(Father Ted's diagram of reality vs. dreams)But it struck me the other day after reading one story how very peculiar our form of erotica must be to the outside world. There was nothing about this story that was particularly extraordinary, though it certainly set off my spanko imagination. In it two girls are naughty and get spanked by their parents. The ages of the girls -- 9 and 4 -- are probably younger than the average spanking story, but certainly not unusual. The primary sex acts, if you will -- spanking and an enema -- were done to young (fictional) children.
When I look at it from that perspective, I feel like some sort of really sick fuck.
And, in fact, that is what a prosecutor from Pennsylvania thought about Karen Fletcher of Donora, Pennsylvania, who owned and operated the site, Red Rose Stories, which included fiction about rape and violence against children (hat tip to Zprymantis). Ms. Fletcher plead guilty (who was this woman's lawyer?!) to obscenity charges and is now serving a year of probation including six months of house arrest, confiscation of her computer, and a $1000 fine.
Is Debbie Ann Wertheim, the creator of Debporn, next?
While none of the stories I write include the rape of children, they do contain violence in the form of spanking. And don't even get me started on my incest fantasies. Is there all that much difference between me and Ms. Fletcher?
Fiction about children being spanked and abused can be so powerful, so erotic because so many of us began to fantasize about being spanked and abused when we were children. Sure, we didn't know what sex was -- just that it was a naughty word that made our parents turn the TV channel. But that doesn't mean we lacked sexuality. And as we grew up, our sexuality remained firmly rooted in and expressed itself though childhood.
However we never misunderstood the difference between our dreams and reality. Between real children and fictional ones.
Childhood and narrative have always been and mostly likely will remain at the core of my sex life. While every now and then my fantasies may wander to that of a Victorian prostitute or a demanding sex goddess, they always wander back to being a little girl. Even some of my topping fantasies include me as a child.
And yes, mixing children and sex is uncomfortable. But here in the real world, where the knowledge that our children are sexual beings can make our interaction with them messier, when we'd rather remain faithful to traditional taboos and constructions of sexless parents and chaste children, perhaps the best way we can help our own real and vulnerable children as they sort through their own sexuality is to help them understand the difference between fantasy and reality too.
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That case was frightening. I'm sure they had this woman so worried about the case being drawn out and her name being plastered all over that she decided to "roll over" for them just to get it over with. Fiction being prosecuted is, as far as I'm concerned, the creation of though-crimes. The danger isn't so much from the individual prosecuter "going after" someone - it's the legal precedent that gets set. Now the next prosecution can claim this case as proof that they are correct in their attack. Granted, my stories generally don't involve children, but if some Fundy nutjob comes after MY work he won't find Mr. Shiny rolling over.
Natty, I believe that things of the imagination should be left there.
Quietly the shadow government is trying to turn us into mindless sheep.
We need to fight this wherever we live.
Warm hugs,
Paul.
Mr Shiny -- If I remember correctly, someone on the newsgroup mentioned that Ms. Fletcher was agoraphobic or something like that and just couldn't risk going to prison (though if that's the case, the house arrest part probably isn't so bad then). While if I were in her shoes, I would want to fight and fight hard, given my own debilitating illness, risking prison time with a hysterical jury could well be more than I could risk (though I'd plead "no contest" before guilty). I think that's what pisses me off even more about this case is that they went after someone so vulnerable.
The local paper had an editorial that called the prosecution the "real obscenity." Though given the fact that the Supreme Court has stated that even CGIs of child porn are technically okay as they're not real children, it seems that there's not much room for this case to go further than being the frightening aberration that it is.
Paul -- Yeah I put that scene from Father Ted there because I think some people -- the prosecutor in this case -- forget that there's a difference between reality and what's in our heads. That diagram is so good at illustrating it -- and it makes me laugh my ass off.
At least here in the US we have a written Constitution and Bill of Rights. But there in the UK I do worry about what feels like a very sinister effort to control every aspect of behavior, from how people fill their trash bins to what kind of sexual images they can look at. No question about it; we have to fight it as much as we can.
I really like the way you took this post beyond the absurdity of the Fletcher case to pose tougher questions about how to deal with the fact that sexual drives start long before the legal age of adulthood. If folks in the larger community aren't ready to help kids understand the difference between fantasy and reality, then maybe we could make a start by teaching adults the difference.
I'm glad you picked up on that. This post really started as a meditation on how odd our erotica must seem to the wider world. There is no sex in it. And the only sex act, if you will, is often committed against children. But what might seem like something utterly repugnant really is an example of how messy sex is. And as it slowly dawns on us as society that it IS messy, the reaction, unfortunately, is often to become completely hysterical rather than to simply look at things as they really are.
I really like this post, for much the same reason as Indiana. You are right indeed that sex is messy, and the boundaries are fuzzy and unclear. Children often do have a sexuality, and it's so rare to find a healthy attitude towards that. It's one of the reasons I loved the end of the Northern Lights series so much - Will and Lyra may be pubescent, but they still have a sexual relationship which is tentative and young and joyful and completely normal. It's very rare than an author will have the courage to write that of 12 year old characters, but it rings true with my own experience.
How to teach children the difference between fantasy and reality? That's a tougher one, but it applies to the whole of life and childhood, to every story and daydream, not just sex. And I think one of the most important things in teaching children that distinction is to teach them that fantasy - again, not just the sexual kind - is normal and healthy. I think kids who are taught to only be interested on this reality are missing something, and that can screw them up in later life. Fantasy and reality are different and you have to know the difference, but they're also both essential, and I think our culture sometimes forgets that.
@natty: The British government has to abide by something called the "European Convention on Human Rights" (despite what some British conservatives would like to think). I do not know, though, what the European Court of Human Rights thinks about obscenity and freedom of speech.
As for Ms Fletcher, she may in fact have had a smart attorney. By accepting a lenient sentence not involving prison, she ensured she would not have to go to prison. Think of what could have occurred had she asked for a trial.
First, I'm unsure about what the prosecution can ask for regarding imprisonment prior to trial, but in the current climate, it's highly possible that obscenity laws regarding children sex allow jailing suspects. These laws may have intended for men looking at photographs of children being raped, but this does not prevent them from being used against a disabled lady.
Second, my impression about US jury trials is that their outcome is highly dependent of whether the judge and jury perceive the suspect and the victim as "one of them". I mean that they will feel less severe if the defendant appears to be someone "normal" just like them (and not somebody they perceive as a member of a fearful class of society).
Do you think that your average white middle-class Christian jury will consider as "one of them" a disabled lady, apparently also with psychological problems, that writes about raping children? Hell no. I bet they will be far more lenient is the defendent is, say, a speeding motorist - because most people have speeded or have relatives who do so.
Do you think the jury would like to defend freedom of speech on the Internet? For a number of years, they have been told that the Net is a haven for child molesters. The prosecution will easily argue that fantasy story sites help molesters rehearse their acts, or that they may push them over the edge. Remember that people have argued that video games push teenagers to kill people. The jury will probably think it is in the public interest to have such sites closed, and may think that sentencing somebody is a good way to make an example.
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