This Will Continue

If pornog­ra­phy were a drug, one of its side effects would be self-pleasuring. If you think such things do not go on in libraries, check out (at your own risk) You Tube for per­son­ally cap­tured videos.

Since sex is on the Berke­ley Pub­lic Library’s list as one of  “the 5 big no-nos in the library” — that should tell us some­thing.  At a branch library one day, I left because a man was thus occu­pied and there was no staff avail­able to deal with the prob­lem­atic behavior.

A librar­ian I know had to tell a patron who was engaged in such activ­ity that it was not allowed at the library. His angry response was “I was not! Who said that? Where are they?”  This respon­si­bil­ity — that the librar­ian has to inter­act with such peo­ple in order to main­tain pro­pri­ety -  is actu­ally a job for the police. The per­pe­tra­tor of such activ­ity knows that most likely the police will not be called and that there will be no arrests or  inci­dent reports. It is a case of “the less the pub­lic knows, the better.”

Since all of us have dif­fer­ent stan­dards of behav­ior, this will con­tinue. Pornog­ra­phy sex­u­ally excites, there­fore, this will con­tinue. As long as no arrests hap­pen, this will con­tinue. As long as we keep silent about it, this will continue.