Ms Naughty looks at porn for women, feminism and sex in general
I have a piece of paper that says I can be a teacher. I have no intention of using it unless I’m desperate because teaching in 2008 is a shit job that is undervalued and underpaid. But I suspect that I would have no hope of employment even if I did go mad and decided I wanted to teach. That’s because teachers are supposed to be flawless, upstanding members of Read More …
You may already be aware that Britain is about to pass a law which outlaws the possession of “extreme pornography” (details here.) The law is based on moral hysteria and very bad science and is being shuffled through parliament in a much larger bill full of other issues such as privacy and immigration. Interestingly, the British press has done more reporting on a clause about data loss than it has Read More …
The Australian government seems determined to go ahead with plans to filter the internet at ISP level, making people “opt in” if they want to see adult sites. While the story itself is distinctly biased, the 51 comments listed after it cheered me up immensely. About 95% of them are against ISP filtering, and all make the point that parents shouldn’t expect the government to do their job for them. Read More …
We may have a new government but it looks like they’re going to be just as painfully conservative in some areas as the last lot. On New Year’s Eve (nice sneaky date for it) the communications minister Stephen Conroy announced a plan to filter internet content at the ISP level. This despite the fact that every computer-savvy person knows it just won’t work. Complaints that the plan was repressing free Read More …
There’s been a landslide of depressing things happening here in Australia with regards to censorship and privacy issues. Depressing News Story 1: Australian police can now tap phones and monitor emails for 45 days if they suspect a person is “believed to be connected with child pornography.” I don’t think there’s a lot of checks and balances on this legislation so basically they can say that anyone is involved without Read More …
Well, bugger me with a fish fork. Australia’s Eros Association – which is supposed to be the lobby group for the adult industry here – seems to be perfectly OK with the government’s plan to ban Aborigines from owning porn. The racially dubious laws make it illegal to own adult material in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory and they come into effect today. If you own more than Read More …
Three cheers for 16 year old Tom Wood who, in half an hour, proved that the new Australian government-approved porn filter isn’t worth the smear on an IT expert’s underpants. He’s shown that spending $84 million on compulsory net filtering software is a complete waste of money because teenagers know how to get around that kind of thing. If they want to look at porn, they will. But what I’m Read More …
The German author of a children’s book has pulled the plug on an American book deal because the publishers demanded that she censor images of nude art in the background of her story. It wasn’t even the painted reclining nude woman that caused a problem. Nope. Instead, the publishers were up in arms over a nude male statue, complete with penis. Now, the article about this describes said penis as Read More …
I’ve spent a bit of time mulling over this interview between Susie Bright and author Debbie Nathan (thanks to Violet Blue for the link). They discuss sex panics and censorship and Debbie bravely puts the question out there about whether there’s as much child pornography as popular belief (and the government) suggests. It’s a question worth asking given that child abuse is being used to justify attacks on civil rights Read More …
It’s depressing, but not surprising. The Australian government’s plan to prevent aborigines in remote communities from accessing porn has sparked calls for more censorship. Mr Anderson said that by banning pornography flowing into NT Aboriginal communities, the Howard Government had effectively conceded there was a link between watching the material and acting in dysfunctional ways. “I think what comes out of this is we are now conceding that there’s a Read More …
Dating site Mingle has come up with a very viral way of getting themselves out there – this automatic blog rater. Unsurprisingly, Ms Naughty is an NC-17 blog according to their American-based rating system. They came to this conclusion because: This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: * porn (19x) * sex (3x) * sexy (1x) I feel kind of disappointed. Surely they could have Read More …
I can’t believe that’s the title of this post. The Howard government has announced an “emergency” plan to deal with widespread child abuse among aboriginal communities, especially in the Northern Territory. Beyond banning alcohol and resuming control of communities and land, the government plans to ban X-rated porn. More information here. While I’m all for preventing child abuse (isn’t everyone?), I feel the need to stand up and say that Read More …