Eating my breakfast yesterday, I heard the headline on BBC6 Music that Internet service providers were going to start blocking pornography. Tentatively I wondered whether this was good news – seeing as I am a pro-sex anti-pornography (and wider sex industry) feminist. I decided to reserve my judgement however until I had read a bit more on the subject, and, surprise surprise, my initial sense of good news was quickly wiped away.
For those of you who don’t know the story or the background, the government recently commissioned a report by the Mother’s Union – which by the way, is headed by a man – to look into the early sexualisation of children. One of the upshots of this report then has been to ask ISPs to give parents a service they can opt-in to, blocking ‘offensive material’ from their home computers and protecting their children from stumbling across porn.
Anyway, this kind of covers that side of the story:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/11/pornography-internet-service-providers?intcmp=239
There are a number of issues I have with this proposal. Unlike some commentators (who perhaps don’t really understand the feminist argument against porn) who believe that this is feminism condoning censorship, or feminism getting into bed with the right, I believe that this is not a feminist move at all, and should be questioned and perhaps even condemned by feminists (although that is my view, don't expect people to do as I tell them!).
Lets start with the practical issue. How is this going to work? Will the block happen on a key word basis? I’m not sure how else it can be implemented. If so, will this have implications for young people looking for information about sex education, for LGBTQ teens looking for information, or even for young people doing projects on a certain sea bird? The Internet is a great resource for young people to educate themselves about their sexuality and again, for LGBTQ teens to search out online and real life communities and support. How will the opt-in block impact on teens seeking these services?
But my biggest concern is that this move (along with most of the Bailey Report) basically says that there is nothing wrong with the commercial sexual exploitation of women and men, there is nothing wrong with the violence and coercion that runs through the industry, nothing wrong with the racism, homophobia and transphobia that runs through porn, there is nothing wrong with the impact porn has on violence against women and girls (please see American Psych Association research), the only thing that is wrong with any of this is if you happen to see it before you hit your 18th birthday.
And this is not acceptable.
The average boy first sees Internet porn when he is 11. Of course I think that something needs to be done to ensure that young people aren’t getting the bulk of their sex education from porn that more often than not is violent, degrading and brutal towards women. And lets get this straight – that is most of it. A survey quoted in Banyard’s The Equality Illusion (which I don’t have to hand) found that nearly 90% of rented porn DVDs in the USA depicted violent acts or used violent language against women. Internet porn is no different.
But just shutting our eyes and pretending it doesn’t exist until children hit 18 is not the answer. Because that does nothing to tackle the actual issues and problems with porn, violence and ingrained sexism, or the wider world where sexism and violence against women and girls is endemic.
There is plenty of existing research from the APA, and research being done from the UK to New Zealand on the impact porn has on violence against women and girls. Of course there are issues with the ‘sexualisation’ of children, but hiding our heads in the sand and refusing to take a stand against the violence, coercion, trafficking and portrayal of unsafe sex that runs through the sex industry does nothing to protect children and refuses to engage with one of the many causes of rape culture.
Because, as I have written before, we are at a crisis point when it comes to violence against women and girls. 2 women a week are still being killed by their partners and ex partners, there are 94,000 rapes every year (http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2010/11/29/rape-statistics-what-can-we-rely-on/) and the conviction rate is still 6.5% (not 13.5% Guardian reader’s editor). Young women aged 16-19 are now at the greatest risk of being victims of intimate partner violence and 1 in 3 teen girls experience intimate partner violence, 1 in 4 for adult women (Home Office, Bristol Uni, NSPCC, BCS for all stats).
Hiding violence against women and girls, hiding the commercial sexual exploitation of women and hiding the degrading images of women from children does not stop these images, this violence from existing. 18 isn’t an age when it is ok to buy into an industry that harms women, because no age is. The Bailey Review is not focusing on tackling violence against girls, but in many cases is about a squeamishness about young people’s very real and very natural sexuality.
It’s not ok to say violence, degradation and sexism is fine once you’re an adult.
I believe that the problem isn’t the sexualisation of children (although this IS an issue), because the problem is with patriarchy. It’s patriarchy that allows the commercial sexual exploitation of women. It is patriarchy that makes profit out of violence against women. It is patriarchy that means women can never have equality whilst our bodies are for sale.
So long as patriarchy means violence against women and girls is allowed to happen (and with a conviction rate of 6.5% for rape and men murdering their wives and getting an 18-month sentence then don’t be deceived, this is allowed to happen) then blocking porn sites in family homes is not going to have any impact. So long as we say that commercial sexual exploitation is ok so long as you see it when you’re an adult, then we’re not moving forward.
I’m not stupid. I know that we can’t ban pornography or ban the sex industry. I know that we can’t just make it disappear. But I do believe this. When we no longer live under a patriarchy, we will no longer have violent and degrading pornography or an industry that treats women (and men) as objects to be used and abused for profit. Such a thing would seem utterly ridiculous to a society where all genders, all people, were held in equal esteem, and where people were not seen as disposable objects to be wanked over (or in to) for profit.
This is how we end the sexualisation of children. This is how we end violence against women and girls. This is how we end inequality in a society where women’s bodies are for sale, or judged against an impossible ideal of ‘hot’. Not through banning web keywords to under-18s. But by ending patriarchy.
And that’s why as a feminist I do not agree with this proposal.
For more info on the research looking at links between porn and sexual violence, please see this post:
http://sianandcrookedrib.blogspot.com/2011/08/porn-sexual-violence-and-scientific.html
I've written it so many times it gets a bit wearing repeating it over and over!
Rape conviction and reporting rates: http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/latest-crime-statistics
False accusation stats: Fawcett Society report on 'Rape: The Facts'
Rape rate stats: Fawcett Society report on 'Rape: The Facts' and the BCS figures cited here: http://www.ministryoftruth.me.uk/2010/11/29/rape-statistics-what-can-we-rely-on/
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