Porn Panel At Reality Bites Literary Fest

Yesterday I attended the “Money Shot” porn panel at the Reality Bites Literary festival. I wanted to hear what author Jeff Sparrow had to say about porn and censorship. He has written a book called The Money Shot, which looks at the dysfunctional censorship system here in Australia. This review does a good summary of the book. Also on the panel were erotica and fiction writer Krissy Kneen and journalist Mark Dapin who had worked at adult magazines in the 90s.

It was a rather interesting experience, hearing other people discuss my industry, often from an outsider’s perspective. I didn’t learn anything new: censorship and porn is my life, it’s what I do and experience every day. Still, Jeff did a good job of outlining the ridiculous situation of the way censorship operates here and he made a few interesting points:

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• He visited both Sexpo and the conference of the ultra-fundamentalist group Planetshakers. He said what they had in common was a commodification of sexuality. The religious people are all for preserving virginity and policing young people’s sexuality and in doing so, they are placing a price on sex. The difference, Jeff says, is that the Christians just want you to put a higher price on it.
• Despite the fact that the Classification Board IS our censorship body, it happily gives lip service to the concept of choice. It maintains that adults can see, hear and read what they want and the Classification Board is just giving advice. Jeff points out that this “choice” thing is part of a societal shift in ideology towards a market-driven approach to porn. That it’s no longer a moral thing where an authority on high declares something to be bad. Instead, the belief is growing that individuals should decide what they want to see and they alone should be allowed to make that choice. The problem then occurs when the Classification Board seeks to ban stuff and act in a censorship role. And, of course, the internet renders it meaningless anyway.
• He pointed out the racist ideology behind the Northern Territory intervention that bans pornography in aboriginal communities, even though the NT has some of the most liberal laws regarding censorship in Australia. The intervention was the first piece of legislation that actually uses the word “pornography” but it doesn’t define it. It also relied on no solid evidence that porn was related to child abuse; Jeff said the Little Children Are Sacred report was more concerned about the negative impact of rap music videos.

Lots of other things were said, most of which made me want to put my hand up like Hermione in potions class when Snape won’t pick her to give an answer. I had SO many things I’d like to have said regarding this topic – especially when Gail Dines was quoted and Jeff said she was worth listening to (Mr Snape! Mr Snape! What about the fact that she’s purely ideologically driven and her evidence is ALL anecdotal and misrepresentative!!!) Mark Dapin said he thought the current uncensored state of the internet would not continue and all I could think about was VPNs and how we’ll all be moving down to the next level of the web shortly. And Krissy Kneen said a lot of very sensible things about women’s sexuality and how porn didn’t reflect diversity and I was glad to hear what she had to say.

At the end I put my hand up and made a quick statement about how feminist porn sought to change porn from within and how Australia’s censorship regime is actually making life very difficult for the small but influential group of feminist pornographers who live here. I could have raved on forever but we were out of time.

Afterward I got the usual response from people who discover a very average looking woman actually makes porn for a living. Some were fascinated, others were stand-offish. Actually, I realized today I didn’t distinguish that I was a filmmaker as opposed to a performer. I think it makes a difference. There’s always that look in people’s eyes where I can see them thinking: no way is she good looking enough to be a porn star.

So that’s how I spent my Saturday.