But the children, who will protect the children?!

[mandragora]

Prompted by the emergence of fandom_scruples.

*Absolutely* we should protect the children from anything that might sully their darling little eyes. And ears.

I mean, look at me. All those Greek myths from the age of 5 onwards. Graduating to *gasp* Georgette Heyer at around age 10 or 11. And let's not mention when I was 13 and was the purveyor of smut in school. All those Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins I had stashed away in my school bag. (And if I'd known then about slash you can be damn sure I'd have had a stash of slash ready to hand out like smarties, too).

So, take my experience as a horrible learning lesson, oh children. Because, yes, it could happen to you too. After reading copious amounts of smut whilst underage you too could grow up to become... a lawyer!

The horror, the horror...

Comments

Re:

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed that I could have forgotten 'Scruples' and 'Lace'. Hmm, actually, I'm not. Except for the sex scenes (and memories of the goldfish come flooding back) they were pretty forgettable.

And yes, I concur with the "case law". Generations of law students still snigger over those, I suspect. But then reality will outdo fantasy pretty much all of the time. In a non-sexual context I still remember reading with utter horror what criminal negligence entails (I'm thinking particularly of the bedridden woman who was meant to be cared for by her mentally subnormal relatives and what condition her corpse was found in).

I doubt very much that most fanfiction writers would use such details in even the most extreme 'out there' story because they're real and not at all sexy. Nauseating, rather.

Reading case law does tend to harden one. I suspect that I'm pretty nearly impossible to shock (although definitely not squick) and that I'm not alone. I still cherish fond memories of being one of a group of the lawyers at the City law firm I was with at the time who were asked to view some porn tapes that a German company wanted to sell in the UK for obscenity. Needless to say none of us felt 'depraved and corrupted', but then we wouldn't, would we...

Mind you, as you probably know, it's next to impossible now to obtain an obscenity conviction in London (and any other British city, I suspect) because the jury might not like what they see but they're not going to feel as if they've been corrupted as a result. Nowadays the police only attempt to bring proceedings of cases involving bestiality, 'unacceptable' violence (that goes beyond what is clearly fantasy material) and pornography involving minors. Anything else they won't even bother with.

[ex-ajhalluk585.livejournal.com]

(I'm thinking particularly of the bedridden woman who was meant to be cared for by her mentally subnormal relatives and what condition her corpse was found in).

The maggots writhing in her thighs? Yes. Whoever fandom_scruples is, she, he or it has a lot to learn.

But actually, he she or it is, has no concept - no concept whatsoever -