Final answer:
Obscene matter mainly appeals to prurient interest as defined by the Miller test, which considers average community standards and questions the serious literary, artistic, or educational value of the work.
Step-by-step explanation:
Obscene matter mainly appeals to prurient interest. The definition of obscenity has been a complex issue for the courts, centered upon what is considered offensive by societal standards. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart highlighted the subjective nature of determining obscenity by famously saying, "I know it when I see it." In literature and law, the term 'obscene' is often defined by the Miller test, a three-part standard that helps determine whether a work is legally obscene. This test considers:
- Whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.
- Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law.
- Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Artistic works are generally created to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power, and not necessarily for their prurience or offensiveness. Thus, when a work is labeled as 'obscene', it usually means that its primary appeal is to lascivious or shameful interests in sex, rather than to intellectual, cultural, or purely aesthetic values.