The BBC published quite a sensible article today about porn, and the upcoming move to criminalise consumers. I have little to say that hasn’t already been said in the article, so a few quotes:

“Do you ban alcohol just because some people are alcoholics?”

“The government is effectively walking into people’s bedrooms and saying you can’t do this. It’s a form of thought police.”

“If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence [...] Having engaged in it consensually would not be a crime, but to have a photograph of it in one’s possession would be a crime. That does not seem to make sense to me.”

 
I fully support the criminalisation of producing violent pornography involving non-consensual persons, but to criminalise the ownership of a photograph or video of something consensual is ridiculous.

There was a similar debate at FEM08 on Saturday; it has been argued that lap-dancing clubs should be shut down and sex work should be made illegal. The sex industry can be degrading to women, and dangerous too: there is no denying that women are trafficked and forced to prostitute themselves against their will, but equally, there are women who choose to work in the sex industry and make their living from entertaining men safely and legally. Why should they suffer? There is an estimated 300,000 sexual assaults, 47,000 rapes and another 40,000 attempted every year; of those, only 5% reach conviction. This is the lowest ever number for the UK and one of the lowest in the UK.
One of my biggest questions on this issue has always been “why do men rape?” - now it’s obvious: because they can.

The panel at FEM08 included Julie Bindel, who almost took over the entire debate and claimed that no woman chooses to work in the sex industry, and even more ridiculously that “each time they [men] pay for sex, they are paying to rape!” - because clearly all sex workers are victims and all men are bastards, right? Oh, no, that would just be Bindel going on one of her anti-men tirades again.

To put a blanket ban on sex work would be dangerous: currently, only brothel-keeping and soliciting on the street is illegal in the UK. This allows sex workers to find neutral safe spaces to entertain men.
In Sweden, buying sex is illegal. It still happens, but to avoid the law, sex workers have been driven underground. They can’t find safe spaces and this just allows for more rape and abuse. If we do this to sex workers in our country, the statistics are not going to get any better.
Women will be abused, or worse, and not go to the police because if they do, they’ll be arrested themselves. Previously safe situations will be made unsafe and the culprits will realise that they can get away with it, and do it again and again.

The suggestion that porn motivates men to rape is wrong: there’s no motivation needed. If a man is sick enough to want to rape in the first place, they need no encouragement.

It is not time to ban sex and porn. It is time to find out why women are being denied justice and do something about it.