Ms Naughty looks at porn for women, feminism and sex in general
Yesterday the Victorian cops raided the office of abbywinters.com and arrested its owner Garion Hall. The raid was instigated by a journalist at the Herald Sun who provided the cops with a “dossier” on the site. Garion has since made a statement saying no charges were laid, no hardware was taken and the police were “polite and amiable”. No doubt this won’t satisfy the Rupert Murdoch-run paper which will continue Read More …
The SMH reports the Venice Biennale have rejected a proposal for an art exhibition featuring symbolic drawings of famous genitals. Jacques Charlier, a Belgian artist, had wanted to show the visual puns, each with a written clue, inviting viewers to guess who owned what. For example, Christo’s resembled a parcel, with the clue “wraps in very special things”. The authorities rejected the proposal for fear of offending Venetians and the Read More …
I can’t believe I haven’t read this before. I discovered it via a short story by Cory Doctorow and found myself nodding along as I read. This Declaration was written 13 years ago but it still resonates now, especially as Australia, China, Germany, the UK and US continue to plan ways to censor the internet. I think we Netizens need to reaffirm the ideas behind this: that the internet is Read More …
So… what would the magistrate make of this cartoon, I wonder? Child-like people – with no genitals – obviously engaging in foreplay. These drawings are officially “people” in Australia now and I’ve technically just posted an example of CP. The Love Is… cartoons first appeared in the 1970s when we weren’t so prudish. Wikipedia has a nice rundown of their history. If you think this is a one-off, check out Read More …
Next weekend I’ll be attending a protest rally to speak out against the Australian government’s ludicrous ISP filtering plan. Meanwhile, today has seen several news stories that just make me shake my head in disgust. What’s happening to this fucking country? How did the sex panics get this hysterical? First: Man charged over viral baby-swinging video. A guy who shared a video of a child being swung in the air Read More …
Thanks to Ell I’ve been reading an amazing article at Libertus called Statistics Laundering: False and Fantastic Figures. It carefully and comprehensively dismantles the myth of an “explosion” of child porn on the internet. Essentially, it’s saying that the vast majority of child porn statistics quoted in the media and elsewhere are either inaccurate, wildly exaggerated or simply made up. The author has taken the standard figures quoted by politicians Read More …
Today I’m feeling optimistic about the future of the internet in Australia. Grassroots group GetUp has finally launched a campaign against the clean feed. They’ve already collected 32,000 signatures in a little over 24 hours and the comments are running hot on their site. Apparently they’ve had more emails requesting a campaign on this issue than anything else. There are now protests planned on December 14 in a number of Read More …
Good news: the folks at the Eros Association have decided to get serious and form a political party. They’re launching the Australian Sex Party at Sexpo in Melbourne on Thursday and are hoping to round up the 500 members required to make it officially recognised by the legal system. They’re aiming to put censorship onto the agenda, but they also want to talk about sex education, abortion, contraception, gender issues Read More …
I’m busy busy busy today editing dirty movies so here’s a couple of quick links of interest. * Vice Tries To Bust Me On The Porn Set – Feminist adult filmmaker Tristan Taormino reveals her run-in with an LA Vice squad while filming her latest movie (something BDSM themed, can’t wait). This story provides a disappointing reminder that it doesn’t matter how ethical or feminist or progressive the porn may Read More …
Today’s depressing censorship/thought crime news is that a woman has been sentenced to five years of probation for writing sex stories. Yes folks, for writing fiction. I’ve already posted about this case. It’s difficult to speak out in defense of the author because the stories depicted child abuse, violence and rape – that’s why the government went after Karen Fletcher and her site Red Rose Stories. But this case sets Read More …
I’ve accumulated a number of interesting links regarding Australian censorship, statistics and hot websites so I thought I’d cheat and just whack them all in one post. Firstly, Catharine Lumby, one of the authors of The Porn Report, has given a fascinating talk about the history of censorship and porn to the Sydney Institute. You can find a video of the event here. While despairingly contemplating the state of Australia Read More …
A man in Western Australia has been arrested for receiving porn movies through the mail from overseas. His house was raided by customs officials who seized more than 100 DVDs and he is expected to be charged with breaching importation regulations for “pornography and objectionable material”, listed thus: Includes computer games, computer generated images, films, interactive games and publications that describe, depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, Read More …
A while ago I made a little site called ExExExChurch which is my response to the way some religious groups are fixated on the idea of “porn addiction.” The name is a play on one of the worst culprits, XXXChurch, a insistent rabble of lunatics who believe that masturbation is a sin. Anyway, via Fleshbot I found this news story of another bunch of self-righteous busybodies who are filming the Read More …
Every time I’ve started to blog on this story it’s escalated, and now it’s just crazy. Police have seized artworks and are expected to lay child pornography charges against photographer artist Bill Henson and the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in Sydney. This is because Henson’s works included several photographs of 12 year old girls in the nude. In yesterday’s SMH, the artist explained his work: “I’ve worked with people this age Read More …
A disturbing development in US free speech law – you can now be prosecuted for writing “obscene text.” Author Karen Fletcher was arrested a couple of years ago for offering explicit stories about child torture and sex on her members-only website. Today she has decided to plead guilty to obscenity charges, saying she has agoraphobia and doesn’t want to contest the case in public. So… this is one of these Read More …