Next week the European Parliament will vote on a bill
that will lay down a blanket ban on pornography. The bill’s aim is supposed to
be an anti-sexist one, yet I would argue that it is actually (accidentally)
sexist! The presumption here is that women who enter pornography do so almost
against their will. I find the idea that women cannot make their own decisions to
be repulsive, if a woman wishes to do pornography, then let her, who are you to
stop her? I mean, nobody cares about the men in porn, is the suggestion that
men are mentally more able to take the ‘abuse’ of porn? I’ve never fully
understood the argument that porn is demeaning. Another question is what
happens about gay porn? If the ban is solely to try and protect women, then
surely gay porn would be exempt as no women appear in it. If gay porn is also
banned then this bill has nothing to do with sexism, but is simply an attempt
to advance the author’s moral aversion to porn.
There is, of course, the more pressing issue of internet
censorship. As I have already explained, the bill has no base on the grounds of
combatting sexism and is simply someone’s moral objections to a particular
practice. Censoring the internet in this fashion is unacceptable, what will be
censored next? This bill cannot be passed, we must fight this tooth and nail to
protect the freedom of the internet.
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