Editors’ Page: Images that Offend

We continue to receive a deluge of letters—pro and con—about the ancient Egyptian pornography we published in our September/October 2001 issue (David O’Connor, “Eros in Egypt,” AO 04:05). One school teacher from Texas wrote us that she used the issue in her ninth- and tenth-grade classes, but tore out the offending pages that she found inappropriate for her students. If I were that school teacher, I think I would too.

On the other hand, a 14-year-old girl (probably in ninth or tenth grade), also from Texas, wrote us that she wants to be an Egyptologist someday and doesn’t understand why people are so upset by the Turin Erotic Papyrus (see The Forum, AO 05:01). After all, she wrote, our readers want “to know about ancient life.”

I do think there is an issue here. There are some things that are inappropriate for young people. There are even things that are inappropriate for cultivated, adult magazine readers. We don’t print dirty words, for example, even though we all know them.