Libraries seize/destroy "Sexuality" issue

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

HopeDance is a bi-monthly eco-progressive/counter-cultural magazine that is distributed for free in coffee shops, libraries etc. in San Luis Obispo county and three other counties in California. The July and August issue was devoted to "Sexuality." On the cover is a local artist's colorful, modern adaptation of Titian's 1538 painting of a nude woman, "Venus of Urbino", and inside are some Japanese erotica (one by Hokusai), a photo of an article's author in lingerie, and a photo of a woman's sexual organ taken from a medical textbook. But enough people called it all "pornography" that the director of our county's library system ordered all the copies in the libraries confiscated or destroyed.
The publisher of the magazine is planning a lawsuit.
To see the news story and public comment :
www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/15312164.htm#recent-comm (http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/15312164.htm#recent-comm)

To look at the issue of "HopeDAnce":
www.hopedance.org (http://www.hopedance.org)

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

HopeDance is a bi-monthly eco-progressive/counter-cultural magazine that is distributed for free in coffee shops, libraries etc. in San Luis Obispo county and three other counties in California. The July and August issue was devoted to "Sexuality." On the cover is a local artist's colorful, modern adaptation of Titian's 1538 painting of a nude woman, "Venus of Urbino", and inside are some Japanese erotica (one by Hokusai), a photo of an article's author in lingerie, and a photo of a woman's sexual organ taken from a medical textbook. But enough people called it all "pornography" that the director of our county's library system ordered all the copies in the libraries confiscated or destroyed.
The publisher of the magazine is planning a lawsuit.
To see the news story and public comment :
www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/15312164.htm#recent-comm (http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/15312164.htm#recent-comm)

To look at the issue of "HopeDAnce":
www.hopedance.org (http://www.hopedance.org)

[Eric6420]

I think that planning a lawsuit for such a case is a bit extreme. First of all, a lawsuit costs a lot of money, and the magazine is not sure to win it.

If the magazine loose, it could be banned forever in the librairy, even others librairies could do the same by principle.

[hm0504]

Looks like an excellent magazine; I wish them luck.

[shãybare]

http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/cool4.gif
The articles are interesting. As a nudist, I think the articles are thought provoking. I, too, wish HopeDance magazine good luck.

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Eric6420:
I think that planning a lawsuit for such a case is a bit extreme. First of all, a lawsuit costs a lot of money, and the magazine is not sure to win it.

If the magazine loose, it could be banned forever in the librairy, even others librairies could do the same by principle. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I admit those are concerns. However, the magazine is a very popular one here in the central coast of California and it has a lot of supporters here and Freedom of Speech has a lot of supporters here. So I don't think the magazine is simply in the position of a small- time trouble maker who comes to the library and makes a nuisance of him/herself--it's a free magazine that many people expect to be available at the library and the magazine's publisher personally puts together audio-visual presentations just about every week in the community room of the library with organizations like Code Pink, Health Care For All etc. on health care legislation, Iraq, poverty, homelessness, Socially Responsible Investment, Alternatives to fossil fuels, etc.
Many people might be more inclined to think lawsuits are justified in instances like a breach of contract or someone who damaged your car but many people also feel that our freedoms can be preserved when people use the court system to defend their right to freedom of expression and to defend the kind of access and activities we should be allowed to have on public property (such as a public library.)

So I think if the magazine's publisher thinks it is necessary he might have to go forward with a lawsuit to prevent his or other people's freedoms from being stifled in the future.
And in the news paper a retired professor from the local University, Cal Poly, says he thinks the library's action is on the wrong side of the Miller standard which the Supreme Court established in a 1970s case; this standard rules out censorship if the material has any socially redeeming aspect--and the magazine clearly has that.
Peace,
Kevin

[luvnaturism]

In the '60s I lived in a tiny rural community. There was a library, a small extension of the county library system. It didn't have many books, but you could order any title you wanted and it would eventually show up.

Except...the library was presided over by a widow lady who regarded herself as the guardian of community morals. It was well known that if you ordered a book that she thought you shouldn't be reading, it would be "unavailable."

I've never forgotten the look on her face the day I asked her to get me a copy of The Great Divorce. She obviously imagined that it was something other than what it actually is: a classic Christian fable written by C.S. Lewis.

So this spirit of watching over community morals has been around forever, and perhaps today administrators are more gunshy of anything that might cause controversy than ever before. I don't agree with the content of the magazine, but I certainly think it's not up to government to decide that it shouldn't be available to those who wish to read it.

[nudetech]

While I am generally against censorship, having looked through the magazine, I can understand why the library took the stance it did. I think the picture of an octopus preforming cunnilingus on a woman, as well as one or two others would be considered obseen by most. I for instace, would not post it here. Perhapse making the magazine available to those over 18 on request, with an explanitory note where the magazine would normaly be found would have been better. Still, although I dissagree with the libraries decision, I can't say that it was unreasonable.

[Eric6420]

To Kevin:

OK! I now understand the situation a little better.

Where I live, libraries tend to be quite boring places. They open at 10 AM and close at 5 PM. It is not a high place for culture. Most Canadians have now cable tv or the equivalant and high speed internet connection, for most of theses people, the local librairy is a quite boring place. The big libraries of Montreal and Quebec City are more interesting, but small town libraries are quite boring here.

The only important free newspaper about culture in Quebec is called Voir. It is mainly distributed in restaurants, pubs, bookstores, the universities and a few other places.

I do not know if Voir is distributed at the library in Trois-Rivières, but since they are distributed in about 150 other distribution points, I think that they do not care at all if the library accept or not to be a distribution point.

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

I thought a little about the idea of suggesting that the library should keep the magazine "behind the counter" but I think it might be adding too much to the librarians' already existing responsibilities: the distribution of the magazines is still basically the responsibility of the magazines' publishers and the library just provides space for them. Perhaps an area farther back in the library where children are less likely to be. But, unfortunately the Library Director has already taken the controversy far past that point.

The articles in the magazine do apparently make more people uncomfortable than I thought they did. But just because something makes a large number of people uncomfortable it shouldn't necessarily be prohibited from the library. Some people think Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" is anti-semitic enough that it should make most people very uncomfortable--but if Shakespeare doesn't belong in the library, what does? The illustration by Hokusai leaves nothing to the imagination, of course,---well, actually it shows an imagination more outrageous than 99.9% of the population--how many people could possibly contemplate actually engaging in such a sex act: sex with an octopus? If children saw it would their reaction be too different from many adults' reactions? wouldn't they laugh at the ridiculousness of it or be simply frightened and repelled by it at even the very thought of oral sex?
Still, most of the visitors to the library are adults and many of them might have the sophistication to appreciate first-class imaginative erotic art. Just as they should be able to appreciate the more discreet nudity and sensuality of the Pre-Raphaelite painting (Dante Gabriel Rossetti? Edward Burne-Jones?) on nudetech's posting.
Peace,
Kevin

[Eric6420]

Do you distribute your magazine in other places, such as in pubs or retaurants?

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

I may have left the wrong impression somewhere above. It's not my magazine. I'm just a reader and I've been involved in some of the organizations (Health Care For All, the Green Party) that co-sponsor the lectures or audio-visual presentations that HopeDAnce gives at the community room of our county's central library.
Yes, the magazine is distributed in maybe as many as a hundred locations such as cafes, and similar small businesses. And, of course, the current issue was available in the libraries
until about a week ago.
Peace,
Kevin

[homenudemuse]

Most libraries depend on local and federal money to stay open so thay have to be caredul about conterverity. I work in and know that you buget is at the mercy ao any whim thay .might have have

[Baron Lake]

Conterverity is a threat to each of us.
http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/happy.gif (Please tell us you work in the reference section.)
I would suggest that libraries should be the institutions least concerned with controversy and amoung the most concerned with the defense of liberty.
Fortunatly, most are. Some disappoint.
b.l.

[Lakevalley]

http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/smash.gif
In the 1930's the Nazis also had book-burnings with publications they didn't like..

..and kept minoritys in Ghettos.

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by homenudemuse:
Most libraries depend on local and federal money to stay open so thay have to be caredul about conterverity. I work in and know that you buget is at the mercy ao any whim thay .might have have </div></BLOCKQUOTE> H.N.M., Thanks for your perspective. I hope we can have a library system here which is both "family-oriented" and also both supplies the needs and (whenever that is at all possible to do so) stimulates the interests of any one who wants to use the library.
I think that everyone should agree that sexuality is an undeniable fact of life--there may have been or may be some alcohol-free societies: for example some muslim countries, or prohibiton-era America--but except for religious communities like the Shakers a "sex-less" society is much rarer. Therefore, I think knowledge about and discussion about sexuality is totally appropriate in a Library.
Some people who opposed making the Sexuality issue available in the library asserted that community standards should dictate whether a particular publication belongs in the library.
You mentioned that your library is supported by federal money as well as local money so I think that means the big picture is more complex. And our local community seems to have plenty of outspoken people on both sides of the issue--so the local picture is a complex picture too.
In my own discussion of the issue I have made the observation that large chain bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Borders are also part of our communities. These bookstores which are most often bigger than most peoples' branch libraries have a "Sexuality" section. AT the chain bookstores, people can buy magazines that emphasize sexuality like Maxim and FHM--most probably have Playboy and Penthouse (people might have to ask for them). The July issue of Vanity Fair had an article by Christopher Hitchens on oral sex, "As American as Apple Pie...".--it was also on the shelves of my local library. So these bookstores are a part of our communities and in order to attract the support of more people in the community a library might be expected to be "competitive" with these stores.
But I also agree with you that too much controversy could hurt the library and the community. But hoping the controversy will just blow away (and watching intelligent discussion about sexuality become less likely in the process) is also not good.
I have been reading a little about First amendment law to get a better perspective on the issue. This deals with "protected" and "unprotected" speech. And the issue here is, first of all, whether a person can be punished for saying something or publishing something. In this case the publisher of HopeDAnce is not personally being punished--although his magazine (a magazine which has been approved by our county's libraries for distribution on the "free shelves") was suddenly confiscated and put into recycling in response to some complaints.
But I think the discussion about both Free speech and about appropriate selections for a library can only be an intelligent discussion if people can agree to find some agreement about how they define some of the same words--or at least think about some of the same concepts .
The two most recent landamrk Supreme Court rulings defining obscenity are the Miller decision in the early 70s and the Roth decision in 1959. These are an attempt to distinguish between "hard-core pornography" and discussions of sexuality or literary depictions of sexual activity, as in D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover." These decisions utilized the contrast between material with or without redeeming social value. Though I don't necesarily agree with the idea that these decisions have settled the issue, I still think it is a useful concept.
The basic flaw, I think, with the concept is the expectation that the "average person" is able to see the difference between material that is "obscene" and material that is not. But, in this case, many people who very likely think of themselves as "average" persons are strongly divided on the issue and either don't see a difference or refuse to see a diference.
Peace,
Kevin

[Dick Springer]

There are yahoos in governments everywhere, more in some places than others and they are a persistent problem. But many libraries take strong stands for freedom of expression. For example, many libraries have resisted the clause in the so-called Patriot Act requiring libraries and bookstores to give the FBI information about book withdrawals and purchases and forbidding informing the subject of the request about it. For libraries, controversy goes with the territory. Unfortunately, some libraries duck and cover.

[earthpassenger(Kevin)]

Yes, unfortunately the controversy seems to be the result of a popular local magazine's getting the kind of attention that other materials in the library don't get. However, very much to their credit the people who work in our library system maintain libraries where it is possible to check out or consult many different materials that cardholders would need for reasons that some people might not stop and think of--or might not want to stop and think of. They have books on sexuality and books on sexual techniques--in the section in my local branch there are two copies of Paul Joannides "Guide to Getting It On" (a book more graphic and explicit than the magazine people have objected to). There are books by Henry Miller and Anais Nin which are very explicit. There is William Burrough's semi-autobiographical novel "Naked Lunch" about heroin addiction.
So sometimes the controversy is a matter of hysteria and the rest of us are as much at a loss how best to respond to it as the librarians are.
Peace,
Kevin