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66
The Limits of Free Speech, Pornography and the
Law
STEVEN BALMER, JR.
Pornography is the attempt to insult sex, to do dirt on it.
- D.H. Lawrence, Pornography and Obscenity (1929)
1. Introduction
Derived from the ancient Greek porn and graphos, pornography literally
translates as writing about whores,
1
although in a modern context the word
has taken on new meaning encompassing a class of publications that, as
understood, are not gender specific, or exclusive to prostitutes. Defining
pornography in a legal sense is oddly problematic: authors of Blacks Law
Dictionary exemplify this when they collapse the terms pornography and
obscenity into their definition of the pornographic: that which is of or
pertaining to obscene literature; obscene; licentious.
2
Obscenity, however, is
not protected speech. Pornography by contrast is, or at least can be. The
current laws on obscenity and indecency,
3
and in addition, the findings of
the Williams report,
4
concern themselves more with offensiveness rather
than the actual physical and social harms of pornography.
5
They tackle the
affront to public aesthetic posed by pornographic materials and as such