Mississippi Burning My Prurient Interests

For all you perverts out there that get off on fake pictures of elderly nude people, don't try to get your jollies at the Jackson-George Regional Library System in Mississippi's Jackson and George counties anymore. These libraries, in their infinite wisdom, have banned the extremely prurient "America" by John Stewart in an attempt to keep chaste their library shelves (Story). Their complaint? The book is obscene because it features the faces of the nine Supreme Court justices superimposed over naked bodies.

Library director Robert Willits explains the ban like this: "We're not an adult bookstore. Our entire collection is open to the entire public," Willits said. "If they had published the book without that one picture, that one page, we'd have the book."

Now, adult bookstores stock some nasty stuff -- every arguably legal fetish is catered to (I've heard) -- but certainly no adult bookstore maintains an "elderly nude person standing there" section (at least none that I would frequent). Generally, obscenity is intended to arouse the viewer, not make them engage in projectile vomiting (on a side note, this book could be a key weapon in the Right Wing's pro-abstinence crusade if made required reading for high-schoolers).

Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart said it best: I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be [obscene] . . . [b]ut I know it when I see it (See Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964)).

Like Potter, I too am well-versed in identifying obscene material. In my professional opinion, the nudes in "America" are disturbing, disgusting, and hilarious, but they are certainly not obscene. Mr. Willits, please refrain from referring to them as such -- you're ruining true obscenity for me.