Here's the long and the short of it. Sherri Williams, a businesswoman, was charged for selling "adult entertainment devices" in violation of Alabama law.
You know...dildos.
Ms. Williams won her case, but the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals kept sending the case back for new trials. See, the Court figures that although the Alabama legislature's reasons for banning sex toys is a stupid reason, they don't need a SMART reason to do so. ANY old cockamamie reason will do.
Mark Kernes' analysis is much better and more thorough than any I could provide. It's worth reading the whole thing.
Sheesh. What do they say in Mississippi? "At least we're not Alabama." If you're a Seymore Butts fan, you're probably aware that Alabama's where that fisting video got sent which started all his legal troubles.
One part I liked..
News Analysis: Does Williams Case Call For The Return Of Sexual Hysteria?
By: Mark Kernes
Posted: 10:00 am PST 2-23-2007
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines "female hysteria" as "a popular diagnosis in the Victorian era for a wide array of symptoms including faintness, nervousness, insomnia, fluid retention, heaviness in abdomen, muscle spasm, shortness of breath, irritability, loss of appetite for food or sex, and a 'tendency to cause trouble.'"
"Patients diagnosed with female hysteria," the entry continues, "would undergo 'pelvic massage' — manual stimulation of the woman's genitals by the doctor to 'hysterical paroxysm', which is now recognized as orgasm." Wikipedia also calls it an "incorrect diagnosis," but if the ruling in the Williams case remains unchallenged, physicians in the Eleventh Circuit may find that they have to resurrect the "condition" in order to keep their patients out of jail.
In its latest Williams opinion, the Eleventh Circuit notes that Alabama's obscenity statute exempts sales of sexual devices "for a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial, or law enforcement purpose." Is what's called for, then, some form of guerilla theater, where hundreds of free-thinkers, feminists, porn stars and strippers display "faintness, nervousness ... muscle spasms, shortness of breath, irritability ... and a 'tendency to cause trouble'" in public places across the state, and have friendly medical practitioners prescribe dildos and vibrators to relieve their "female hysteria"?
Ahem.
Honest, Judge! I have a prescription!!
Please let all those weirdo's go and read this book: The anatomist by Federico Andahazi. Although it's probably too many pages.
ReplyDeleteAnd three hurrahs for any battery operated toys!