Sex
research sparks legal controversy
IU graduate charged with dissemination of
obscenities under Taiwanese law
By
Steve Hinnefeld, Herald-Times
Staff Writer
February 24, 2004
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| Upon returning to Taiwan from Japan in September, Josephine Cheun-jue Ho was welcomed by marginal social groups with symbols of encouragement for her upcoming legal struggle: a rainbow shield from gender/sexuality rights groups, five rainbow-decorated coconuts from gay groups, a huge HIV/AIDS ribbon from rights groups for people with HIV, and a Taipei prostitute's hat from sex worker groups. In the background are excerpts of supportive messages posted on her behalf. Courtesy photo. |
Josephine Cheun-jue Ho earned a doctorate at Indiana University some 40 years after Alfred Kinsey conducted pioneering research at IU on Americans' sexual practices.
Now back in her native Taiwan and directing the Center for the Study of Sexualities at National Central University, she finds herself in a fight over sexual freedom that's similar to the ones Kinsey experienced.
But while Kinsey struggled with controversy, criticism and a loss of research funding, Ho could be in legal trouble. She has been charged with dissemination of obscenities and could face up to two years in prison.
Ho, 53, said in an e-mail interview that her prosecution suggests cultural conservatives are gaining an upper hand in Taiwan, a fast-developing, democratic nation that is deeply ambivalent about modern life.
"I am afraid recent directions taken by the Taiwanese society are toward more control, more purification, more closemindedness, and that worries me a lot," she said.
Ho and her husband, Karl Yin-Bin Ning, lived in Bloomington in the 1980s and received their IU doctorates in 1992, she in English and he in philosophy. She earned a previous doctorate in education from the University of Georgia.
"I think of her as heroic," said Patrick Brantlinger, an IU English professor who was Ho's graduate adviser and who has followed her career in Taiwan. "She's been very courageous."
Her work at the Center for the Study of Sexualities included developing an Internet-based databank of sexual information.
Last spring, conservative groups accused her of promoting sex with animals because the site included a hyperlink to a Web site on bestiality. Although she removed the link, a watchdog group called the Publications Appraisal Foundation and other organizations brought charges against her.
So far, Ho said, court proceedings on the charges have been devoted to explaining the facts and allowing attorneys on both sides to lay out what they think are the legal issues. But the case is being watched closely, with students and scholars protesting outside the courthouse during the first hearing.
"This is the first time a scholar is prosecuted for providing a hyperlink in her sexuality studies databank, so a lot of people are watching what will happen," Ho said by e-mail.
Ho said it was a natural progression for an English professor who studies literature- focusing on cultural and identity issues, such as feminist and lesbian literary theory - to launch a center for doing research on sexuality.
She has been an outspoken supporter of rights for sexual minorities, not only gays and lesbians but for Taiwanese prostitutes and "betel nut beauties," young women who use sex appeal to draw customers to betel nut stands. And she sees no conflict between her roles as a scholar and an activist.
"Must scholars of sexuality abstain from talking about the cost of human life brought about by sex phobia, sexual oppression and sexual ignorance ... I just cannot let myself be complacent about that," she said.
She said prostitution, homosexuality, pornography and even bestiality and sex involving children "deserve some social space for discussion and deliberation, not simply (to be) dismissed as unworthy or criminal."
Ho said officials at her university supported her when she established the Center for the Study of Sexualities in 1995, but they have grown wary as her work has grown more controversial. On the other hand, she has gained support from academics and advocates around the world, with more than 2,000 people signing an online petition on her behalf.
And Ho said people are right to be concerned, because what's at stake is not only her freedom and ability to conduct research but the right of people to use the Internet to get access to information that helps them understand their own sexuality.
"I've been working to open up social space for the discussion and availability of sex-related information for the past 10 years," she said, "beginning among women, and then moving on to gays and youths. And the conservative groups really hated that. They don't think sex-positive views should even exist, not to mention being made available to those who are said to be unable to handle sex - women, teenagers, children, etc."
Ho said she had little involvement with IU's Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction when she was a graduate student. She hadn't yet chosen the study of sexuality as her research interest.
But in her tireless work habits, her interest in all varieties of sexual behavior and her refusal to pass judgment on sexual practices that are outside of mainstream society, she invites comparisons with Kinsey, the IU biologist and sex researcher, who died in 1956.
"As I embarked on sexuality studies and researched into history, I learned about the oppression and defamation that Alfred Kinsey had suffered in the hands of conservatives in the McCarthy era," she said by e-mail. "I am afraid we are living through similar repressive times here in Taiwan now."
Reporter Steve Hinnefeld can be reached
at 331-4374 or by e-mail at shinnefeld@heraldt.com.
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