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''Show Me!'' is a
sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...
book by photographer Will McBride. It appeared in 1974 in German under the title ''Zeig Mal!'', written with psychiatrist Helga Fleischhauer-Hardt for children and their parents. It was translated into English a year later and was widely available in bookstores on both sides of the Atlantic for many years, but later became subject to expanded
child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
laws in jurisdictions including the United States. In Germany, the book was followed in 1990 by a second edition that included, among other additions, a discussion of the AIDS epidemic.


Publication history

While many parents appreciated ''Show Me!'' for its frank depiction of pre-adolescents discovering and exploring their sexuality, others called it
child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
. In 1975 and 1976, obscenity charges were brought against the publisher or booksellers by prosecutors in
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
,
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...
, Oklahoma, and
Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Canada. In all four cases, the judges ruled as a matter of law that the title was not
obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...
. However, starting in 1977, some states began to criminalize the distribution of even ''non-obscene'' so-called "child pornography," or "images of abuse," which arguably is not protected by the First Amendment. New York State, home of the publisher,
St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
, criminalized the distribution of non-obscene "child pornography" in 1977, but the publisher promptly went to court and obtained an injunction against the State. The court granted the injunction because the
First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
was interpreted to permit the banning of only obscene material. In 1982, the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
issued a decision, ''
New York v. Ferber ''New York v. Ferber'', 458 U.S. 747 (1982), was a landmark decision of the U.S Supreme Court, unanimously ruling that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution did not forbid states from banning the sale of material depicting childr ...
'', which allowed the government to constitutionally ban the knowing distribution of even non-obscene "child pornography". Citing a
chilling effect In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
, St. Martin's Press then pulled the book, stating that though they believed ''Show Me!'' was not
pornographic Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,
, they could no longer afford the legal expenses to defend it, and they did not want to risk criminal prosecutions of their own personnel and/or vendors who sold the book. The Court overruled a decision of the New York Court of Appeals, ''The People v. Paul Ira Ferber

which held that First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the First Amendment protected the dissemination of non-obscene sexual depictions. ''Show Me!'' was not the direct subject of the ''Ferber'' case, but the book was prominently featured by both sides in the litigation, and it played a significant role in the
oral argument Oral arguments are spoken presentations to a judge or appellate court by a lawyer (or parties when representing themselves) of the legal reasons why they should prevail. Oral argument at the appellate level accompanies written briefs, which also a ...
before the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. In its country of origin, Germany, the book first won several awards, even from church organisations, but due to rising pressure from a newly arising "moral majority" the publishers and McBride decided to take it off the market in 1996. By then over one million copies in seven languages had been sold. It was never officially banned in Germany. Public libraries there keep it on hand and out of print copies are openly sold at collectors' premium prices. In New Zealand the book was banned by the
Indecent Publications Tribunal The Indecent Publications Tribunal was a government censorship organisation that operated in New Zealand from 1964 until 1993. It was established under the Indecent Publications Act 1963 and consisted of five members, with one a High Court barris ...
in 1976. The ban was upheld in 1996.


Critical reception

''Show Me!'' received mixed reviews from the mass media when it was first published. The ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' called the photographs "beautiful...graceful, charming, and elegant," yet accurately predicted, in a severe understatement of what actually happened, that the book "may start (an) uproar." The ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', on the other hand, described the photographs as "beautiful, assaultive, grotesque, and seductive," and concluded that ''Show Me!'' was only suited for "avant garde" parents. Reviewer Linda Wolfe was more hostile in the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', calling the book a "child-abusive joke". The 13-year-old daughter of
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
reviewer Carol Kleiman stated: "I'm too old for it myself. The last part, though, with no pictures, looks interesting to read. The book is good for little kids because they don't know what society terms 'dirty' yet. You know, Mom, it's PARENTS I'm worried about. ''They're'' not ready yet."


Recent reviews

A 2005 Amazon review by Dr. Russell A. Rohde claims that the book, "appropriately delves into the issues of breast feeding, adolescence, pubertal changes, menses, sexual anatomies, pregnancy, masturbation, contraception, sexual behavioral disturbances and venereal disease. ..I am not aware of any book comparable to this illustrated primer that fills the needs of sexual education so well." D. F. Janssen places it at the one extreme of a late 20th-century visual and textual revolution that enabled parents to illustrate information that up to that time had been transmitted orally. He sees the work as subversive not for its "too frank" portrayal of childhood sexuality, but instead for the primacy that the image takes over the text. In his eyes, the work "comes out of a culture with a long history of pathologising so-addressed '
primal scene Primal may refer to: Psychotherapy * ''Primal'', the core concept in primal therapy, denotes the full reliving and cathartic release of an early traumatic experience * Primal scene (in psychoanalysis), refers to the witnessing by a young child o ...
s,'" a history that became manifest in particular with regard to the works of Will McBride.D. F. Janssen,
Growing Up Sexually. Volume II: The Sexual Curriculum: The Manufacture and Performance of Pre-Adult Sexualities
' (October 2002)
The book is analyzed in an article on "Picturing Sex Education" (Discourse Volume 27, Number 4 / December 2006).


Bibliographic details

# 1974: ''Zeig mal. Ein Bilderbuch für Kinder und Eltern'' Foreword by Helmut Kentler. Wuppertal: Jugenddienst. # 1975: ''Show Me!: A Picture Book of Sex for Children and Parents'' St. Martin's Press. # 1975: ''Laat 's zien!: een fotoboek over sex voor kinderen en ouders'' Amsterdam: Kosmos. # 1978: ''Fais voir ! Un livre illustré sur la sexualité'' Montreal: Quinze. # 1979: ''Fammi Vedere! un libro fotografico di educazione sessuale non conformista per bambini e grandi'' Perugia: Savelli # 1979: ''¡A ver!: un libro de imágenes para niños y padres'' Salamanca: Lóguez Ediciones. # 1981: ''Få se: seksualopplysning i tekst og bilder for barn og foreldre'' Oslo: Aschehoug i samarbeid med Hverdag. # 1990: ''Zeig mal. Ein Bilderbuch für Kinder und Eltern'' (2nd. ed.) 195 p. Wuppertal: Hammer. # 1990: ''Ukaž mi to! : Mezinárodní osvětová obrázková kniha pro děti a rodiče s informací o AIDS'', translated by Jiří Kostelecký, Czech introduction by Jiří Raboch, 1st. ed., 199 p., Praha : Kredit ; Wuppertal : Peter Hammer, 1990, , 20.000 copies # 1995: ''Zeig Mal Mehr'' (5 ed.). 176 p. Beltz.


References


External links



* ttp://web2.westlaw.com/signon/default.wl?fn=_top&rs=WLW6.09&rp=%2fsignon%2fdefault.wl&vr=2.0&bhcp=1 ''St. Martin's Press, Inc. v. Carey'', 440 F.Supp. 1196 (SDNY, 1977)br>"Retiree cleared of pornography charges for a 30-year-old book," ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' 7/26/2006
* Video
Interview with Will McBride, September 2006, vlog''Zeig Mal? Guck Weg!'' German magazine article
English translation
''Show Me? Look Away!''''English translation of Foreword to Zeig Mal! by Dr. Helmut Kentler''
{{Authority control 1974 non-fiction books 1990 non-fiction books Obscenity controversies in literature Photographic collections and books St. Martin's Press books Sex manuals