By Jamie Kanter
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 9, 1998

Excuse me, do you sell kiddie porn?

Someone once said that the South would rise again. Who knew it would rise because of child pornography (no pun intended)?

In November, the state of Tennessee indicted the nation's largest bookseller, Barnes & Noble, on charges that it willingly sold child pornography on its shelves. In February, the state of Alabama followed suit and indicted the chain on child pornography charges.

It seems that Barnes & Noble sold potentially offensive photography books such as The Age of Innocence by David Hamilton and Radiant Identities by Jock Sturges. Both books contain nude pictures of youngsters, pictures which the states claim to be "obscene material containing visual reproduction of persons under 17 years of age involved in obscene acts."

I, for one, am glad that these states have enlightened us with their sharp wit and quick reasoning. Otherwise, these perverse offenses might have been allowed to continue. And we all know that would have led to anarchy, hedonism and the destruction of all that is right with the world. Whew! Disaster averted once again. Thank you, right wing.

And thank you, Jerry Kirk, for leading us during this moral crisis. Kirk, president of the National Coalition of Children and Families, has stood up for moral rectitude during a trying time and he tells us what really happens when this so-called art is allowed to be distributed.

"Material like this is used by child molesters to entice, teach and blackmail children into sexual activity with themselves and other children," claims Kirk.

I'm glad to know that Kirk doesn't listen to those scientists who say that you need so-called "evidence" to back up crackpot theories. I am heartened to know that I live in a world where anyone can wildly claim any causal relationship and not have to back it up. God bless America.

At this point, I have to make an apology to the reader. I lost my head there for a minute. Here I was jabbering on about propriety and rectitude when I realized that I am actually not a mindless, clueless, gutless, Bible-thumping tyrant out to set the world right with my religious indoctrination. I don't really agree with anything they have to say. I don't see them as anything more than automatons hopping on board with idiotic blowhards.

There is no reason to protest art simply because it shows nudity. Nor is there any reason to invade Barnes & Noble stores to tear up the books in question, a plan hatched by Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry. Perhaps Terry is attempting to resurrect the good ol' days of witch hunts and book-burnings.

Whatever his scheme, Terry is obviously standing on shaky ground. To be legally defined as child pornography, Terry would have to prove that the images are "lascivious," that they stimulate sexual feelings in the viewer. Perhaps Mr. Terry has difficulty controlling his sexual urges around nude images of children, but I'm fairly confident that most of us would not find these pictures "lascivious."

Jock Sturges, one of the photographers whose book created this controversy, made it clear that those who find these images offensive do not understand the implications of their claims.

To find the images obscene, "you'd have to find Homo Sapiens between one and 17 obscene, and I find that obscene," said Sturges.

And he's right. Images of nude children pervade our lives and we do not see them as obscene. Every diaper or baby-wipe commercial invariably shows the naked butt of an infant being stroked by the caring hand of its mother. We don't look at nude infants or toddlers as pornography, but we see nude adolescents as pornography. Where do we draw the line? In Tennessee, the site of the original indictment, the legal age for sexual consent is 13 years old. Would an image of a 14-year-old still be kiddie-porn? What we all have to realize here is that not all nudity is pornography. Pornography is interpreted, not created. If we see the images as sexual, then perhaps they are sexual, no matter how seemingly innocuous. We cannot keep books off the shelves, however, simply because some misguided soul might see art as pornography. If one doesn't want to see the images, he doesn't have to look.

He can always read the articles.

Jamie Kanter is a senior majoring in Spanish and psychology. His column, "On the Flip Side," appears every other Thursday.