Jane Clarke

Age: mid-40s
Occupation: Drug rehabilitation and mental health worker.
Lives: Camden, London

How would you describe your sexuality?

I am a dominant woman. I have been an active member of the BDSM scene for 18 years.

What role has 'violent pornography' played in your life?

I have used material dealing in fetish and BDSM subjects since a young age. In this sense, it has played a large part in my life. It doesn't contain what I understand as violence, although it could be defined as such by this law. I have also written some Fem Dom short stories that deal with themes of subjugation, erotic pain, etc.

What do you think of the UK government's proposal to ban 'violent pornography'?

Misguided. And a possible invasion of many consenting adults' civil liberties. I don't believe it will achieve anything positive or stop violence. There is no evidence that such material has negative effects, despite much research - done in some cases by those who would like to establish such a link. As a woman who watches porn, I think pornography can be many things, both positive and negative, but certainly never an excuse for someone to commit a crime and then blame pornographic material. The assumption that viewing images - however many reservations I might have about the content - causes crime is patently untrue, given that the massive surge in availability has not led to a similar massive rise in violence. There needs to be a lot more research before the government could justify measures such as imprisonment for simple possession of an image. Materials featuring children, animals, necrophilia are already banned and for good reason. There cannot be consent in these activities. I cannot see how this law will possibly reduce harm through the possession or potential illegality of possessing 'extreme' adult pornography.

Realistic depictions of acts are, as stated, depictions. They are not real. Extreme adult pornography featuring depictions of acts of these are just that - realistic depictions. To make an offence of such depictions would mean that a great of the cinema accessible to adults in the past would be viewed as illegal. Since I have studied film and have seen something like at least one film a week for over 40 years, I have obviously seen a wide range of material. I think it is important that I continue to exercise that choice. This cineaste would not like to see films banned. Many images and films within the BDSM community feature depictions of violence, abuse of power and the like; materials that are produced between consenting adults for private enjoyment, or the enjoyment and even education of others. Simply dramatising sexual violence should not be a crime.

In fact any laws passed to prevent me viewing that which I feel is my right to do so will have no effect on me whatsoever. I prefer to be led by the dictates of my own conscience, which has served me well to date. Adults should be allowed such freedoms within society as to select what they do or do not wish to watch. If what they wish to view is unacceptable to the majority, that is tough. I believe the onus of proof should be on the government to prove harm before it asks us to give up our hard-won Human Rights. I believe sufficient laws exist that if an image is evidence of an actual offence, a case can be brought. I fear that any attempt to legislate in the way suggested will spread a net too wide, ignoring the value of pornography to society and diverting the police and the country's lawmakers from looking at the true causes of crime.

It also creates fear in the minds of people who do not understand BDSM sexuality when there is no reason to be afraid. It stigmatises those in the BDSM community and confuses us with the likes of the individual who kills someone and conceals his crime. This is something I bitterly resent, especially as my daytime job is one in which compassion and concern for my fellow man is predominant and I am a pacifist by conviction. So as a feminist, kinkster, film- and freedom-lover, I heartily oppose ideas that suggest the ills of the world can be laid at the door of pornography.

I have of course been disturbed by pornographic images of certain kinds. This has been rarer than one may be led to believe. But the point is surely whether this has disempowered me. I feel that, on the contrary, it has sometimes prepared me for difficult real life situations and has suggested to me a course of political action. On the other, more positive, hand, some porn, which was discomfiting initially, allowed me to see my own comfort zone as too tight, and has allowed me to relax and redefine my boundaries.

This is the power of art right across the board - with pornography better than many other forms at doing this. It has the ability to open us up to the positive possibilities of new and often (but not always) taboo experiences. There is something powerful about porn's ability to level the social playing field. Rich man, poor man, good girl, bad girl - and yes I'm aware that I've just placed wealth with the guy and moral labels with the woman - all of them react in a similar manner to erotic stimuli. I am relatively well-educated, cultured etc. but the idea of not being able to plumb the depths of my degradation, should I choose to do so, sounds too miserable to contemplate. The State's definition of "obscenity" relies on a conception of sexuality that makes it an objective entity that can be isolated, and then further divided into "good" and "bad" camps like hard and soft. Under this construction, "S/M = PAIN, DOMINATION AND POWER". In other words, something negative. Fem Dom comes out very badly in this equation, despite it rarely containing women on the receiving end of a power imbalance or pain. Who decides what constitutes violence? If I post a picture of me whipping someone with a sauna whip is that "violence"? If I show them being caned, is that violence? I would say absolutely not.

These are the kinds of questions an anti-S/M position cannot and will not ask. People who hold such a position refuse to consider the ways in which these representations, practices, and desires can be articulated in a mutual, consensual environment. The context in which these images are produced, or consumed, is not discussed, since these representations have already been condemned.

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