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St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

545

Document Type

Article

Abstract

If it is true, as Aristotle suggested, that man is by nature a political animal, the current state of American society demonstrates, to any who might doubt the proposition, that man is equally, if not more so, a sexual one. With successive blessings by the Supreme Court, and so, with legal and social impunity, the companion American realms of commerce and entertainment are now thoroughly suffused with images of an openly sexual nature and purpose. These images, generated with conscious calculation and without discrimination as to the age or interest of potential recipients, are employed primarily for pecuniary purpose-that is, to engage prospective patrons and to sustain existing ones. With the invention of the Internet and the universal presence of the personal computer, electronic "links" that provide free and immediate access to such images, now reach daily, nay, hourly, into virtually every home and office of these, the former United Colonies, now known as the United States. The year 2003 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's holding in Miller v. California, the judicial decision that solidified the rule of law confirming the legal status of "obscenity" in American society. However, considering the profoundly adverse, indeed, radically transformative consequences of the decision for the United States, it would seem to be an anniversary better suited for national mourning rather than, as it must be for some, a cause for private celebration. For the Miller opinion, unsuccessfully challenged and unscathed these past thirty years, holds the regrettable distinction of having unwittingly paved the way for the successful establishment of prostitution, mediated through still and motion picture cameras, as a thoroughly conventional, and now, pervasive cameras, as a thoroughly conventional, and now, pervasive institution in American society.

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