Community Standards

In 1884 a painted shoulder strap ended a career. The rule that did it is still running, and you have read it — it is the document you agreed to.

A course on the thought of Obscenity.

Course outline

1. The Strap — A room full of unremarked nudes, and the covered woman who detonated it. What the 1884 Paris Salon was actually objecting to, and the two things that were removed from the painting afterwards.
2. Deprave and Corrupt — The founding sentence of obscenity law, read closely. What it defines the offence by, what it conspicuously does not mention, and why that makes it a rule about postage rather than about pictures.
3. The Community — The modern obscenity test, and the load-bearing word inside it. Why the Supreme Court deliberately refused a single national standard, and what that refusal assumed about the world.
4. The Word Survived — Where obscenity regulation actually happens now, what it kept from Miller, and what it inverted — including the change in what kind of thing a standard is.
5. What Was Removed — The best available theory of why the taboo dissolved, the argument against it, and what the surviving obscenity attaches to. Plus the answer to what was taken out of a painting in 1884.

Part of the Symposium course library.