Page 8 HIGH GEAR JUNE 1981

HIGH GEAR commentary on the John Zeh case

Pornography, obscenity, and protecting the young

By R. Woodward

Gay radio announcer John Zeh has been indicted for reading over the air an edited version of an article entitled "The FirstHand Guide to Greasy Fingers," a piece printed last year in a publication from New York called FirstHand Magazine.

The article is (or at least tries to

be) humorous.

Humor, even the most vulgar humor, is seldom pornographic-for the simple reason that pornography is usually intended to be taken dead seriously.

Pornography is material devised for the specific purpose of sexually arousing the reader or viewer of it. The word "pornography" comes from the word

porne, the Greek word for prostitute, and from the word graphe, the Greek word for writing. Its original literal meaning is "writing that is about prostitutes."

The word "pornography" was regularly used to refer to those writings about prostitutes with little_other obvious purpose besides arousing the reader, and its meaning broadened to include all depictions of sexual matters devised for no other obvious purposes besides causing sexual arousal.

Pornography is usually used as an aid to masturbation. Pornographers are well aware of this fact, and they are also well aware

that sexual arousal is a form of ards of justice. They are defined taking sex seriously. as being "obscene" according to how offensive some people happen to find them in a particular place at a particular time.

Pornographers usually avoid using humor because laughing at something usually produces a sense of superiority to it and a sense of detachment from it.

Obscenity

Referring to how some people claim to be acting from patriotic motives, the English critic Samuel Johnson made the famous statement that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

If Johnson were alive today

and living in Cincinnati, he might be tempted to remark that obscenity is the last refuge of a jumpy prosecutor.

"Obscenity" is a vagus word which tends to mean whatever any squeamish individual wants it to mean.

Here are the definitions of "obscene" from Webster's New World Dictionary of the English Language, Second College Edition: "1) offensive to one's feelings, or to prevailing notions of modesty or decency; lewd 2) disgusting; repulsive."

If you were passing through Iran right now, you would be

guilty of a gross obscenity if you

offered the Ayatollah Khomeini a ham sandwich. (Moslems are very strictly forbidden to eat pork or to touch swine). "Protecting the young"

Also being used by the prosecutor in the Zeh case is our old friend "Protecting the Morals of the Young."

In case you have been out of the country for several years, "protecting the young" is now a popular euphemism for forcing your inhibitions on all of the

young people you can get control of, a popular euphemism for forcing your children to be as squeamish as you are when confronted by everyday facts of life.

People who "protect" their children are all too often like parents with ulcers who insist that each of their children must also have one before reaching adulthood.

The serious doubts which many people have about whether it is Constitutionally appropriate to ban any written or photographic material for being "obscene" are mostly based on the fact that things are not defined as being obscene according to any absolute, unambiguous stand-ren

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purpose of breaking their legs. Violating the spirit and letter of the United States Constitution to

make scapegoats of members of sexual minorities is the last refuge of a sexual cripple.

Zeh's mistake

Don't feed the animals

the United States Constitution and the American legal system does The fact that those who are giving John Zeh a hard time are abusing

not absolve Zeh of all responsibility for what is happening to him. In dealing with what is happening to Zeh, members of the gay media across the United States are like park rangers in Yellowstone National Park who are obliged to give first aid to someone who has tried to be funny by getting out of his car to pet one of the bears.

They are like officials of some tropical game reserve trying to save someone who did not distinguish between dangling a piece of yarn in front of a kitten and waving one of his limbs in front of the jaws of a lion.

Not intending any harm is not enough to make you safe when you are surrounded by wild beasts.

When a person resides away from civilization in a place like Cincinnati, that person's survival depends upon keeping an eye on the behavior and movements of the local wildlife.

Any legal right you may have to casually stroll around in a jungle is unlikely to be carefully considered by any wounded leopards or charging rhinos.

It is a sad fact of life, especially in Cincinnati, that what one has a right to and what one can reasonably expect are often two very different things.

Being deplorable in their excessiveness does not mean that local reactions to Zeh's broadcast were unpredictable. The petty, unscrupulous, and irresponsible reactions of the local authorities show them acting like they have always acted--like dangerous animals.

Being agreed with by millions of people across the United States about how all American citizens and how all human beings ought to be treated does not mean that you should ignore actual living conditions in your own neighborhood.

Most people would agree that no human being should be devoured alive by vermin, and would further agree that the very thought of such a thing is repulsive and horrifying. Such agreement, however, will not keep you from being painfully bitten and gnawed if you try to rely on the good graces of ravenous local rats looking for an opportunity to tear from your skeleton every bit of your living flesh.

The treatment that John Zeh is now getting from various inhabitants of Cincinnati is an example of how polite dinner table etiquette is seldom shown by undomesticated carnivores. -R. Woodward

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