When you take a good look at a great many anti-porn arguments, when you read their newsletters and websites, you will often find a disproportionate amount of news, articles, and essays on Child Pornography.
Child Pornography is the rallying battle cry for a great many anti porn advocates, and well it should be. Kiddie porn is not only illegal; it is not what the majority of porn watchers are buying, it is, in fact, repulsive and harshly condemned by a great many porn fans, performers and producers. It is not the product of the legal industry or those whom use porn responsibly.
Yet it is one of the chief factors used in condemning the industry as a whole.
Why is that?
Because it’s a great way to get people to hate the industry as a whole. No one here condones child pornography, nor denies its existence or the vile nature of it, but child porn and adult porn are two entirely different things, and lumping them together serves the anti-porn agenda of battling against all pornography. Kiddie porn packs one hell of a gut shot that consenting adults screwing on film does not…
And that’s why it’s so prevalent in anti-porn arguments. Take a gander at a few anti-porn sites; you will note that a disproportionate number of their stories are on child porn. No one can read those stories without their guts twisting, and for those who do not know better, child porn becomes the default thought associated with the word porn, and anyone who likes porn moves from filthy perv to filthy pedophile. And that drives up anti-porn support.
It also blurs the issue with unfortunate consequences. Focusing attention on child pornography as a problem unto and of its own is a good thing. The less child porn, the better. However, when the anti porn crowd mixes it in with a fight against adult pornography, they are dividing time and resources. They are also fostering inaccurate stereotypes of adult porn producers, performers, and consumers. They are, in essence, using fear and panic to strike out at the industry as whole, rather than at an illegal activity that could use the attention.
And who does this benefit?
No one but the anti-porn movement.
A sanctuary for supporters of sexual free expression and the adult sexual media.
It's a time honored tradition with any sort of sex panic, or for that matter any sort of stone-the-deviant movement. WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDRENSSS
ReplyDeletebecause, even if we're not talking about actual kiddie porn, some child somewhere might see your deviance, and the world would come to an end, the way it does.
no, i don't think pr0n is appropriate for kids. I also think there's a fuck of a lot more I'm worried about wrt kids -before- did they see dirty pictures on the Internets. like: do the parental(s) have time to spend with 'em, or are they too busy trying to work three jobs just in order to put food on the table? like: is there anywhere after school for the kid to go. like: is the kid getting a decent education -somehow-. like: does the kid have adequate healthcare. like: does the kid have a safe shelter. like o i don't know does the kid even have a realistic grasp on what human sexuality -is-, or are they being alternately frightened by lies and horror stories and titillated by flickering images, so that they're actually -more- likely to get pregnant too young and catch disease and not know how to speak up for themselves and...
all questions a lot of the most avid anti-pr0ners are no more interested in than what do you do with the dear little fetus -after- it comes out of the womb.
you know what i really love, too? how women-and-children get conflated also, in some worldviews.
but yeah, certainly most gay rights groups are well familiar with -that- little tactic.
ReplyDeleteTHEY PREY ON THE INNOCENT
oh yeah, and for that matter a lot of pogroms were fostered with the story that Jews used Christian babes' blood to make their matzoh.
"Who knew?"
...gah, i am having the -weirdest- sense of deja vu. or was. okay gone now. anyway.
Right on, Ren.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Ren.
ReplyDeleteThe Susie Bright/Debbie Nathan did a great job w/ this issue, esp. bc a lot of people are too afraid to even broach the subject.
Also, one thing that really irritates me is the lumping together of "women and children." It infantalizes adult women and serves to remove their agency and cast them as perpetual victims. It also downplays real child victims.
ReplyDeleteyou know what i really love, too? how women-and-children get conflated also, in some worldviews.
Yeah, that. ;)
Sorry BD, didn't read your comments before I posted!
Well, the whole moral panic over "barely legal" porn is an attempt to play on that fear, because, god forbid, some 18-year olds might be able to pass for 16. But if the minimum porn age was moved up to 21, you could put money on antis going on about, omigod, those girls look like they're 18!
ReplyDeleteIn other words, they're going to milk any grey area for everything they can get.
tbh, i don't even really like shit like Abby Winters, because I think most of the women/girls look too young. but, no, they aren't -children.- the "barely legal" fetish does squick me out personally, though, i gotta say. i don't mind age-play-, but i don't like feeling uneasy about the actual models.
ReplyDeletealso i guess i just think older and curvier is sexy anyway...
"the "barely legal" fetish does squick me out personally"
ReplyDeleteit did me for a long time too. still can in some circumstances, but not all.
fair enough.
ReplyDeletei'm a lot more okay with it in print; but well whatever, like i said, "barely legal" is still legal, the fact that i find it squicky isn't sufficient cause by itself to -do- anything about it, except not watch it.
yeah, back to the OP: i get the needing to bring it up, but i also think, like i said, it's a time honored red herring, and i think that it becomes important to not let them frame the debate in that way at all; you know, very firmly, "We are talking about adults. You do understand that adults are not children, right? Because I fail to see how treating adults like children is helpful to any actual children; more to the point, it is not acceptable behavior for adults to attempt toward other adults. Which is why we're here. Now..."