Most of my readers here will probably not understand the term lolicon or what is going on with it. In brief lolicon is a genre of comics in which underage individuals are depicted in sexual situations. The Supreme Court has ruled several times that it is legal and protected free speech. Currently a comic book collector is being prosecuted on obscenity charges for his collection of lolicon. Note that he is not being prosecuted for child porn as the prosecutor knows this will not work, so instead the charge him with obscenity, since that statue is real vague and up to the judge and jury to determine.
The problem with leaving it up to a judge and jury is that they really can not be impartial. Their own ideas and beliefs will be involved. And whether you agree with this particular form of speech (I personally am repulsed it) you must still defend it. What would happen if a community decided the temple sacrifices where obscene and therefore owning a bible or prayer book was illegal?
Anyways, I read a really good article by Neil Gaiman about this issue in particular, but that really lays out the importance of fighting for free speech, even when we do not agree with that speech.
Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you’re going to have to stand up for stuff you don’t believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don’t, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person’s obscenity is another person’s art.
Because if you don’t stand up for the stuff you don’t like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you’ve already lost.
It is a very long article, but definitely worth reading. Why defend freedom of icky speech?
tagged under: freedom of speech.lolicon
