Last week I was one of 12 panelists on the ABC2 program ‘Australians on Porn’. I’d had my hesitations about participating, the producers assured me of fair treatment and a serious discussion how porn was shaping sexual attitudes and behaviours. What transpired was a wank fest and sex industry promotion. We saw and heard from a number of porn performers, representing the vested interests of the industry – but there were no women speaking of how they were harmed in the industry and had got out.
The main takeout for me: do not dare stand in the way of a man’s entitlement to ejaculate to whatever he wants. My attempts to raise critical issues of sexism, rape, violence, and misogyny perpetuated in the most popular porn genres were shouted down. I was mocked for mentioning the ethics of using porn when the woman on the screen may have been trafficked. No one cared. Probably my lowest moment in an hour of low moments was when the ‘sexologist’ Jacqueline Hellyer tried to prevent me from reading this letter from the director of a sexual assault clinic. “It’s not relevant!”, she declared. I was also told to stop talking about facts.
I am the Director a Sexual Violence counselling service and totally agree with your article. In the past few years we have had a huge increase in intimate partner rape of women from 14 to 80+. The biggest common denominator is consumption of porn by the offender. With offenders not able to differentiate between fantasy and reality, believing women are “up for it” 24/7, ascribing to the myth that ” no means yes and yes means anal “, oblivious to injuries caused and never ever considering consent. We have seen a huge increase in deprivation of liberty, physical injuries, torture , drugging, filming and sharing footage without consent. I founded the centre 25 years ago and what is now considered to be the norm in 2015 is frightening. I wonder where we will be in another 10 years!
This photo of host Tom Tilley on a porn set with two porn actresses (the one on the left a panelist on the show), may suggest why it was expecting too much to be given fair treatment. Looks like he had a good time anyway.
Laura McNally wrote this assessment of the program published today on ABC Religion and Ethics.
While it may not be as readily accessible as porn, the research on porn is nonetheless abundant.
Just last week, while the ABC ran a panel discussion on Australian attitudes toward porn, another new study implicating porn made headlines: “Anal sex study shows climate of painful coercion affecting young girls.”
The study found “the main reason that young people also cited for engaging in the act is that boys ‘wanted to copy what they saw in pornography’.”
There are hundreds more studies like this one. So many, in fact, that studies are being combined in meta-analyses to assess the overall trends across thousands of pieces of data: sexual assault study shows link to pornography use; pornography use linked to higher rape acceptance attitudes; nearly half of all young women have been sexually coerced; and so on.
Yet, according to Australians on Porn host Tom Tilley, “How many people end up in extreme situations? … there isn’t a lot of research out there to prove that.” Read more
Laura Pintur, also a panellist on the show, wrote this piece published also on ABC Religion and Ethics a short time earlier.
When I was first asked to join the panel for ABC2’s Australians on Porn program, which aired last Monday night, I was pleased to see a mainstream and respected show like Triple J Hack initiate a debate on the impacts of pornography on Australians – especially its youth demographic.
However, as it turned out, the show was heavily weighted towards the pro-porn camp, with porn consumers, a porn “star” and porn producers dominating the program. Other porn actors appeared in sex scenes in videos along with more porn consumers.
While there were a couple of guys who felt porn hadn’t always been good for them, overall porn was treated as a laugh and the seriousness of the issue trivialised.
Its major focus centred around the use of porn by “mature adults,” and failed to highlight and discuss the issues with the younger generations.
ABC2’s publicity stated that the purpose of the show was to “lift the lid on the commodification of sex.” It certainly confirmed that sex has become an accepted commodity – nothing new there! But did it lift the lid? Did it accurately look at the “costs, the consequences and impact on attitude to sex” as was promised? Read more
The only positive has been the many comments critical of the program on TripleJHack’s Facebook pages and the messages of support I have received personally. And this posted by a 19-year-old (who happens to be my daughter):
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Another example of commercial interests invading the ABC. Reducing funding in retaliation will only force Auntie into the embrace of pirates. If you are outraged by what happened to the ABC, consider what is often seen on SBS as it discovers its roots to pad out its budget. Pornography is not just naked indecency. It goes to an attitude to the gift of life reflected in news reporting and drama. You don’t have to take your togs off to be al pornographer.
Interesting that Lucie Bee should be on the panel promoting porn, oh sorry, ‘women-centred’ porn.
In one of her porn ‘movies’ she is a newly arrived young woman (looking more like a 13 year old child) being interviewed by a middle-aged immigration officer in the UK. Whilst she undresses and closeups are shown of her vagina and anus, the man in question takes neither his shirt nor his pants off. We never see his face; only the back of him-fully clothed. We see him unzip his pants and put his penis into Lucie’s anus and violently ‘fuck’ her with her face squashed into the sofa. She moans and groans more from what appears to be severe pain than pleasure. She then performs fellatio on the middle-aged officer. Again, we never see his face or body; we hear only his voice. At the end of the ‘exchange’, he tells her he has checked her visa and all is well.
Lucie is demeaned, humiliated and raped, and yet women are expected to accept the lie that ‘it’s just fun’. Why is the ABC using obviously damaged young women to push its porn barrow?
‘Probably my lowest moment in an hour of low moments was when the ‘sexologist’ Jacqueline Hellyer tried to prevent me from reading this letter from the director of a sexual assault clinic. “It’s not relevant!”, she declared. I was also told to stop talking about facts.’
Indeed men don’t want to be held accountable by having facts concerning mens’ filmed sexual violence against women being publicly stated by any woman who dares to challenge men and their construction of male sexuality. Facts are only applicable when men can use them to maintain their male pseudo sex right to sexually prey on women and girls with male impunity! The female sexologist which incidentally is a male created fantasy of supposedly studying ‘male sexuality and how women must be exhorted/commanded/forced into submitting to male supremacist constructions of ‘man’s sexuality’ is parotting mens’ lies. Jacqueline Hellyer’s career as a female collaborator of mens’ pornography industry will be very, very short because her career is dependent on male approval and men constantly want fresh female collaborators they can exploit and then toss aside along with their garbage.
ABC2 has finally outed themselves as yet another powerful malestream male supremacist propaganda organisation, which constantly promotes and justifies male pseudo sex right to subject women and girls to sadistic male sexual violence! Furthermore the male owners of ABC2 know this male created women-hating propaganda programme ensured huge profits were earned by the men in charge of this station!
As usual the ‘offenders’ were never named because naming sex of these ‘offenders’ is taboo. So here is a fact which men will swiftly deny and that is all those nameless entities are males and they all enacted their sacrosanct male sex right to subject women and girls to sadistic male sexual violence. Another fact males refuse to accept and that is ‘males believe “sex is not sex” unless the male perpetrator(s) experiences male sexual pleasure by subjecting women/girls to sadistic sexualised torture!
Long live male phallocentricism and male eroticisation of sadistic male sexual violence against women and girls because no male is harmed when he sexually preys on females.
Another fact men constantly deny because they don’t want their male social construction of male sexuality to be debunked and named for what it really is – male pseudo sex right to sexually prey on females of all ages with impunity!
Who’s this ‘so called’ sex therapist? Are you kidding me? More fact gathering on my part required for sure, which indeed I will do. Sounds like more than this idiot with a cereal box degree would do! Hope she goes out of business REAL FAST. She has ‘no time for the facts?’ – Ive got all the time in the world to make her bullshit, self serving, public harming opinion a crucifying toxin! Food costs money darlin’! And if I’ve been misled by this copy – I will apologise and listen.