Feminism, sex and censorshipFeminism, sex and censorship
The self-appointed guardians of the nation's morals are on the march again, this time under the leadership of Senator Richard Alston, National Party leader Tim Fischer and treasurer Peter Costello.
Last week, these moral giants launched another holy war in cabinet, arguing to ban all R-rated material on pay TV. Their move coincides with another cabinet debate around a submission from attorney-general Daryl Williams to tighten the X classification to remove simulated sexual violence, the appearance of "under-age" sex and "excessive fetishes" from videos.
During the election campaign, the Coalition agreed to the demands of the right-wing religious lobby, vowing to ban X-rated pornography — currently legally only available in the ACT and Northern Territory.
Many prominent feminists have supported moves to censor porn on the spurious grounds that it causes, or even is, violence against women, and that sexualised images of women are central to maintaining and perpetuating men's dominance. Their consequent alliance with the anti-sex, anti-feminist pro-censorship forces is an Achilles heel for the women's movement.
It's true that the image of women presented in much pornography is degrading and exploitative — pornography is, after all, a product of a society founded on women's oppression — but it is not true that it causes women's oppression. Censorship will not help bring about women's liberation.
There is no equals sign between sexist and degrading images of women and sexually explicit imagery. In fact, sexist imagery in material that is not "pornography" is far more widespread and many times more influential than porn.
Banning pornography will only drive it underground. And who decides what is to be banned? Government bureaucrats, the police and the courts are far from women-friendly, and it is no surprise that censorship has traditionally been used to suppress the voices, not of those who profit from the marketing of sexist images, but of those least able to be heard — gay and lesbian publications and safe sex campaign materials, for example.
Only by opening up pornography and the associated area of eroticism for public discussion can we begin to deal with the distortions of human sexuality under capitalism. Openness about what was traditionally considered "private" or "hidden" — incest, domestic violence, differing experiences of sexuality — has served the struggle for women's rights well in the past.
A more repressive sexual regime always narrows women's choices. Feminists seek both to provide an analysis of women's oppression and to promote women's liberation by campaigning for greater freedom of choice in our economic, social and sexual lives.
We have a responsibility to counter images that are sexist or exploitative — not by seeking to have them banned, but by initiating a much wider, deeper debate about sex and sexuality, by campaigning for better sex education in schools and by creating more informed, tolerant and responsible social attitudes to the expression of consensual sexuality.
In the process, consistent feminists support more freedom to produce, distribute and consume material we find erotic, especially that produced by women, for women.
Feminism and censorship have absolutely nothing in common.
By Lisa Macdonald