Chapter 9

North Robert High School

10:12 A.M. Wednesday, December 5, 2063

"Even the words have a history," I began. "Erotica, of course, is related to erotic, which itself comes from the Greek God Eros, son of Aphrodite, Greek Goddess of love, beauty, and sex. He was known to shoot arrows which made anybody struck by them fall madly in love. If this sounds familiar, it is because another name for Eros is Cupid. Yep, the little baby angel with the bow and arrows." I held up a pic of a traditional Valentine cupid, and left the girls to wonder how this pagan Greek God became identified with a holiday named after a Christian saint.

"Also in ancient Greece," I continued, putting the cupid down, "there were a number of different types and social classes of prostitutes. We will be studying prostitution in more detail in January, but for now suffice it to say that ancient Greece had several types. One of these was called porne, and in addition to having sex for money, they wrote sexy poetry. Now, poetry written by porne would be 'porne graphy, ' or 'pornegraphy.' This came into English as the word 'pornography.' Today, of course, the word is used to refer not to poetry but to pics and video. I should also add that porne were fairly well respected in old Greece, though they weren't the highest class of prostitute."

I could see that the idea of well-respected hooker-poets seemed strange to most of the girls, but that they also seemed interested in the idea. The lessons I would be teaching on this subject in January would be well received.

Time to move to the third word. "The word 'obscene' appears to have Latin roots, rather than Greek. Actually, the history of this word is rather vague, but the original meaning was probably 'filthy, ' or something like that. In currant legal terms, obscenity refers to material so far beyond the pale that it no longer has the protections of the First Amendment."

They were all listening, but they also looked a bit bored. Well, this information was in their textbooks, so it wasn't like I was giving them any Grand Revelations. Besides, legal terms with Latin roots just didn't have the appeal of Greek Gods shooting arrows or high-class prostitutes reading sexy poems to Aristotle. Still, it was part of the lesson.

I added, "Many consider the infamous 'S.L.A.P.S. test" an embarrassing artifact of the 20^th Century." This got me some puzzled looks, so now I knew who hadn't studied last night.

"And what, you may ask, is a S.L.A.P.S. test?" A glance showed that at least half had no idea. "Each letter stands for something, and this slappy acronym is one of the three tests to determine obscenity. The three tests are still legally valid today, including S.L.A.P.S., it's just that the tests are hardly ever used anymore. They were, all three of them, quite popular with federal and state governments two decades or more into the 21^st Century."

They were paying attention now, but mostly because they wondered just what the Hell I was talking about.

"The three tests are, first, that obscene material must 'appeal to prurient interest.' Basically, this means that it gives some erotiphobic government busybody a hard-on."

A few laughs, but my definition was pretty accurate.

"The second test is that, in order to be obscene, the material must be in violation of community standards. Of course, what is in violation of community standards differs from community to community. Also, if the material is popular in a community, it is sort of hard to make a showing that it is somehow against the standards of a community that is buying it up like hotcakes. Not that prosecutors haven't tried."

A few chuckles, and a few snarls. Government boogiemen were as attention-holding as divine archers.

"Now, even if something fails the second test, community standards, it is not obscene if it does not appeal to prurient interest. That is why racist, sexist, and other bad -ist material is not obscene. And, of course..."

"Hold up! Hold up, Coach!"

I gave Violette Ross a look that seemed (I hoped) to say, "Pardon me, young lady."

Violette blushed, but continued on. "Sorry to interrupt, Coach, but I need some clarification on this. So, if I wanted to, say, hold a rally and declare that Hitler was a wonderful guy, and he was right about Aryan supremacy, and America would be better if we got rid of anybody who wasn't an Aryan, whatever that means, that would be protected, but if I then flashed my pussy at the crowd, that I could then be arrested?"

"Don't try it in my neighborhood," Saffron Pakeim snorted.

"Violette has asked a great question," I said, "with a great hypothetical. Now, Saffron, I take it that the sort of rally and speech Miss Ross speaks of would fail the community standards test in your neighborhood, even minus the pussy flashing?"