Banning

So, while I was researching the obscenity trials for my work sample, I was very surprised at how easy it is to get something banned. A work has to satisfy a set of criteria called (interestingly enough) the Miller test, i.e.:

• Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
• Whether the work depicts/describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions^[2] specifically defined by applicable state law,
• Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. (This is also known as the (S)LAPS test- [Serious] Literary, Artistic, Political, Scientific).

I was frankly shocked at this definition of obscenity, especially because I wasn't really aware that we could still ban things in the United States. It seems a terrible infringement on our First Amendment rights.

And it's still occuring. "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" has just gotten banned in some theaters in Utah.