Posted on 10/10/2002 1:02:08 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
To begin with, I should report that I am a regular reader of Maxim magazine's Web site.
And it's not for the articles.
The magazine, which specializes in photos of scantily clad celebrities, touched off a controversy at UNLV's Boyd School of Law recently, when first-year student Clarke Walton was spotted reading it on his laptop computer during a class break. Two fellow students, both women, complained to their professor, Jean Whitney, that they were offended and distracted by the image.
Now, it would be nice if we lived in a world where a law school professor, so confronted, could tell the would-be barristers to get over their discomfort and learn to deal with offensive things, which they very likely may encounter in their careers. It would be nice to live in a world where we need not worry constantly about giving offense, and the implications for our lives and careers if we do. It would be nice to live in a world where a sense of humor -- or at least one of proportion -- was commonplace. It would be nice to live in a world where society isn't ordered upon what will or will not tread upon the delicate sensibilities of the most easily offended.
But that world isn't this.
Professor Whitney called Walton aside. Whitney explained Maxim was his home page and -- believe it or not -- he was actually reading an article, not investigating the Girlfriend of the Day. But, made aware of the mess the incident had caused, Walton agreed to change his home page.
"I'm obligated to make this a comfortable learning environment for all students," Professor Whitney says.
And there it ended, or so it appeared. But Walton soon began hearing other Boyd professors discuss the incident -- no names, of course -- in other classes. So he once more took to his non-celebrity skinned computer and wrote a missive distributed over the law school's electronic bulletin board.
"While viewing this magazine in my L.P. class approximately two weeks ago, two female students looked at my computer screen and were allegedly 'offended' by what they saw. This is unfortunate," Walton wrote. "I contend that this case was not an issue of sexual harassment, but rather an issue of privacy and of free speech. My counter complaint is that my right to privacy was violated when these women looked at my computer screen without my express or implied permission. Furthermore, I contend that by being asked to refrain from viewing this information on my computer screen, my first amendment right to free speech has been violated."
After that, Walton says he was asked to meet with UNLV Assistant Vice President for Diversity Ann Casados-Mueller Wednesday afternoon about the incident. Walton says Casados-Mueller told him Maxim was "soft porn" and that reading it on campus could be considered sexual harassment. The vice president asked him to attend a diversity awareness seminar and write a follow-up e-mail to the bulletin board apologizing for his conduct, or face formal charges. As of Wednesday, Walton said he hadn't decided what to do.
Two things bear repeating: One, humans are nowhere guaranteed the right to live free of offense, and the government is nowhere obligated to purge every offending thing. Two, it's not even about that. The students who took a stray glance at Walton's laptop computer could simply have looked away.
But they complained anyway, and not even to Walton. Why? They wanted to exercise a measure of control over what he was reading, at least so long as he was in their presence. And that's the most insidious thing about the Offense Movement.
Such people don't just want us to stop doing things they don't like. They want to control what we think, too. They want us to live in a world where they approve of everything, where they never encounter an unpleasant moment, and where other people conform to their whims as if we were a collection of Malibu Barbies posed in the world's biggest beach house.
But once more, that world is not this.
At least, not yet.
But it will be if otherwise well-meaning people don't start fighting back. The fact that somebody is offended by the sight of a magazine that couldn't be considered sexually explicit under the most liberal of definitions shouldn't be reason enough to force the reader to switch to Better Homes and Gardens. The fact that someone is offended by hearing a verse or two of profanity shouldn't be reason enough to impose speech codes at the work place. And the fact that someone might die years hence from secondhand smoke or might get into a car crash because they're talking on their cell phone shouldn't be reason enough to ban smoking or cell phones.
But there are plenty of lawyers willing to sue to enforce the code of tender sensibilities, and employers and universities are scared of losing those lawsuits. In the past, you may have wondered where all these members of the plaintiffs' bar who take such cases to court come from.
Now you know.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist.
His column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Reach him at (702) 383-0283 or by e-mail at ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.
You don't already have it bookmarked???
Shame on YOU!!!
NEVER! And I can not stress this enough, NEVER trust a women with a hyphenated name.
This woman's e-mail is acmueller@ccmail.nevada.edu
I REALLY think she needs to be told how foolish she is being. 'Pod
According to Ann, Maxim is now considered offensive, and anyone who has it in their possession can be sued. Does that mean that she is formally setting as policy for the university that ALL examples of porn, soft or otherwise, are no longer permitted on campus? After all, how will a student or professor know what constitutes a violation, without her strong guidance in the form of a written policy?
Well, then Playboy is now gone from the campus library. But wait! What about beer advertizing? How about car advertizing? Will cable TV be permitted on campus? This is Vegas, after all, and who knows what debauchery might exist beyond the campus boundaries that might *offend* someone.
College campuses without porn. Whatta concept. The only slippery slope I see here is on her pointy head.
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