Overview
Lyombe Eko carries out an historical and cultural survey of the regulation of visual depictions of explicit human sexual conduct from their earliest appearance on the clay tablets of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in ancient Mesopotamia, to the tablet computers of Silicon Valley. The Regulation of Sex-Themed Visual Imagery analyzes the contemporary problem of the applicability of the human right of freedom of expression to explicit imagery in the face of societal interests in the regulation of representations of human sexuality. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and broad audiences interested in comparative studies in pornography regulation, the history of pornography, the law of pornography and obscenity, and visual culture and history alike.
Full Product Details
Author: Lyombe Eko
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
Edition: 1st ed. 2015
Dimensions:
Width: 15.50cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 6.151kg
ISBN: 9781137564238
ISBN 10: 1137564237
Pages: 316
Publication Date: 15 December 2015
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
"""The Regulation of Sex-Themed Visual Imagery is a fascinating look at the global phenomenon of what becomes later in world history pornography throughout all of time, from prehistory and ancient civilizations in the East and West, through today's Internet and digital media environment. Lyombe Eko's book takes an oversaturated subject - sex and the media - and reinterprets it anew through a critically important global and historical, comparative lens."" - Paul Grosswiler, Professor, University of Maine, USA and author of Old New Media: From Oral to Virtual Environments"
The Regulation of Sex-Themed Visual Imagery is a fascinating look at the global phenomenon of what becomes later in world history pornography throughout all of time, from prehistory and ancient civilizations in the East and West, through today's Internet and digital media environment. Lyombe Eko's book takes an oversaturated subject - sex and the media - and reinterprets it anew through a critically important global and historical, comparative lens. - Paul Grosswiler, Professor, University of Maine, USA and author of Old New Media: From Oral to Virtual Environments Reader Report Paul Grosswiler Associate Professor; Chair Department of Communication and Journalism University of Maine General 1) In your own words, please provide a short outline of the project. Instead of an outline, my description of the project has two distinct parts, in my reading of it. The first part is a very ambitious global history from ancient times to the Renaissance, and through U.S. history of the presence and regulation of sexual imagery (and texts) that broadly engages a dizzying array of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, classical studies, comparative religious history, and art history etc. I have only smatterings of knowledge in these areas, although a keen and abiding teaching and research interest in this kind of work. It reminds me of Harold Innis's whirlwind tours of communication histories across ancient cultures, and Crowley and Heyer's anthology of communication history from cave art through the Internet. The second part of the book is a legal history, commentary and case studies that seem more of a more disjointed patchwork of cases, perhaps drawn from conference papers and other publications in Dr. Eko's express area of expertise, comparative media law. Project 2) Does this proposal offer a useful and/or original contribution to the field? Is it addressing any new/emerging areas? This manuscript is a fascinating attempt to theorize and document that global phenomenon of what becomes later in world history pornography throughout all of time, from prehistory and ancient civilizations in the East and West through today's Internet and digital media environment. The most useful contribution is the repeated assertion and demonstration that pornography has a history dating back to prehistory and since. It links the conflicting roots of contemporary culture's responses to pornography from Eros and Greco-Roman culture and Agape from Judeo-Christian culture. I think the 'newness' is the insistence of understanding pornography from a global, historical perspective, not as an Internet culture problem, or even a problem of modernity. I don't teach sex and the media, or media law, but I don't know of any work that combines these two areas with a similarly comprehensive cultural-historical perspective. To my knowledge, much as classical studies downplays the polymorphous sexual themes of ancient Greece, media law on freedom of expression pays scant if any attention to the cases surround the movie Deep Throat or other cases involving sex workers and freedom of expression. I think this project takes an oversaturated subject, sex and the media, and reinterprets it anew through a critically important global and historical, comparative lens. 3) Does it adequately engage with recent scholarship? Does it take existing scholarship forward? Not being an anthropologist, classicist, art historian or familiar with the recent scholarship in areas outside media history and media legal culture, I cannot answer to the recency of scholarship and citations in the areas mentioned. I was tempted throughout my reading of the early parts of the manuscript to ask my medieval art historian friend to ascertain the depth and currency of the scholarship in art history that is cited. The book does take immensely broad and diverse swathes of world history that present incredible diversity and complexity in a short form that I worry may not do justice to that diversity and complexity. Euro-American free expression history is handled adequately but still rather too cursorily and summarily for my taste in the effort to construct a grand narrative. But this work is so much needed in the field that such depth and complexity may be mitigated if not forfeited. One strategy might be to express assertions of fact that may be challenged in more qualified terms. The only example I can think of that is the assertion that sexual imagery in ancient Greece has not been studied, when a number of studies of just that topic are then cited. The legal scholarship is thorough and readable and most interesting-as I said above, introducing these freedom of expression cases-of Deep Throat, for example-is a much-needed focus in media law, in my opinion. 4) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal? You may wish to consider structure, organization, coherence and presentation of material; scope, coverage and breadth of appeal or degree of specialization; whether there are any obvious omissions; timeliness and likely shelf-life of the research; what proportion of the work, if any, will require substantial re-working; and whether any suggested improvements fundamental to the project's success or discretionary matters which might be addressed after the project has been accepted. The major strength of the book is the worthwhile effort to provide a world history of pornography (or sexual themed speech) across all time and cultures that is especially aimed at media and communication studies students, as well as a survey of freedom of expression cases in the U.S (France and UK) focused entirely on sexually themed speech (except for some cases, as I recall, in employee related speech and lack of protection). The major weakness of the book, as I read it, is that it seems like two loosely connected books. The first book provides the world history in a coherent and highly readable text that forms a cohesive whole, from the introduction to chapter 9. Chapter 9 then segues from a historical framework to the second book, which studies sexually-themed speech from a contemporary legal framework in which the book does become a media law text. What I missed in my reading was a clear connection of these separate themes, or two books. I think much of the world history did look forward to similar issues in ancient times reflected in modern (or postmodern) digital media culture, but I did not see the last half of the book, or last part, reflecting backward to integrate the history. More clearly omitted was a conclusions chapter. I thought, too, that the end of each chapter ended without a sense of closure, for the most part, or a preview of what was to come next, and how they were related. Another absent theme that I had expected would be included, and to me would be essential to the book and treated with equal depth and dexterity as the Judeo-Chrstian, Greco-Roman, Hindu and Buddhist, Indian, Chinese and Japanese histories and cultures, is the presence (or absence?) of sexually themed speech in the history of Islam. I think this is of even greater importance given the threats and murderous violence against journalists in France, Denmark and other countries, for blasphemous speech, which may have sexual themes concerns, too, beginning, or at least becoming more publicly discussed since the threats against Salman Rushdie in the 1980s. The book cries out for a chapter on Islam and sexually themed speech in sharia law and the Koran. I see where this expectation arose. It was with the brief description of the text: 'The thinking behind Arab-Islamic and other cultural objections to explicit sex-themed media content is that pornography is a testament to Western depravity, a phenomenon that has dangerous psychological effects on children, undermines the moral fabric of society, religions, political systems, and cultures (Eko, 2001). The premise of this book is that historically-speaking, explicit sex-themed visual imagery-what is now variously called pornography, erotica, and obscenity-is not a 'Western phenomenon' per se. Archeological and art history evidence show that explicit visual depictions of scenes of human sexuality are as old as the earliest human civilizations.' Given this salvo, I believe that incorporating Muslim treatment of sexually-themed speech from the Islamic world in the cultural context and time of Muhammad to the present day is mandatory for this book. I know very little about this, but even the poetry of Rumi can be seen to be erotic. With only a glancing knowledge of the Koran, I can see that it does address sex in a number of places, and also prostitution (24:33), where it says not to force slaves into prostitution for the owner's gain, but if they are compelled, they are forgiven. I think a comparison/contrast of Islam and Judeo-Christian traditions would be useful, as would even the fact that the culture of classical Greece was rediscovered by Europeans because it was preserved in the Muslim Middle East (I think). At any rate, I do think this issue deserves chapter-length treatment, other than a few mentions, as with the history of the burka being worn by prostitutes. As I see it, Islam would provide the third great historical force in sexually-themed speech, in addition to the Eros of Greece and the Agape of Judeo-Christianity. 5) Do you feel the author/editor is suitably qualified to produce a high quality book on this topic? I have the utmost trust and confidence in Dr. Eko's ability to produce a high quality, indeed seminal and indispensable book on this topic. He has, as I said above, a national and international reputation as a comparative media law scholar, and he has taught sex and the media. I did think he was more of a free speech absolutist than the text indicates, especially around virtual child pornography, but his arguments are all persuasively made regarding contemporary free speech issues revolving around sexually-themed speech. Market and Competition 7) Is this book likely to have interdisciplinary and/or international appeal? Yes, I think this book would be relevant across disciplines and internationally. It is itself an interdisciplinary work that stems from media and communication studies, in particular pornography, and the law. But it touches upon politics, religion, culture, history, all in conjunction with sex, and so many other disciplines that I think it would have broad appeal for undergraduate courses in communication history across disciplines. Also, since it is a world perspective, I think it would be of interest in all the regions and countries mentioned, such as the UK, France, Italy and Greece, India, China, Japan, and, perhaps the Muslim world. 8) How does this proposal compare to the main competing titles in this area in terms of quality of writing and content? I don't know of any texts in this area, and its writing and content at its best is superb, and other areas would be revised upward to that level. Recommendation 9) Would you recommend: I think my recommendation is somewhere between publishing this book as it stands or after minor revisions and revising and resubmitting, depending on what counts as minor revisions. If adding a chapter on the Islamic world and sexually-themed speech (similar to the chapters on Greece, China and Japan, and India); the integration of the two halves of the book; and a concluding chapter; as well as vetting the assertions as adequately addressing the complexity and diversity of issues that seem at times painted with too broad a brush, are minor revisions, then that is what I would recommend. I don't at all think the proposal and manuscript need to be revised and resubmitted.
The Regulation of Sex-Themed Visual Imagery is a fascinating look at the global phenomenon of what becomes later in world history pornography throughout all of time, from prehistory and ancient civilizations in the East and West, through today's Internet and digital media environment. Lyombe Eko's book takes an oversaturated subject - sex and the media - and reinterprets it anew through a critically important global and historical, comparative lens. - Paul Grosswiler, Professor, University of Maine, USA and author of Old New Media: From Oral to Virtual Environments
Author Information
Lyombe Eko is a Professor at the College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University, USA. He is the author of New Media, Old Regimes: Case Studies in Comparative Communication Law and Policy (2012) (Gold Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2014), and American Exceptionalism, the French Exception and Digital Media Law (2013). His research has been published in numerous journals, including Communication Law and Policy, the Journal of Internet Law, the Loyola (Los Angeles) International and Comparative Law Review, The John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law, and the International Communication Gazette. Eko has served as a journalist, producer, and TV program translator at the African Broadcasting Union (URTNA) in Nairobi, Kenya, and at Cameroon Radio and Television Corporation.
