Pornography censorship laws are a girl’s best friend

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he new legislation on pornography, censoring a long list of sexual acts, has stirred a great deal of controversy over the past week. The amendments to the 2003 Communications Act, which prohibit any sexual acts depicting violence ranging from strangulation to non-consensual sex and verbal abuse.

The recent legislation, which restricts a total of ten sexual acts, has not been enacted without ample critique. Whilst many liberals oppose the legislation out of support for freedom of sexual expression; many feminists have found the new legislation inexcusable – the legislation restricts the sexual activities of ‘face sitting’ and female ejaculation. Charlotte Humphries, a member of WASS (Warwick Anti-Sexism Society) was outraged upon hearing the legislation – telling the Boar:

“I don’t understand how it could ever be justifiable to ban female ejaculation whilst completely affirming the lawfulness of male ejaculation. This is not acceptable”.

Erika Lust, an erotic film maker, said she was “saddened” by the way the restrictions will affect film makers. In a piece for The Independent, she said: “As an erotic film maker, I’m saddened by what I hear, not only because my fellow producers will suffer as businesses, but because what is most apparent is the enforced restriction on what appears to be acts from which women derive pleasure.”

Whilst many argue that the restrictions on adult film are sexist and have been arbitrarily been put in place – I’m not sure this is actually the case. I must admit, upon initially reading about the legislation I was just as outraged as everybody else, but the legislation is arguably accompanied by legitimate explanation.

Whilst the act of face-sitting has been restricted as smothering – a potentially life-threatening act; female ejaculation, which debatably produces urine upon orgasm, has been banned for this reason – and is being classed as a ‘water sport’ – a sexual act in which urinating takes place.

Although the restrictions upon female ejaculation do seem sexist, it is important to take into consideration the number of women that are actually able to ejaculate – in Masters and Johnson’s famous lab experiments with over 400 women, they did not record anyone who ejaculated at climax;

I believe it is important that pornography is representative of real-life experiences.

A recent survey suggested that as many as 89% of male teenagers view online pornography before actually participating in sexual activity. Young adults are learning about sexual experience from the pornography industry, and so really is it not quite important that adult films are representative of real-life so teenage boys don’t think it’s ‘OK’ to begin physically abusing their partner during sexual activity?

On the whole, I think the legislation is a big-win for feminism and equality – the censorship was not without necessary enforcement. The amount of pornography depicting violence against women in the past are immeasurable and the legislation should come a long way in eradicating the perverse habitual pleasures of inflicting violence upon women.