Marcela Iacub's 'De la pornographie en Amérique' Examines U.S. Sexual Censorship

In her essay 'De la pornographie en Amérique,' jurist Marcela Iacub analyzes how the United States, despite having one of the world's most liberal constitutions protecting free speech, became a highly repressive democracy regarding sexual content. She traces the legal evolution through key Supreme Court decisions: in 1957, 'obscenity' was excluded from protected speech for allegedly arousing 'lascivious interest'; later, the vague notion of 'indecency' further limited expression; and in 1982, 'child pornography' was invented as a category. Iacub argues that this concept extends so far that even a nude or semi-nude image of a minor is deemed pornographic, without depicting any sexual act. She criticizes the logical leap where judges consider the child to be continuously abused by anyone viewing or possessing the images, as if 'the referent is in the signifier.' This conflation of word and thing, image and reality, leads to censorship of writings and fantasies, not just acts. Iacub's work highlights how sexual taboos remain primary targets of prohibition, even in democracies, and warns of a totalitarian logic akin to Orwell's prophecy.