Monthly Archives: October 2011

Porn on the telephone

Porn on the telephone

It is clear that pornography and the use of word pornography is becoming more and more mainstream. It can be seen in newspapers and on the telly where people talk about ‘poverty porn‘, ‘food porn’ etcetera. It seems like porn is becoming an “in word” and unsurprisingly as it is not as fashionable as talking about the latest reality or cooking show, nobody seems to be interested in talking about telephone porn. Flicking through the Metro one morning (the 4th biggest UK paper with a circulation of 1.3 million) I soon end up in the classifieds, which don’t differ much from the classifieds in other papers like the Daily Star, the Telegraph, the Sun or the Mirror. Metro’s classifieds are filled with job ads, accommodation offers, sales and entertainment ads and of course chatlines...

The truth about the UK’s new ISP porn filters

The truth about the UK’s new ISP porn filters

As was mentioned in this recent post, the UK’s big four ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will be offering a parental internet filter at the point of sale designed to block out pornography amongst other things. The coverage in most of the press (examples in The Guardian and the Daily Mail) has dressed this up as something that will be applied as a default, forcing customers to ‘opt in’ to receiving pornographic content. This is wrong. The term ‘opt in’ is a trade term that refers to the customer being required to ‘opt in’to an additional service, such as the filter. So if you want the extra controls you must choose to have them. Therefore, in reality what will happen is that when new customers...

What Is Gay Sex? Pornography Tries to Give Us the Answer, and Fails

What Is Gay Sex? Pornography Tries to Give Us the Answer, and Fails

Below are several passages from Audre Lorde’s classic radical lesbian feminist essay, “The Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power”: “The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, and plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling.” “The principal horror of any system which defines the good in terms of profit rather than in terms of human need, or which defines human...

The Awkward Discussion with the Other Half (UK)

The Awkward Discussion with the Other Half (UK)

Subscribers to the UK’s four biggest internet service providers will have to “opt in” if they want to view sexually explicit websites, as part of government-sponsored curbs on online pornography. At the moment, the situation seems to be that at the point of sale new customers will be given an option by their internet service provider to make a choice about whether they want to either have their internet connection subject to an ISP level porn filter, or have a unrestricted access to the internet and all its porn. The option apparently won’t be offered to existing customers. Now, regardless of whether you are opposed to the idea of any filters on the internet in principle, or think the risks of inaccurate systems blocking...

European action on the great flood of child porn

European action on the great flood of child porn

We rarely mention child pornography on this site as we focus mainly on legal mainstream pornography and it’s socio-cultural roots and consequences. We see adult pornography if you like, as one of the most important social issues that we face in tackling both violence against women and wider gender inequality, as well as an important personal issue in the lives and relationships of many people. We have noticed that a lot of content that within adult pornography – such as violent, degrading and abusive behavior towards women – is currently accepted as normal in order to gratify men’s sexual “needs” and feel that this is something we want to address. Whilst child porn obviously also depicts violent, degrading and abusive behavior, its illegal status...

‘The Playboy Club’ TV show gets cancelled

‘The Playboy Club’ TV show gets cancelled

NBC “Closed the Club” today as a result of dismal ratings and viewer outrage, cancelling a series that glorified the sexual exploitation of women and the Playboy philosophy that women are to be used, abused and then discarded. “It is great news that the ‘Playboy Club’ is cancelled after just three episodes. Clearly viewers are not interested in supporting the brand that normalized pornography and caused immeasurable harm to women, children and to the men who became addicted to porn,” said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media, organizer of the site www.ClosetheClubOnNBC.com. According to Hawkins, key NBC advertisers left the show after receiving more than 20,000 emails through Morality in Media’s site. “The efforts of Morality in Media, Parent’s Television Council, Gloria...

Anonymity and denial in porn use

Anonymity and denial in porn use

For all the time I used internet porn it was vital for me that no one find out. I didn’t want people I knew finding out that I was using it, and more importantly didn’t want them knowing some of the often disturbing and overly violent porn I was starting to use more and more. I didn’t want my girlfriend to think she wasn’t enough or wasn’t right in some way. I didn’t want her to see what I had found myself watching and imagine me taking pleasure from it. Men who watched porn were sad, uncool, and lonely, not who I was or wanted to be. I didn’t want her to think of me like that, of me in a dark room, sitting...

London event tonight: Ending Child Pornography & Premiere of Hooray for Hollywood

London event tonight: Ending Child Pornography & Premiere of Hooray for Hollywood

Tonight Amnesty UK will be hosting an event on ending child pornography and also premiering the semi-autobiographical short film Hooray for Hollywood. The event will take place from 7pm to 9pm at Amnesty’s headquarters in central London and will discuss specific action to end the ever-expanding child pornography industry. There will be an expert panel chaired by Raven Kaliana (Director, Writer and c-producer of Hooray for Hollywood). Confirmed panel members are: Donald Findlater – Director of Stop It Now Berlinda Hollows – Supervisor for Childline Dr. Jon Bird – Chair of NAPAC Please visit the facebook page of this event for more information.