"Boobies" - Is It Porn?

Freedom of Speech is a part of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. I learned about the importance of those ten amendments in law school. When the drafters of the Constitution looked back at their document, they discovered that there were some rights which they wished to specifically preserve for the people BECAUSE THEY WERE IMPORTANT! Over the years since the Constitution was ratified by the states, the judicial branch of the our federal government has construed these rights according to the views prevalent for the times – calling the Constitution a “living breathing document” which could adjust to the mores of the day. So, depending on the social heartbeat of the nation, those amendments have been construed in various ways, some strict and some lax. I have always considered myself a strict constructionist - the words mean just what they say, not what the public at the time thinks they should say. So, there are two camps of opinions about how our Constitution should be interpreted. With that little legal lesson on Constitutional Law (as in “Paper Chase”), I wanted to put something out there for all of you writers – a point to ponder.




I was recently reading news articles on the Internet and one caught my attention “I [Heart] Boobies Bracelets Cause Stir in High Schools.” The bracelets are sponsored by the Keep a Breast Foundation which promotes breast cancer awareness. It seems that high schools have banned the bracelets as being too explicit and degrading to women. Now, I understand rules at schools but to ban those bracelets because of what they say is, to me, a violation of Free Speech. Besides, it promotes a good cause.




As writers of the romance genre, “boobies” is a rather innocuous term. Extrapolating this ban, which is supported by a lot of local high schools, what if this were extended to our writing? What if there is a government censor who takes a red pen to our work and tells us that we have to clean up our act? I worry that when people start curbing our rights to say something, whether on paper or orally or on a bracelet, the intrusion will spread. People will begin dictating what we write. Just a thought.

There is a very tenuous balance between the rights of people – my rights vs. your rights. When mine start to intrude on yours where is the line? Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a premier Supreme Court Justice, tried to delineate that line. He said that to yell “Fire!” is all right until…you yell “Fire” in a crowded theatre and cause a riot resulting in injury. In other words, you have the right to say something until it results in harm to someone else. Then you get into the argument, what are the degrees of harm? Do you accept a little harm or must it be to the point that it causes physical harm? Then you get into the quagmire of who does it harm? Where is that line?

I know this is not the usual light blog that I write but I feel strongly about curbing our rights to satisfy a few, less open-minded views. What worries me is the threat to our genre. You might say that won’t happen - you don’t have to buy the books. But that doesn’t matter – it’s the thought that there could be a censor who simply says you can’t write this any more. A local government can take the stand that using words like breast or penis within a love scene is against the local social customs and is therefore banned. (Banned in Boston ring a bell?)

How do you feel about the current state of literature? Are we heading toward a more restrictive atmosphere or do you think it’s just a phase that won’t affect our writing? Or do you even think that restrictions exist? Give me your opinion about the atmosphere of the country toward romance novels.