As published on Collective Shout

We recently spoke out about online clothing retailer “Cafepress” advertising vulgar, sexualised clothing for babies and children on its website. Onesies that were made available online included “I Love sluts”…”blow job instructor” and “No gag reflex.” We shared an image of just some of these products on Facebook. Thousands shared the image online and voiced their shock and disgust to friends. Many wrote to Cafepress pledging never to shop with them again.

 

Cafepress posted a response to the protest, both on its own Facebook page and in the comments section of the Collective Shout Facebook page.

It was encouraging to see Cafe Press’s stated intention to remove the products. However weeks after the protest, it appears that Cafepress hasn’t taken this issue seriously at all. “Sexual humor baby clothing” is still a category of clothing on the site with thousands of items listed.

An article about Cafepress published in WA Today featured comments from Justine O’Malley from child abuse prevention organisation Protective Behaviours WA:

“They’re really inappropriate sexualised messages,” she said.

“Of course the infant themselves can’t read it, but other children might be able to and adults can read them; so we’re putting children in a sexualised space.

“Sex and children; those two things just don’t go together.”

You can hear more from Justine O’Malley in an interview on 6PR882 radio. Listen here.

You might like to ask Cafepress why sexualised, hardcore and violating children’s clothes are still available on its website. Contact them through the website here and on Facebook here.

Collective Shout SA coordinator Nicole Jameson

‘Once a self is ceded it’s hard to get back’

Gosh this is good.

It appeared on Huffington Post last month but I’ve only just read it. It is the kind of piece which needs to be read slowly, and a few times, it contains so much to absorb. Here’s an extract:

The problem is determining at what stage she started to cede her self and becomes, in her own eyes, mainly some (bright, young) thing other people see and use.  This process begins much earlier than when a girl is 15 and maybe buying thongs.

In general, parents, schools, counselors, “concerned” adults aren’t openly confronting the unrelenting pressure girls feel to base their self worth on being beautiful, perfect creatures idealized for the sexual and breeding purposes of others. For many people, girls and women are biologically meant to be available to boys and men in these ways. Our default is “Yes!” and “Of course!” You know the kind of being I’m talking about — females whose purpose, abstracted, divine or biological, is to look out for boys and men and guide them to ultimate pleasure and eternal happiness. Hey, aren’t Victoria’s Secret’s models called ANGELS?  What a visually pleasing, totally random and meaningless coincidence.

Once a self is ceded it’s hard to get back.  Regardless of a girl’s or woman’s age, this kind of objectification and “sexualization” results in a performance. It’s not about being a sexual person, it’s about acting out someone else’s idea of a sex object. And… what girls and women want, feel, need and experience are irrelevant unless they help fulfill the dreams of boys and men.  The impact is real, meaningful and measurable. It’s also serious and not at all entertaining.

Girls who conform well and internalize their “thing-ness” don’t miraculously stop doing it when get their driver’s licenses. It NEVER ends. Read the full article here. 

I was interviewed by Leigh Hatcher for Open House on Sunday night. If you’re interested, here’s what we talked about. 

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Dear Mr. Jónasson,

We are writing to express our support for current efforts in Iceland to develop and implement legal limits on violent Internet pornography. As scholars, medical and public health professionals, social service providers, and community activists, we commend your government’s determination to confront the harms of pornography. As part of a comprehensive approach to violence prevention, sex education, and public health, legally limiting Internet pornography will reduce the power of this multi-billion dollar global industry to distort and diminish the lives, opportunities, and relationships of Icelandic citizens.

Especially commendable is your government’s commitment to protect children from the harms of pornography. We recognize in other contexts (e.g., advertising) that children’s unique developmental needs mandate protecting them from predatory corporate interests. As pornography invades children’s lives and psyches at ever earlier ages and with ever more distressing effects, this recognition must be applied to pornography. It is naïve and unrealistic to expect parents and schools to counter effectively the influence of this powerful and pervasive industry. Rather, society must act on its compelling interest in providing a safe and nourishing environment for children. We applaud your government’s effort to exercise collective responsibility for children’s well-being by placing limits on a toxic media environment from which they cannot otherwise be sufficiently shielded.

We are inspired by your boldness and innovation in protecting children, honoring women’s rights to safety and equality, and maintaining the integrity of Icelandic culture against the onslaught of an unrestrained industry of sexual exploitation.

We understand that your deliberations remain at an early stage and that many important aspects of the proposed legislation remain to be worked out. That said, we commend your government’s stated intention to define pornography narrowly (as sexual material involving violence and degradation), thus ensuring Icelandic citizens’ access to the fullest possible range of online information  onsistent with the protection of children and of women’s civil right to equality. As your efforts continue to develop, we would urge you not to be dissuaded by dark invocations of totalitarianism or of an unregulated black market in pornography. The pornography industry could hardly be any less regulated than it is currently, nor could the motivations and methods of the Icelandic initiative differ more starkly from those of authoritarian governments.

From adopting the so-called “Nordic” approach to prostitution in 2009 to banning strip clubs in 2010, and having stood virtually alone among nations in holding banks to account in the wake of the global financial crisis, Iceland is a global leader both in gender equality and in confronting corporate power. We are inspired by your boldness and innovation in protecting children, honoring women’s rights to safety and equality, and maintaining the integrity of Icelandic culture against the onslaught of an unrestrained industry of sexual exploitation. As a group of similarly committed scholars, activists, and professionals across the globe, we stand with you and look forward to seeing the final result of your efforts.

Sincerely,

 Dr. Esohe Aghatise, Executive Director, Associazione Iroko Onlus, Turin, Italy

 Ruthanna Barnett, Human Rights Lawyer, Santa Cruz, California, USA/Oxford, England

 Roseanne Barr, Actress, Producer (“Roseanne”), USA

 Dr. Kathleen Barry, Author, “Female Sexual Slavery” and “Prostitution of Sexuality,” Professor Emerita, Penn State University, USA

 Angela Beausang, Chair, Roks (The National Organization for Women´s Shelters and Young Women’s Shelters), Sweden

 Julie Bindel, Journalist and Feminist Activist, London, England

 Edda Björgvinsdóttir, Actress, Iceland

 Dr. Ana Bridges, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas, USA

 Anne Burns, Health Improvement Lead, Child & Maternal Health, Health Improvement Team NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Scotland, Scotland

 Tanith Carey, Author, “Where Has My Little Girl Gone?” London, England

 Vivien Caldwell, Solicitor, The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscals Service, Glasgow, Scotland, former Local Councillor, Renfrewshire, Scotland

 Elaine Carr, Clinical Psychologist, Coathill Hospital, Coatbridge, Scotland

 Vednita Carter, Founder and Executive Director, Breaking Free (Anti-Trafficking Organization), St. Paul, Minn., USA

 Alexandra Charles, President, Ordförande, 1.6miljonerklubben, Stockholm, Sweden

 Chris Cherry, Director of Communications, South Carolina Democratic Women’s Council, USA

 Collective Shout, Leading Anti-Pornography Organization, Australia

 Dr. Deirdre Condit, Associate Professor of Political Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

 Angie Conroy, Activist, Strategic Advisor, Strey Khmer, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

 Dr. Gail Dines, author of “Pornland,” Professor of Sociology and Chair of American Studies, Wheelock College Boston, Mass., USA

 Anni Donaldson, Violence Against Women Team Lead, West Dunbartonshire Violence Against Women Partnership, Glasgow, Scotland

 Kezia Dugdale, Member, Scottish Parliament, Shadow Minister for Youth Employment, Lothian Region (Labour & Co-op) Scotland

 Sharon Dunn, Scottish Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation

 Matthew B. Ezzell, Ph, Assistant Professor of Sociology, James Madison University

 Harrisonburg, Va., USA

 Dr. Melissa Farley, Executive Director, Prostitution Research & Education, USA

 The Feminist Party of Germany

 Camilla Silva Floistrup, Project Manager, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen, Denmark

 Robert L. Franklin, MS, Sexual Violence Prevention Professional, Virginia, USA Fredrika-Bremer Association (Oldest Women’s Movement Organisation in Sweden)

 Dawn Fyffe, Say Women, Glasgow, Scotland

 Marlyn Glen, Former Member, Scottish Parliament

 Ruchira Gupta, President, Apne Aap Women Worldwide (sex trafficking), India

 Sophie Gwyther, Team Leader, Children and Young People’s Service, Fife Women’s Aid, Scotland

 Professor Simon Hackett and Dr. Nicole Westmarland, Durham University Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA), UK

 Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, President, Federation of Icelandic Artists

 Elizabeth Handsley (Northwestern) Professor of Law, Flinders University; President, Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM)

 Birgitta Hansson, Union President, Sweden Union, Soroptimistklubbar

 Maree Hawken, coordinator, Queensland Women’s Health Network, Australia

 Dr. Susan Hawthorne, Publisher, Spinifex Press, Adjunct Professor, James Cook University

 Ann Hayne, Gender-Based Violence Manager, Coathill Hospital, Coatbridge, Scotland

 Marta Torres Herrero, Violence Program Coordinator, Pozuelo de Alarcon, Spain

 Wiveca Holst, Swedish Expert, The Observatory European, Women’s Lobby

 Derrick Jensen, Author, “Endgame,” Crescent City, California, USA

 Cherie Jimenez, Director, Kim’s Project (Anti-trafficking), Boston, Mass., USA

 Dr. Jennifer A. Johnson, Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA

 Hetty Johnston, Founder and Executive Director, Bravehearts (child abuse prevention), Australia

 Dr. Sue Jones, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, School for Policy Studies, Bristol University, UK

 Guðrún Jónsdóttir, Spokesperson for Stigamot, Reykjavík, Iceland

 Jackson Katz, Ph.D., Director, MVP Strategies, Long Beach, Calif., USA

 Dr. Liz Kelly, Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University London, England

 Jenny Kemp, Coordinator, Zero Tolerance Campaign, Scotland

 Connie J. Kirkland, National Certified Counselor, Certified Trauma Specialist, Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists, Northern Virginia Community College, USA

 Dr. Renate Klein, Associate Professor (retired), Women’s Studies, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Publisher, Spinifex Press

 Elizabeth Koepping, Associate Director, CSWC, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

 Iluta Lace, Manager, Association Resource Centre for Women, MARTA, Riga, Latvia

 Dr. David Levy, Professor and Chair, Business School, University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA

 Dr. Julia Long, Author, Activist, VAWG Services Manager, UK

 Linda MacDonald, MEd, BN, RN, Nurse and Human Rights Defender for Women, Persons Against Non-State Torture, Nova Scotia, Canada

 Finn Mackay, Founder, London Feminist Network; Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol, UK

 Jan Macleod, Senior Development Office, Women’s Support Project, Glasgow, Scotland

 Dr. Ramesh Manocha, Convenor and Chairman, “The Right to Childhood,” CEO Healthed and Generation Next, Australia

 Malka Marcovich, Mediterranean Network Against Trafficking in Women; International Coalition Zero Impunity

 Dr. Betty McLellan, Coalition for a Feminist Agenda, Townsville, Queensland, Australia

 Robin Morgan, Author, Activist, USA

 Kate Morrissey, Counselling and Supervision Services, Manchester; UK Feminist Network

 Sarah Morton, Co-Director, Knowledge Exchange, Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR), University of Edinburgh, Scotland

 Wendy Murphy, JD, Professor of Sexual Violence Law, New England Law, Boston, Mass., USA; Former Sex Crimes Prosecutor

 Pauline Myers, National Chairman, Townswomen’s Guilds, Birmingham, England

 The National Organization for Women’s Shelter and Young Women’s Shelters, Sweden

 Rachel McPherson LLB (Hons) M.Res (Law), Institute for Society and Social Research, Glasgow, Caledonian University

 Eleanor Mills, Associate Editor, The Sunday Times, England, UK

 Bel Mooney, Author, Columnist, UK

 Hiroshi Nakasatomi, Associate Professor, University of Tokushima, Japan

 The Hon. Alastair Nicholson, AO RFD QC, Former Chief Justice of the Family Court and Founding Patron, Children’s Rights International, Australia

 Dr. Caroline Norma, RMIT University, Australia, School of Social, Urban and Global Studies

 Dr. Lesley Orr, Feminist Historian, Theologian; Acting Chair, Zero Tolerance Trust (Fighting Male Violence Against Women), Scotland

 Sue Palmer, Author of “Toxic Childhood,” Edinburgh, Scotland

 Bridget Penhale, Reader in Mental Health, School of Nursing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

 Dianne Post, International Human Rights Attorney, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

 Dr. Helen Pringle, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

 Norma Ramos, Esq. Executive Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Int’l.

 Rape Crisis Scotland

 Rape Crisis Glasgow, Scotland, Emma Ritch, Chair; Isabelle Kerr, Manager

 Eha Reitelmann, General Secretary, Estonian Women’s Associations Roundtable

 Dr. John Sanbonmatsu, Associate Professor, Philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Mass., USA

 Amber Schalke, Feminist Party of Germany; Renate Schmidtsdorff-Aicher, Treasurer; Margot Müller, National Spokeswoman

 Dr. Marsha Scott, Convener Engender, Scotland

 Elaine Smith, Member, Scottish Parliament

 Rt. Hon. Jacqui Smith, British Home Secretary (2007-09), UK

 Gloria Steinem, Writer, Lecturer, Co-founder, Ms Magazine

 Ane Stoe, Ottar (Feminst Organization), Norway

 John Stoltenberg, MDiv, MFA, Author, Washington, DC, USA

 Jacci Stoyle, Amnesty Paisley (Campaign Against Human Trafficking), Scotland

 Swedish Medical Women’s Association, Gothenburg, Sweden (Johanna Berg, National, Coordinator)

 Swedish Women’s Lobby, Gertrud Åström, President, Stockholm, Sweden

 Melinda Tankard Reist, Editor, “Big Porn Inc.,” Australia

 Emily Thomson, Lecturer, Co-Director of Women in Scotland’s Economy Research Centre, Glasgow, Caledonian University

 Liane Timmermann, MillionWomenRise, Wales, UK

 Linda Thompson, National Development Officer, Women’s Support Project, Scotland

 Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, Regional Director, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean; Winner, 2011 Gleitsman International Activist Award (Harvard)

 Megan Walker, Executive Director, London Abused Women’s Centre, London, Ontario. Canada

 Vivien Walsh, Professor, Innovation Studies, University of Manchester, England, Author, “Whose Choice?”

 Lori Watson, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University San Diego, Calif., USA

 Karin Werkman, Researcher, The Netherlands

 Maria Weston, Nurse, National Health Service, Nottingham, England, UK

 Dr. Rebecca Whisnant, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Dayton, Ohio, USA

 Women Graduates’ Association, Dr. Catherine Dahlstrom, Associate Professor, Stockholm, Sweden

 Women’s Front of Norway, Agnete Strøm, International Coordinator

 WOCAD: Women’s Organisations Committee on Alcohol and Drug Issues, Stockholm, Sweden

 John Woods, Consultant Psychotherapist, The Portman Clinic, London, England

On Saturday I appeared on Weekend Sunrise with Danielle Egan, US author of a new book which argues concerns about the sexualisation of girls are exaggerated.

You can watch it here

Beauty Redefined: Victoria’s Dirty Little Secret

The time-wasting, body-hating self-objectification proved to go hand-in-hand with such “bold, sexy, powerful” ideals – though ideal for an industry raking in $5 billion a year and expanding across the globe – is not a great pathway to real progress as females or as a culture

You’ve probably heard VS rolled out a line of lingerie for teens called “Bright Young Things.”As part of the PINK brand for all the teenaged “things” across the world, these undies feature polka-dot hipsters with “Feeling Lucky?” printed on them, a lacey thong with the words, “I dare you” on the front, and so much more. This isn’t some conservative “too sexy, too soon!” cry. This is doctoral research into Victoria’s Secret — a company that profits by selling sexually objectifying and limiting messages to all ages and claiming it is “empowering.” This may give words to the feelings you’ve been having about how harmful this brand is, so read on.

Topless women in newspapers are not ‘tough, rough, challenging’ ideas’

In a piece titled ‘Politician-Led Attack on Media Freedom is a Sentence on the public’, in The Australian last Thursday, Spiked Online editor Brendan O’Neill wrote an impassioned defence of free speech. O’Neill argued that attacks on press freedom were not only attacks on those who write and publish but also on the reader – hurting the “man on the street”. He condemned the “licensing of the press by the back door, the use of extreme financial pressure to make every paper, mag and zine bow before new codes of conduct.” He described (now failed) moves to regulate the press in Australia as a “wicked undermining” of the readers’ right to exercise their own moral judgement about the content. “…restrictions on the press are a sentence on the public, passed by elites who think we morons cannot handle tough or rough or challenging ideas”.

Tough, rough, challenging…

I support him on that. I’m all for giving as many column inches as possible to touch, rough and challenging ideas.

But O’Neill fails the argument when he includes as an example of content deserving the protection of free speech, the Page 3 semi-naked images of women, a regular feature in Britain’s The Sun newspaper. He labels as “censorious feminists” those who condemn the objectified and sexist images (over 87,000 so far in a Change petition, see below). Labelling the images as merely “saucy”, O’Neill mockingly collapsing the argument against them as being “because it makes men rapacious.”

By including The Sun’s Page 3 girls feature in his passionate treatise against the “mugging of press freedom”, O’Neil has undermined that fragile right. I was about to write about why, when I came across this piece by writer and actress Lucy-Anne Holmes, in Women’s Views on News (originally published in Huffington Post). Holmes has summarised it perfectly: “We are all affected by Page Three whether we buy it or not, because we all live in a society where the most widely read paper in the country makes ‘normal’ the idea that women are there primarily for men’s sexual pleasure.”

‘If you don’t like it don’t buy it’ – Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?

Guest post by Lucy-Anne Holmes, writer and actress currently working on the No More Page 3 campaign ‘to take the bare boobs out of the Sun’ newspaper.

This article appeared in The Huffington Post on 15 March 2013.

I’ve got a confession to make. I may have been a bit silly starting the No More Page 3 campaign. You see, someone just tweeted us something. “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it”, the tweet read.

There was I, ballistically campaigning about Page Three being damaging when, oh, I really am feeling very stupid now, because I could just not buy it and everything would be fine. So, I’ll be off then. Sorry about that. Or rather. No. Just no.

There are so many reasons why “if you don’t like it, don’t buy it” doesn’t work as an argument for Page 3, that I will be breaking out the big gun bullet points.

So, here goes. This is for you, Mr If You Don’t Like It Don’t Buy It and all the others before you, and that includes you, Nick Clegg.

1) I was most affected by these images at the age of 11 when my breasts were developing and my brother and his mates would be commenting on Page Three girls breasts everyday. I really looked up to my big brother and this situation taught me that my breasts were only there for men to look at. Mine fell short of the ones that were in the daily newspaper, therefore I was failing somehow and I was ashamed. I didn’t buy it. Read more here.

Click image below to sign the petition. 

Like the ‘No more Page 3′ Facebook page.

There’s been a ton of media coverage on the adultification and sexualisation of children lately. This program aired on Channel 7’s Today Tonight Monday. Click picture below to view clip.

And just a clarification re the KMart campaign. It wasn’t actually me who was instrumental in getting KMart to pull certain items – that win was the result of grassroots protests by a number of individuals and it happened pretty quickly. However I was encouraged to receive a call from KMart CEO Guy Russo personally apologising and a short time after, with Julie Gale of Kids Free 2B Kids, to meet Guy and his staff at the company’s Melbourne headquarters. KMart was invited to sign Collective Shout’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pledge which asks corporates to sign a statement of intention not to objectify women and sexualise girls in products and services. We hope to make an announcement soon.

And great to see this issue get Page 1 treatment in the Daily Telegraph this week.

“There really is a global backlash” – MTR

Netmums website finds parents believe modern life steals kids’ childhood

PARENTS believe childhood ends at 12 and blame pressure from friends, celebrity culture and social media for rushing kids into adulthood.

Almost 90 per cent of parents think modern children grow up faster than previous generations, while one in two parents admit their daughters worry about their Facebook popularity, a survey by the Netmums website has found.

Modern tweens prefer to play alone on iPads, with 83 per cent of their parents saying their favourite activity was playing outdoors.

Boys are under pressure to be “macho” and “good at everything” while girls are under “immense strain to be thin” and sexy before being mature enough to cope.

Do you agree? Tell us below.

The British survey found 54 per cent of parents were angry with retailers, saying clothing for girls was too sexual, provocative and short.

The anger against retailers who foster the “pornification of culture” was growing, said Melinda Tankard Reist, co-founder of campaign group Collective Shout. “There really is a global backlash about forcing children to grow up too fast and telling little girls they have to be thin, hot and sexy to be acceptable,” she said.  Read more here.

IT WAS International Women’s Day last Friday. We were supposed to celebrate but I struggled to get into party mood. 

The 101st anniversary of the global event acknowledged the economic, political and social achievements of women. But the relentless onslaught of harms and injuries to women and girls continues and I wonder, has anything really changed?

Violence against women is a scourge on the planet. Millions of women and girls trafficked into sexual slavery, female genital mutilation, honour killings, dowry deaths, forced marriage, female foeticide and infanticide.

According to the UN, about 200 million girls in the world today are missing. India and China are believed to eliminate more baby girls than the number of girls born in the US each year.

Women and girls are ground down in so many parts of the world. They are at risk of violence at every stage of their lives: from conception to old age. That was vividly illustrated for me during a visit to a shelter for women and girls in Hyderabad, India. On the bottom level were the abandoned baby girls, many with broken limbs from being thrown on to garbage heaps. On the second were the abandoned pregnant girls and women. And on top were the discarded widows.

Every day some new atrocity against women and girls is reported. A 15-year-old girl in the Maldives was sentenced to 100 lashes. Why? Because she had pre-marital sex. Actually she was raped by her stepfather, who killed the resulting baby.

And of course the death by gang rape of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh Pandey in New Delhi. Rape is the fastest-growing crime in India. Delhi’s police commissioner compared women being raped to men being pickpocketed.

The conviction rate for rapes in India in 2011 was just 26.4 per cent. That seems bad, doesn’t it? Compare it with 5.7 per cent of convictions in England and Wales. And in the US, 97 per cent of rapists will get off scot free.

Reeva Steenkamp’s death brought to light that one South African is woman killed every six hours by her partner.

In Australia, violence against women costs the taxpayer an estimated $13.6 billion. Yet the mistreatment of women is routinely used in entertainment, fashion and advertising, even treated as a laugh. At the Oscars, host Seth MacFarlane’s sang We saw your boobs, a song about all the women in the audience whose breasts he had seen on screen.

MacFarlane seemed to miss the rapes and bashings, but at least he got to see naked breasts.

Men’s T-shirts collapse rape into a punch line, with slogans like: “It’s not rape if you yell surprise” and “Relax it’s just sex”, depicting the bound body of a naked woman spattered in blood, sold in youth surf stores. Online retailer Amazon had shirts printed with “Keep calm and rape a lot”. Another in the same line says, “Keep calm and hit her”.

Zoo magazine, read by 28,000 boys aged 14-17 a month, features two halves of a woman and invites readers to describe what they’d like to do to the disembodied half they prefer. Zoo is sold in supermarkets.

Facebook promotes violence against women: “Cleaning foundation off your sword after a hard day of hunting sluts, Dragging sluts into your room unconscious in a sack, You know she’s playing hard to get when she takes out a restraining order, I like my women how I like my Scotch, 10 years old and locked in my basement” are some examples.

“Rape is such a strong word, I prefer struggle snuggle” was shared widely through social media not long ago.

Sexual assault worker Alison Grundy says: “If we continue to subject future generations of young men to great barrages of aggressive, misogynist, over-sexualised and violent imagery in pornography, movies, computer games and advertising, we will continue to see the rates of sexual violence against women and children that continue unabated today. Or worse.”

But there are signs of hope. Women and girls are pushing back and demanding change. We saw it in the streets of India. We saw it in the response to the shooting in Pakistan of Malala Yuousafzai, who was shot because she wanted to go to school.

One Billion Rising (representing the number of female victims of violence) events have been held around the world. In Melbourne last month survivors of sexual assault launched a new book of their stories “We will not go quietly”, speaking out against sexual violence.

International Women’s Day should be an opportunity not to shy away from the difficult ugly truths, or be overwhelmed and depressed, but to name and shame them, harness our anger and be part of the solution.

Published in the Herald Sun March 12 2013

‘The pornification of culture and the normalization of (increasingly violent) porn is contributing to a society where pornography, even the most brutal forms, are in many ways sanctioned, defended as well as protected’

 

By Hennie Weiss

Edited by Melinda Tankard Reist and Abigail Bray, Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry is a compilation of essays by researchers, experts and activists concerning the harms of pornography. All and all there are 40 written pieces divided into five categories; pornography cultures, pornography industries, harming children, pornography and the state and resisting big porn inc.

Overall, the notion is that pornography has found its way into everyday cultures all over the world. The pornification of culture and the normalization of (increasingly violent) porn is contributing to a society where pornography, even the most brutal forms, are in many ways sanctioned, defended as well as protected through legislation. For example, in the United States the notion of freedom of speech (also called freedom of expression) helps protect the production, distribution and purchasing of porn. The stronghold that porn has tends to be contributed to the enormous profitability and influence of the porn industry. As noted in the book, it is difficult to resist and battle the porn industry as a whole, even though small grassroot movements opposing pornography have made significant gains over the last few years. Yet, more knowledge about the industry, the way it harms women and children (as well as men), and the lasting effects of the pornification of sexuality and culture are important (many articles discusses how porn is the same as prostitution).

Even though the many different contributions tend to deal with various aspects of pornography (within the five categories), there are some statements that are generally agreed upon and reiterated throughout the book. In one way or another all contributions contest the notion (most often used by those in the porn industry and those who are pro-porn) that porn does not cause harm and is a form of fantasy. When discussing prostitution, strip clubs, PTSD, sexual and physical assaults, rape, intrafamilial rape, the sexual objectification of women and the spread of child pornography, it should prove to be difficult for anyone to look at porn like mere fantasy, especially since real women and men are involved in the making of pornography. What the different categories of Big Porn Inc brings to light is the fact that the porn industry is not glamorous, as high-paying as many believe, and that women are sexually objectified, dominated, demeaned and degraded. Pornography has also become increasingly violent, and most scenes or movies include physical violence, rape, or the threat of violence. The notion that women are sex objects who like to be degraded and thrive on physical violence is based on a patriarchal backlash to women’s overall gains towards equality.

Besides stating that pornography is mere fantasy, proponents of pornography also often refer to a lack of evidence, or link between pornography use and overall behavior. But the book has that too. Pornography does not only lead to an increase in acceptance of rape culture, but people who watch pornography are less likely to view sex as an intimate act and more likely to engage in gendered violence. Diana E.H Russel writes in the article “Russel’s Theory: Exposure to Child Pornography as a Cause of Child Sexual Victimization”, that watching child pornography can help cultivate sexual interests in children in several ways. It predisposes men to objectify children, it intensifies already existing desires, undermines social inhibitions and internal inhibitions as well as undermines children’s abilities to avoid, resist, or escape sexual victimization.

It is important to note that many of the contributions include explicit language, profanities and words that describe various ways in which women are demeaned, humiliated and abused when discussing different aspects of pornography. Many contributions also discuss notions of rape, group rape, incest or intrafamilial rape, sexual assault, violence and even the killing of animals. Therefore, readers should note that the material might be triggering to some. Even though the language is often explicit in nature, it is easy to understand the links between harm, prostitution, the degradation of women, patriarchy, power and sexual assault made by the contributors. The personal accounts of Stella and Amy (Stella was a stripper and Amy the victim of intrafamilial rape) contribute to a greater understanding and awareness of the harm of pornography and how women are mentally, physically and emotionally impacted by porn culture.

The intended audience could be anyone, both women and men, who are interested in the consequences and harms of the global pornography industry. With its sharp analysis and research, the book can also contribute to changing, or challenging legislature in terms of discussing the harms of pornography, especially when using the findings that makes connections between watching pornography and overall behavior. The book can also be used in the classroom (even though it might be more suitable for students that are a little older) in gender studies, men and masculinity studies, women’s studies and sociology.

What the book does so well is to capture, discuss, analyze and provide evidence for the many ways that pornography is harmful to women and children. We know that pornography is based on profit, capitalism and a patriarchal worldview and is therefore complicated to combat, but when reading the book it becomes difficult to understand why pornography is legal in the first place.

© 2013 Hennie Weiss 

Hennie Weiss has a Master’s degree in Sociology from California State University, Sacramento. Her academic interests include women’s studies, gender, sexuality and feminism.

Published in Metapsychology Online Reviews, February 5, 2013

Big Porn Inc. available here

Dr Caroline Heldman at TedxYouth@SanDiego

What is sexual objectification? Is it empowering? Watch and learn.

Chair of the politics department of Occidential College in Los Angeles, Dr. Heldman appeared in the acclaimed documentary, Miss Representation, and is co-editor of “Madame President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House?” She is a frequent commentator on radio and television and a regular contributor to Ms. Magazine.

The Sexy Lie