(7) “Americans were so generally embarrassed by
sex in the early part of this century that sex statutes still standing
in some of our states do not even define the behavior or activity
they prohibit The legislators were seemingly able to spell out fornication
and/or adultery with only an occasional blush,
but when they moved into the slightly more exotic areas of fellatio,
cunnilingus and pederasty, it appears that some of them
broke into a cold sweat and were just too intimidated
by the entire subject to explain what offenses the laws were intended
to cover. Thus, in place of the specific, the state statutes prohibit vile
and contemptible crimes.”
(8) “The Kronhausens state
a bit further on in the chapter: "Every day, the newspapers
carry some release from pro- censorship quarters, blithely
linking obscene literature with the perpetration
of the most ghastly crimes, making everything erotically
provocative responsible for every social evil from
juvenile delinquency and the disintegration of the American family
to the increasing rate of mental breakdown and communism....
Let us, however, not fall into the same trap. The basis
of one's attitude toward effects lies in one's attitude towards
sexuality. If sex in and by itself is considered shameful,
undesirable, dangerous, unethical or damaging to the individual and to society,
then the effect of obscene as well as of erotically realistic books
and art is definitely to be viewed with the utmost suspicion and alarm, along
with, presumably, all other sexual stimulants of any kind.
But from a mental health point
of view, it is established that such
negative sex attitudes are not only regrettable
but can indeed be dangerous.
As previously stated, all the clinical evidence indicates
that
guilt-based sexual inhibitions, restrictions and repressions
result in perversions of the sexual impulse, general intellectual
dulling, sadomasochistic inclinations, unreasonable (paranoid) suspiciousness
and a long list of neurotic and psychotic defense reactions
with unmistakable sexual content or overtones."
Continue—Playboy
