had to take down her genital art gallery.

This is not a new strategy; the key is to avoid the appearance of an absolute ban or censorship, while still getting the job done. In a similar way, the right to abortion is being circumvented, culled, chilled, chiseled away, co-opted, regulated and attached to other issues (like partial birth abortion, a total red herring, as this is only extremely rarely used electionally); all of this, at the same time that information about sex has been curtailed, despite our right to have that information. (Several constitutional rights come up here but I would say this is an Equal Protection right, as is abortion among various social classes; a rich Caucasian person has the same rights as a poor Latina person.)

The attack on rights is pervasive, but worse, it's being made to look normal. It is all the worse because it's a veiled attack. Not overt fascism or censorship, but many incremental changes that gradually leave us with no options. I think that with reproductive rights we have to consider that an attack on any one woman's rights is an attack on every woman's rights. This is difficult to grasp, in a time of private interests prevailing; of every man for himself; which is the subtext of the health care issue. But once again, sex crimes are being attached, and this is the end-run on abortion we are currently witnessing.

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