Degradation : what the history of obscenity tells us about hate speech / Kevin Saunders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Saunders.

Contributor:

Kevin W..

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hate speech--United States.

Hate speech.

Obscenity (Law).

Pornography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (252 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : New York University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Throughout history obscenity has not really been about sex but about degradation. Sexual depictions have been suppressed when they were seen as lowering the status of humans, furthering our distance from the gods or God and moving us toward the animals. In the current era, when we recognize ourselves and both humans and animals, sexual depiction has lost some of its sting. Its degrading role has been replaced by hate speech that distances groups, whether based on race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, not only from God but from humanity to a subhuman level. In this original study of the relationship between obscenity and hate speech, First Amendment specialist Kevin W. Saunders traces the legal trajectory of degradation as it moved from sexual depiction to hateful speech. Looking closely at hate speech in several arenas, including racist, homophobic, and sexist speech in the workplace, classroom, and other real-life scenarios, Saunders posits that if hate speech is today’s conceptual equivalent of obscenity, then the body of law that dictated obscenity might shed some much-needed light on what may or may not qualify as punishable hate speech.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. Pornography, Life, and the Gods in the Greek and Roman Eras

3. The Arrival of Christianity

4. The Modern Era

5. A Look at Other Cultures

6. What about Hate Speech?

7. Using Obscenity Doctrine to Address Hate Speech

8. Applications

9. Variable Obscenity, Children, and Hate

10. Conclusion

Notes

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9780814708750

0814708757

9780814741450

0814741452

OCLC:

779828049