Slightly Kinky Feminist
Age: 21
Occupation: graduate jobseeker
Lives: Nottingham
How would you describe your sexuality?
I have had sexual humiliation and non-consent fantasies since the age of about 12, getting progressively "worse" throughout my teens. So I am very familiar with the popular cliches about my particular fantasies - shame, self-hatred, guilt, etc. None of these stories hold water for me, and in fact the only sexual guilt I have ever had came straight from the radical feminist literature I read as a teenager. They tried their best to portray me as an extension of my sexuality - "it doesn't matter that you think sexual violence is evil, you're still aroused by it and your body doesn't lie". As if it wasn't perfectly possible to separate stuff that turns you on (instinctive, conditioned) from stuff you believe (logical, reasoned - hopefully!). I am anxious that the same mentality is influencing current government policy. Being interested in sex doesn't make you a sex maniac, and being aroused by dominant men does not make you a reactionary, and being exquisitely turned on by the idea of non-consensual sex does not mean you secretly want it legalised. We BDSMers are well-informed people making educated choices, not the helpless subjects of compulsive desires at whom this bill seems to be aimed.
What role has "violent pornography" played in your life?
None, as yet. My fantasies contain intelligent dialogue (unlike most porn) and are not very visual anyway, so I prefer to get off on well-written erotica from books and the Internet. I would probably choose to watch violent porn if I could find any suitable. My closest equivalent is those "I've got you now, my pretty..." captivity scenes in steamy historical dramas, which capture the mood but never - understandably - go far enough for me. (I have a theory for why most British porn is substandard - see below.)
What do you think of the UK government's proposal to ban "violent pornography"?
BDSM porn appeals to a small, selective market and is generally not stumbled upon by accident, so it is hard to see how it can possibly degrade "all" women as is often claimed. I would say more women have been harmed by the unrealistic aspirations set by fashion and beauty magazines, which are widely read. Women in porn come in all shapes and sizes, while models in these magazines are variants on a single hard-to-achieve body type. But nobody seriously wants to ban these, which shows that the driving force behind the ban is less about protecting women and more about fear of the "dark side" of human sexuality. Apparently it's not enough for BDSMers to control our kink - nothing short of suppression will do.
Also, the ban would contribute to the stigmatisation of all porn, which would lower its quality even more. It is not a law of nature that porn has to be an assembly-line product with no subtlety and ridiculous dialogue: it is the only way forward for a medium whose name has been so heavily blackened. Porn is not respectable, so established writers and actors shun it, even if they happily create steamy sex scenes in an "artistic" context. People get used to the new reality, that you have to suspend your intelligence when you watch porn. And the opportunity to enjoy interesting, creative porn is being quietly lost.
And did I mention that bans are often counter-effective, creating an aura of rebellion around the banned material? Great thinking, Government.
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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.