I am greatly disappointed with ICv2 who have missed the point about this issue, namely normalizing behavior that most parents find objectionable.  Further,ICv2 is promoting the fiction that kids are not allowed to say or see certain things but, as if by magic, those prohibitions disappear after a certain age. Not to mention the idea that 'average' behavior for teenage boys has degressed to: "The trio engage in vulgar but realistic teenage banter and vandalize the jock’s car with an anatomically correct giraffe."  Anatomically correct?  I doubt most slacker teenagers would understand the term.  And to add illogic to further illogic, the word censorship is brought up in the Pavlov's dog sense.  Any parent has a right to complain to a school board about material they find objectionable and the school board has the right, after it has been brought to their attention, to change their policy about what is appropriate or not.  It appears to me that the entire purpose of the CBLDF is not to promote and defend 'free expression' but to promote and defend vulgar language and obscene/inappropriate depictions of body parts.

 

Artists and writers are not some special class of human beings that, by virtue of their talents, are suddenly elevated to some special status above the average human being.  I was there in the late 1960's when creatives complained that they needed more freedom in dealing with more mature subject matter.  Silly me, I thought some higher purpose was being thwarted.  The early 1970's saw their artistic vision turn into the profanity filled and obscene "comix" exemplified by the majority of the work by Robert Crumb.  And the argument is still made today that it is 'realistic' or 'necessary to the story'?  Give me a break.  There is still such a thing as right and wrong, and I think the CBLDF needs to grow up and realize that (a) parents have the freedom to raise their children as they wish, and the right to complain when their kids are exposed to objectionable material, even by accident, at schools, and (b) more importantly, the creative community needs to wake up out of their 'freedom means I can do whatever I want!' fantasy world and accept the responsibility that they owe to the society at large.  That just like the comics of the past affirmed certain ideas and ideals while exploring new avenues of adventure, and the word "hero" meant exactly that--they will be judged if their explorations take them into territory most people find objectionable.  If history and the rest of the world observes our culture and our recent creative output, what is and will be their verdict?  That we are a civil, as in civilized society?  That right and wrong are depicted as right and wrong?