Deborah Ryder
Censorship Protects Criminals
American Deborah Ryder is the founder of the Lady O Society, a "self-help group for female masochists", and the author of 10 bdsm fantasy novels (available from www.bdsmbooks.com).
Deborah has written many articles protesting censorship and explaining BDSM to an interested non-participant audience. Slave, not Victim - Explaining the Difference emphasizes the line between consensual BDSM play and abuse
"One of the most frequently occurring-queries, which does deserve a serious answer, is: 'Does the sub/dom scene encourage violence against women? Because there are some women who acknowledge that being beaten is a sexual turn-on, why should men not assume that all women like rough treatment?'
"[In response], one could equally ask, 'Because there are some women who prefer their own sex, why should men not assume that they are all redundant?' The simplest answer is because people are different."
Deborah goes on to examine "the vast difference between a submissive woman and an abused woman"
"An important element is choice. Although dominants and submissives do not choose to be so motivated, they choose what to do with it. Generally, neither abuser nor abused has much, if any, choice in the matter. There is also premeditation and eager anticipation, essential in the sub/dom scene, wholly absent from abuse.
The Master plans the actions which he will undertake with his slave; an abuser acts without thought, often without conscious volition. During a session, naturally the slave obeys her Master; at other times he does not need to demand unquestioning obedience. There is a difference between the rational loyalty of a slave and the unthinking, frightened surrender of an abuse victim. […] It is interesting to note that membership of the Lady O Society included a much higher than average number of successful career-women. What one does in the bedroom bears no relation to what one does in the boardroom or anywhere else."
In Everyone is Different, Deborah writes about the fallacy of regarding censorship as a form of protection for women
"The excuses for censorship are based on a claim to protect the weak. Who are these people who are so indecisive that they would be inflamed by seeing a video of a crime and would promptly go out and copy it? If a person is going to rape and/or kill, the problem was in his head long before he read a book or saw a film. Yet we so often hear of the criminal who pleads 'pornography drove me to do it'. He has been caught. His advisors are seeking to mitigate his sentence. Offer the Establishment a different scapegoat (one which they never tire of attacking) and reduce the offender's culpability at the same time. Neither accuser nor accused is interested in the validity of the excuse because neither wants its fallacy exposed."
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Shooting the Messenger
The internet is a convenient scapegoat for society's ills.
The UK government is to legislate how best to imprison potentially many people for viewing content on the internet.
How should governments regulate the details of our personal lives and control individual expression ?
Preserve Individual Freedoms
Backlash campaigns to ensure the right remedies are applied to the right problems.
Whilst doing so we preserve hard won individual rights and liberties.
See no evil.
The government doesn't want you to view certain images. And will send you to prison if you possess them. Even in the privacy of your own home.