between prohibition and desire,
between censorship and speech,
between law and culture.
[*Page 273 continued]
"She says she only said 'if.' "
"But she said a great deal more than that!" the White Queen moaned, wringing her hands... .
"I'm sure I didn't mean - " Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted her impatiently.
"That's just what I complain of! You should have meant!
What do you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning?"
- Lewis Carroll
[351]
Child pornography law, and the culture in which it has grown, allow us an occasion to reconsider some basic assumptions that underlie the First Amendment - questions about the relationship
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between prohibition and desire, |
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between censorship and speech, |
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between law and culture. |
Censorship law does not only react to cultural trends. It also
reflects, amplifies, and creates them.
In our present culture of child abuse, is child pornography law the solution or the problem?
My answer is that it is both. This reading pictures law and culture as unwitting partners. Both keep the sexualized child before us. Children and sex become inextricably linked, all while we proclaim the child's innocence. The sexuality prohibited becomes the sexuality produced.