The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

well as from the perspective of older women (also
known as “hen lit”).

Further Reading
Bushnell, Candace.Sex and the City. New York: Warner
Books, 1997. Based on Bushnell’s columns forThe
New York Observer, the novel follows the travails of
columnist Carrie Bradshaw and her friends.
Ferriss, Suzanne, and Mallory Young, eds.Chick Lit:
The New Woman’s Fiction. New York: Routledge,

2006. Collection of essays on the rise of chick lit,
      its history, and new forms of chick lit, such as
      nanny lit and mommy lit. Includes an essay by
      Harzewski on the genre’s relation to novels of the
      eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
      Fielding, Helen.Bridget Jones’s Diar y. New York: Pen-
      guin Books, 1998. Follows Bridget Jones through
      her disappointing romance with a coworker, her
      parents’ marital troubles, and her job disappoint-
      ments as she puts off the annoying lawyer Mark
      Darcy.
      Mlynowski, Sarah, and Farrin Jacobs.See Jane Write: A
      Girl’s Guide to Writing Chick Lit. Philadelphia:
      Quirk Books, 2006. Chick lit author Mlynowski
      provides a brief history of the genre as well as tips
      for writing such books. Features interviews with
      genre pioneer Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella
      (Shopaholic series, 2000-2007), Meg Cabot (The
      Princess Diaries, 2000), and others.
      Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. “The Plight of the High-
      Status Woman.”The Atlantic Monthly(December,
      1999): 120-124. Looks at how chick lit novels dif-
      fer from romantic fiction of the past, especially fo-
      cusing on darker elements of these novels.
      Julie Elliott

See also Ally McBeal; Literature in the United
States; McMillan, Terry;Sex and the City; Women in
the workforce.

Child pornography

Definition Depictions of children in sexual
postures

The subject of child pornography dominated discussion in
the 1990’s about what kinds of sexual materials ought to be
protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guar-
antee of free speech.

Child pornography raises issues that differ from

those concerning adult pornography, which gener-

ally is permissible in the United States. Further com-

plicating the issues related to child pornography is

the technological ability of pornographers to create

computer-generated images of a sexual nature de-

picting children without necessarily involving actual

children.

In 1986, the U.S. Congress enacted the Child Pro-

tection and Obscenity Enforcement Act in an at-

tempt to control the surging availability of child

pornography, particularly on the Internet. Among

other justifications they offered for the measure,

the lawmakers argued that child pornography could

be harmful and that such material is not of sufficient

social value to qualify for free speech protection.

In 1990, inOsborne v. Ohio, the U.S. Supreme

Court reviewed the Ohio statute outlawing child

pornography and ruled by a vote of six to three that

the law met constitutional standards. The Court de-

clared that the law was not a paternalistic attempt to

regulate the minds of individuals; rather, it sought to

serve a compelling state interest by protecting chil-

dren from becoming victims of pornographers. Dis-

senting justices objected that the phrase in the law

specifying “lewd exhibition of nudity” was unaccept-

able and should have read “lewd exhibition of geni-

tals.” They also asserted that the statute’s phrase

“graphic focus” was too vague to satisfy constitu-

tional standards, noting that the vagueness of the

phrase allowed for unacceptable uncertainty as to

what precisely the law prohibited.

Computer-Generated Images Subsequently, the

computer graphic process known as morphing

raised additional questions regarding the constitu-

tionality of child pornography. Morphing, a process

in which a computer program fills in the blanks be-

tween two dissimilar objects to produce a combined

image, allows the production of what has been la-

beled “virtual pornography.” The creation of virtual

pornography is a relatively inexpensive and unde-

manding process: Innocent photographs of actual

children can be scanned electronically and then

altered and combined with other images, using

morphing software, to produce pornographic sce-

narios. The process can also be used to create de-

pictions of imaginary children. Morphing is some-

times used to create images of sexual activities that

go beyond the boundaries of behavior in which any

The Nineties in America Child pornography
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