Tired of being lectured on the liberating effects of the Australian Sex Party, which fielded candidates in the recent by-elections in Bradfield and Higgins, I sent this to the Courier Mail yesterday.
Re Paul Syvret’s sycophantic puff piece for the Australian Sex Party (December 8). The party should employ him to handle their PR.
The Australian Sex Party continues to spin the line that pornography is a harmless pursuit, despite growing research linking porn consumption with sexually callous attitudes towards women and girls, contributing to violence against them.
The sex industry body, the EROS foundation, launched the sex party. At the same time, its secretary David Watt was importing adult sex magazines that glorify sex with young girls, rape and incest.
The titles imported by Watt’s companies, Namda and Windsor Wholesale, are supplied to milkbars, supermarkets and petrol stations. The publishers claim the girls are 18+ years but the content and images deliberately make them appear younger, and more akin to child porn.
The girls are posed in pigtails, wearing braces, school uniforms and surrounded by soft toys. They are depicted as desperate for sex with older men.
One young girl is shown exposing her sexual parts, with the words “I’m ready for my first time”. She is holding a pink hand puppet. Other headings read: “Virgin Violations, forced entries”. Some issues advertise : “Disobedient daughter XXX DVD’s…Don’t tell mom!” and “All in the family”.
All these examples are from magazines imported by companies linked to an office bearer of the Eros Association. Does the Australian Sex Party think this content is harmless and worthy of protection?
A Crikey contributor was also singing the praises of the party this week. “The party also aims to prosecute child p-rnography rings globally…” the article says.
Really? Then why doesn’t it do something about what is essentially child porn which the creators get away with by using young women posed as children?
Maybe Eros should prosecute its secretary for bringing this stuff into Australia?
Gail Dines, in a soon to be published book chapter titled Childified Women: How the mainstream Porn Industry Sells Child Pornography to Men, writes:
“…More men than ever now have the opportunity to masturbate to pseudo child pornography (PCP) images of ‘girls’”. Dines points out that what pseudo child pornography and actual child pornography have in common is their aim to “sexually arouse men to images of sexualized ‘children’”.
And in another powerful paper Thinking through the unthinkable: ‘legal child pornography’ and the commodification of sexually abused children’, Dr Abigail Bray (who has an outstanding analysis of the Bill Henson issue in Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls), writes that pseudo child pornography eroticizes incest, rape and sexual assault.
That pro-rape pseudo child pornography websites…are able to avoid child pornography censorship laws merely by making an unsubstantiated claim that their ‘models’ are 18 or over suggests that legal child pornography is a more accurate description than the term ‘pseudo child pornography’. But normalizing child sexual assault as merely another ‘tidbit’ on the expanding online pornography menu, legal child pornography also intensifies the normalization of the paedophilic-centered sexualisation of children within mainstream culture.
The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (Censorship) is supposed to be examining the issue of this kind of pornography in corner stores, milkbars, 7-Elevens and petrol stations (including McDonald’s and their co-branded petrol stations) in April next year (a delay of six months – it was originally to have been looked at in November).
Julie Gale of Kids Free 2B Kids has written a damning submission to SCAG about the stacks of titles she found in Melbourne stores, extolling the delights of sex with children, rape and incest. The secretariat has taken weeks to consider if it can even distribute the submission to the Attorneys-General censorship working party because of the images Gale included which were taken from teen porn titles.
Which is kind of ironic when the magazines are sold at kid’s eye level in the same places they go to get ice-cream. If the images area too graphic to show those responsible for the laws on these magazines, why should they be out in the public domain and so easily accessible?
Remember, these are images which normalise sexual abuse, rape, incest and child porn. They also serve to trivialise women and children who have been and are sexually abused by pedophiles.
And meanwhile, this headline in the Courier Mail last week: ‘Porn not bad for men – study’.
The opening paragraph:
ALL men watch pornographic videos but it does not impact on their sexual habits or their relationships with women, a Canadian researcher has maintained after a two-year study.
And how does Montreal University associate professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse arrive at this remarkable conclusion? With an entire research cohort of…wait for it…20 male porn users.
… after appealing to some 2000 mostly women students to take part, 20 heterosexual men agreed to discuss their sex lives in depth.
And that’s how we know that porn is good for all men, everywhere, all the time.
24 Responses
It embarrasses and disappoints me that mainstream media is so unashamedly keen to speak positively (and therefore selectively) of the Australian Sex Party. It really seems they’re afraid to appear prudish but in doing so they are essentially endorsing a party that puts children in danger.
They really need to be held accountable for distributing child pornography. Having a woman posed as a child does not change the fact that the men buying these magazines with their bread and milk are getting off on the idea of a child wanting to have sex with them. I feel frightened for any child who would come in contact with such a man.
If the sex party end up in my electorate, I will be letting other voters know what the sex party stands for, including “virgin violations.”
Thank you, Melinda Tankard Reist, for exposing the hypocrisy of the Australian Sex Party. If the ALP and the Liberals really do oppose the exploitation of women, they will preference the ASP last – and ensure its demise.
I am actually a little surprised that ordinary types in the media and elsewhere have not been just a touch miffed by the presumption and hubris if the Aus Sex Party and Eros. After-all, human beings have been doing pretty nicely sexually for much of human history and pre-history without them. Sure, there have been some unfortunate periods when confusion or repressive ideas became more common in some societies. But modern Western society,is not especially better and is in many ways far more repressed and uptight about sex and body image. The bawdiness and matter-of-factness of Don Quixote or Shakespeare should give us some hints. Yet Fiona Patten, Eros and their Sex Party have this crazy idea that they have the monopoly on sex. You could say they do, if you mean that sex is about the invitation to get off to sex with pretend children and teenagers, sex without emotional connection or commitment, sex with symbolized gestures of violence and coercion, sex as exhibitionism etc, Yeah that should qualify them for seats in our Houses of Parliament participating in the serious business of government for everyone…
Rather than using the recent Higgins and Bradfield by-elections to send a message about the unacceptability of the Sex Party’s links to child porn and of its porn harm denialism, sadly the Greens political party seem to be keen to be in bed with them. Despite his support for protecting kids on-line through ISP filtering of porn, Higgins Greens candidate Clive Hamilton put Fiona Patten third on his how to vote card http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_67AKkoR0exk/SxcqkBTc1UI/AAAAAAAAAQk/4f85zxlc2iE/s1600-h/how-to-vote-lg.jpg. Patten didn’t return the favour though, putting Hamilton sixth out of ten http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_67AKkoR0exk/Sxhh952DAnI/AAAAAAAAAR0/1qBk0XCCGuk/s1600-h/Higgins+how+to+vote.jpeg probably out of spite for his stance on protecting kids from porn. In Bradfield, the Greens candidate Susie Gemmell put the Sex Party fourth out of 22 candidates http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_67AKkoR0exk/SxiC5RrrKXI/AAAAAAAAASE/9SfV18fBM4E/s1600-h/bradfieldGRN-HTV.JPG – a ranking which sends a message to the community that the Greens think the Sex Party is mainstream. The Sex Party gave Gemmell its second preference and its seems the Greens did not object to the possibility of receiving tarnished votes. In the late 1990s, mainstream politics rightly rejected Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party and put it last on how to vote cards – a principled position for which the The Nationals in particular paid dearly at the ballot box. It’s a shame the Greens are not as principled.
Every addiction is slavery and pornography fed Sex Addiction is the ultimate slavery. Read “Out of the shadows” author: Patrick Carnes, Psychologist.
I welcome any political party that encourages us in society to have a healthy view about sex. But if the ASP think that this is what they are doing, I am seriously baffled. Their stance on pornography – of ANY kind – shows that they miss a major point about what makes sex wonderful. What makes sex wonderful is intimacy – and much sexological research backs this up. The fact that human beings are one of the animals that realease the monogamous ‘bonding’ chemical Oxytocin when we have sex suggests (and I quote Sexologist Patricia Weerakoon) that there is no such thing as casual sex. This suggests that the best sex for human beings is INTIMATE sex, and that assuming that sex is just another bodily function that we can do anywhere anytime with anyone is a practice that is bad for us. I don’t think people think hard enough about the emotional consequences of so called casual sex – and the pornification of our culture must be partially responsible for this mindset. Pornography sends a message about sex that is totally devoid of intimacy. Any political party that claims to be knowledgable about good sex and yet fails to confront this point has missed the mark.
What is an even bigger tragedy is the emotional and psychological harm that is done to porn stars themselves from working in the industry. The fact that so many porn stars’ lives have ended in suicide or drug overdose fits with the sexological evidence that human beings are meant for intimate sex. It is no suprise that being a porn star would cause great psychological damage. If the ASP really cared about human sexuality, they would promote intimacy in sex.
Promiscuity a la pornography is meant for rabbits, NOT HUMANS!
Thanks Melinda for your continuing struggle to expose some of the shocking practises that some want to make mainstream. You would hope that the Courier Mail will have plenty of responses complaining not just about the quality of the Canadian study, but the heading too- which is obviously misleading at best.
Why isn’t there enough evidence to lay a complaint with the electoral commission to have this party deregistered and laid to rest for ever? Surely they are violating some rite for the protection of our children from sexual predators?
Where are our politicians who must put a stop to this hideous party being on the ballot papers? The sex party had great coverage in the North Shore times in the Bradfield by-election even going so far as depicting the female candidate poll dancing. Why in a really conservative area is the local paper giving these people great exposure? This is the evidence of a break down of the basic morals of society where enough is enough.
So how many days ago was it that Mr Rudd stood up on national television and apologized to the forgotten children? apologized for abuse, mistreatment etc.
In how years will the then pm be apologizing to these generations of children for the rape , violence and stolen innocence.
How interesting that the media can be silenced on some issues and not others. Canberra has the greatest support for pornographic resources. Scarier still is the number of women who support and promote porn. ( caring , feminine, maternal- not)
Thank you for your exposure.
Also amazing is the fact the Liberals in Higgins preferenced the ASP at number 5 (out of 10 total candidates). It’s no surprise the Greens gave the ASP a high preference given the Greens are almost as perverted in their policies on subjects from censorship to same-sex marriage, but there is no excuse for the Liberal Party not to put ASP last. Instead they put the One Nation candidate last! What does the Liberal Party think? – that a person who wants to abandon multiculturalism is a bigger danger than someone who wants no limits on porn and sexploitation? Give me a break!
The adrenalin connection needs to be recognised in this issue, and indeed holds the key to the an important means whereby so-called soft porn users become addicted to child pornography;
Judith Reisman many years ago in her study “Images of children, crime and violence in Playboy Penthouse and Hustler magazines”,stated that when unsuspecting male is turning the pages of a pornography magazine, and comes upon an image of a model made out to look like a child, he most usually has a response of ANGER…(at the sexualization of children) an emotion attended by adrenalin. However, due to the fact that he is reading a pornoraphy magazine he interprets it as arousal. Therein lies the powerful deceit. He assumes that his adrenalin response is sexual atraction, and starts to question his previously held taboos and become vulnerable to real child pornography.
The adrenalin response is also misread and used to increase arousal and therefore addiction and dependance when an image which challenges some other deeply held belief..i.e. the example given was a model presented as a Jesus figure on a cross. once again anger, because of the circumstances, is interpreted as sexual arousal.
I saw Judith reisman in australia at her seminar in 1988.. and remember this information from then, such was the power of her presentation. If only men knew half of the subtle and conniving ways used to increase addiction to pornography , it may just help them to be less manipulated by it, and prayerfully, that they may actually become free from the addiction.
A very dark hour is looming over this nation if it continues to water down and nuetralise its young people. The australian sex party should be destroyed from its very roots and should have no place in any arena in Australia. We need to fight together to end this disgraceful group of “no bodies” having any say and support on any relevant issue. It is a warning to our government that they have lost control and are becoming lukewarm if they continue to support this party by not stepping in and saying ” NO”. The young people of australia are being brainwashed by this hypersexualised image that is being trumpeted all over the nation. Who will stand up for the innocent, the young girls and boys who this party is out to destroy. If the government does not step in, then the hour we live in becomes darker and darker. Is there anyone out there who cares for our young people, i back you and want to join you in breaking this sickness over our beautiful nation, thankyou Melinda.
“The sexual exploitation industry is an equal opportunity toxin – it’s an industry that damages the viewers, damages the performers damages the partners of the viewer and the performers and damages the children of the viewers and performers. That’s pretty much everyone who is in any way touched by this industry. Some people say, “but these people have consented and consent makes it okay.” How does consent make it okay? Consent does not make it psychologically healthy, ethical, moral, legal or good for society or mitigate the damage that is produced by this industry”.
Dr. Mary Anne Layden Ph.D. Co-director, Sexual trauma and Psychopathology Program, department of Psychiatry, University of Pennysylvania.
Anyone who can read should grasp the idea behind the name ASP. That the Liberal and Labor parties have chosen to put the ASP member high on their voting cards says volumes about the insight some of our politicians have (let alone their morals). Australians seem two-faced on the sexification of girls issue. If they had daughters of their own it would be hoped their stance would be more enlightened. Why don’t we realise that pornography is harmful and that trivialising it does not make it less so and stop hiding behind the “victimliess crime” sobriquet I’ve heard used.
Simon Louis Lajeunesse’s “research” has a strange ring to it – rather like the Kinsey Report. But let’s hope we don’t have to wait as long to have the former exposed for the fraudulent conclusions drawn by the author.
Good on you, Melinda. Your work is invaluable. Excellent quote, Barbara & Keith.
Porn really is a useless, I cannot think of any use for it, good to see there are some people willing to stand up against it, I get called many names referring to my sexual preference being anything other then it is, all beacuse I say that I dont watch porn, I have never pushed my views on anyone, but I am beginning to see the effects of long time exposure, child rape and sexual abuse within families is rife, it will take a strong few to start the tide to turn, although porn is not the only reason for this, it is defiantly a factor.
MEN OF THIS WORLD, STAND, BE STRONG AND BECOME ALLYOU WHERE MENT TO BE, NOT HIDING AWAY WITH YOUR UN-ACCEPTED MATERIAL, YES THATS RIGHT, IF YOU TRULLY BELIVE PORN IS GOOD PUT IT ON DISPLAY AND BE PROUD OF IT!
THOUGHT SO, NO TAKERS, IF YOU HAVE TO HID IT, IT IS AN ADDICTION OR WORSE WRONG.
Excellent article. Thank you for highlighting these issues.
Your thoughtless article is a disgrace! By equating pornography with child pornography (two very different things!) you are trivializing those who are victims of paedophilia.
Do you even know what the 8th Commandment is?
Or, to put it in terms you may understand, do you know what the “pseudo” 8th Commandment is?
You lot are all a bunch of idiots, who obviously CAN’T think for them selves.
Please leave GOD out of politics.
Stop trying to treat grown adults like children.
Ever heard of live and let live? No course you havent!
Youre too stupid to have.
“By equating pornography with child pornography (two very different things!) you are trivializing those who are victims of paedophilia.”
Rebecca, did you read Melinda’s article? I will quote for you:
“One young girl is shown exposing her sexual parts, with the words “I’m ready for my first time”. She is holding a pink hand puppet. Other headings read: “Virgin Violations, forced entries”. Some issues advertise : “Disobedient daughter XXX DVD’s…Don’t tell mom!” and “All in the family”.
The “women” if indeed they aren’t underage, are posed to look underage. Read the above again, does that sound like regular pornography to you, or child pornography? This article is not “trivialising those who are victims of pedophilia” rather it is taking the depiction of child pornography very seriously. Everybody gets hurt when we encourage men to view children as objects of sexual desire, including the real children who they eventually act out their fantasies on after viewing the child focussed pornography readily available in corner stores.
Love this post! Thanks for this. I’ll be sure to come back again. P.S: I’ve bookmark your site as well.
I just wanted to thank you for publishing this article. I have several friends on facebook whom I am constantly being sent updates about the Australian Sex Party and their policies. It is really frustrating because I just felt uncomfortable with it and didn’t really have the words or evidence to say why it p**sed me off so much but your artilce encompasses all my feelings and now I don’t have to sit there in silence receiving bulletins about The ASP. Thankyou!