Letters to the Editor
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To AKA Smith
It doesn't sound like anonymous on December 19, 2007 10:53 AM has a daughter either. Most of us that mentioned our concerned with Ali Michael's emaciated form have daughters, and are concerned that the emaciated beauty form that advertising pushes, might set an example to our daughters that would lead to anorexia or bulimia. A lot of my close female friend from high school gave up on their ambitions to be a model, because they found themselves reducing their meal contents by half or limiting themselves to one meal a day. A lot of people that are harmed by the pursuit of unattainable perfection aren't models at all, but regular girls aspiring to achieve the ridiculous and impossible beauty standards set by advertising and commercialism.
As I watch porn/erotic I have noticed that most of the women in those movies actually have a lot of cushion (an emaciated looking woman having sex, looks like she is getting tortured, and not in the fun BDSM way; spanking fat as opposed to spanking bone).
Models in advertising, I believe, pose a much greater health risk with the image they produce, than porn stars do with the image they produce.
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To fetboy
You raise good points. I remember worrying several times about whether or not my daughter might tip over into anorexia. Once she visited me weighing 110 pounds (5'7") and I worried that she had gotten too thin. Her complexion did not look healthy. She responded to me that models were much thinner and I worried that models seemed to be an ideal for her. (Actually, she has done some minor modeling but her legs are too short to be competitive.) I have known several anorexic and bulimic women. I think the causes are complicated, but one thing I did notice is that few of them had an ongoing affectionate relationship with their fathers and many saw their mothers as not being supportive and protective. In fact, I noticed some seemed to have mothers who were competitive with them -- a whole other problem.
You quite correctly point out that one does not have to be a model or aspire to be a model to be influenced by the fashion/thinness obsession. I have noticed many times in threads about weight someone (not me!) has pointed out that being a bit overweight is actually scientifically healthier. These posts are always ignored. Our current youth culture is obsessed with thinness. It is just not girls. I remember my daughter thinking Marilyn Manson looking great when I thought he looked emaciated. True, some people are naturally thin, but I cannot imagine why people want to make themselves miserable over image but they do. To me, fashion should be fun and one's image is only a way of emphasizing one's personality.
I have see little porn, but what I have seen did feature women more zaftig than fashion models. (However, other health problems could attend that profession.) I really think most men don't prefer women as thin as women sometimes think they should be. In fact, there have been studies that have indicated this.
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To AKA Smith
Constitutionally, an explicit graphic image can fall into one of three categories:
1. Adult and not obscene = constitutionally protected
2. Adult and obscene = not protected
3. Child = not protected if it satisfies the definition
From a prosecutor's perspective, deciding whether an image can be prosecuted as child pornography requires very little judgment. Where it gets tricky is if the person depicted is not clearly a child, and that occurs a lot in the case of adolescents. If it's a production case, then it's somewhat easier because the investigative subject at least had the opportunity to meet the child/youth. Not so if it's a possession case, and that's why most prosecutors shy away from them.
The issues of community standards you raise is irrelevant in the area of child pornography, because it's a component of assessing obscenity under the test of Miller v. California. Even under federal law, in theory what may be obscene in Waco might be just fine in Las Vegas, and vice versa. Given the national nature of the market for pornography-- particularly over the Internet-- this is one of the biggest complaints about the definition of obscenity, although the complaint hasn't gained any traction in the Supreme Court.
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To bvernia
Thank you so much for that correction. I really appreciate it. I sort of thought I might be getting my obscenity and pornography mixed up. ;)