Monday 6 April 2015

'In the factories and the laundromats'

'Feminists have rarely demanded that the pornographic material they criticise be banned,' writes Sarah Ditum in the New Statesman. All that happens, she says, is that, for example, 'No More Page 3 asked the Sun's editor to reconsider an antiquated, embarrassing part of the newspaper.'

Well, up to a point. Those of us with longer memories can still recall the Indecent Displays (Newspapers) Bill, introduced to Parliament by Clare Short in 1986. Speaking in the Commons, Short said she'd received around 150 letters of support: 'Many of these women, and I agree with them, think there is some connection between the rising tide of sexual crime and Page Three.'

So not just 'antiquated' and 'embarrassing' then. And very certainly an attempt to ban.

Short added that Page Three of the Sun portrayed women as objects of lust 'to be sniggered over and grabbed at, rather than portraying sex as something that is tender and private.'

The bill passed its Second Reading with a majority of 97 votes to 56. Two Labour MPs voted against it: Austin Mitchell and Andrew Faulds.


Friday 3 April 2015

A new blog

I'm doing some research into the history of pornography and censorship, and wanted a place to write about this a little. Since it may well be that I include some adult material, I thought I'd better start a separate blog.

My main blog is here, and I used to have a blog titled Omniana.