Healthy sex or unhealthy ideas?

Author defends her work on 'NewsNight'

Levine: "My book ... says that sexuality is a part of life."

(CNN) -- The dean wanted to explain to his young charges the difference in how boys and girls approach sex. He reached for two glasses of water, an aspirin and an Alka-Seltzer.

With the youngsters watching, the dean dropped the aspirin in one glass. It sank to the bottom as effectively as if were a rock -- inert, lifeless. "This is how girls feel about sex," he said.

Then -- plop! -- the Alka-Seltzer tumbled into the second glass. It nearly vanished in the sizzle of bubbles that erupted. That, he said, was how boys felt about sex.

"After that, I'd have a stream of desperate girls in my office," the dean recounted in an anecdote printed in "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex," by Judith Levine. "They'd tell me, 'I'm the Alka-Seltzer, not the aspirin! Is there something wrong with me?'"

In a word, said Levine: No. What's wrong, she said Tuesday on CNN's "NewsNight with Aaron Brown," is how American adults portray sexuality to their young.

"My book ... says that sexuality is a part of life," Levine said in the interview. "It is a fact of life for everybody, starting from the very earliest ages."

Levine's book debuted earlier this month with a 3,500-volume printing from its publisher, the University of Minnesota Press. Critics assailed it immediately, claiming Levine's work advocates pedophilia and child abuse.

Author Judith Levine

As Robert Knight of the Concerned Women for America said, Levine's book gives "academic cover to child molestation."

Levine dismisses her critics. "I think the people who are attacking me are doing so because ... either they believe kids are not sexual, or they wish that they would not be sexual," she said.

"And they think, somehow, that kids become sexual because of propaganda, media, advertising or because some adult is forcing them to be sexual."

Prompted by the furor over "Harmful to Minors," the University of Minnesota set up a committee to evaluate what its press would publish.

In a letter to the university, Joan Berlin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship, warned that such a move "invites future attempts at intellectual blackmail."

Other First Amendment advocates have lined up to support Levine, arguing that her views need airing.

Promoting healthy sexual attitudes or preying on innocent youngsters? Levine's book has touched off debate in publishing circles, family groups and civil-liberties organizations.

It also has touched off a second printing. The University of Minnesota recently said it would print 10,000 more copies of "Harmful to Minors."

Like the dean's Alka-Seltzer, Levine's book has sizzle.