Excellent post: Ms. Naughty’s Porn For Women Retrospecive 2009

Image by Vorfas (vorfas.blogspot.com).

There is little for me to add after reading the inimitable Ms. Naughty’s new post, Porn For Women Retrospective 2009 (msnaughty.com). It surprised me to see myself in it so much; I’d forgotten what a big year I’ve had in the media. Never mind me; do not miss her incredibly thorough wrapup of what’s been a hell of a year form women and porn — we’ve come a long, long way in a very short time. We don’t have sexual equality as sexual consumers and sex culture participants yet, but it’s near. What caught my attention is the very serious issue that Australia is facing right now, and it’s one that we’re not hearing nearly enough about in the news/media: Australia’s net censorship filter is going to happen. This is a real, grave problem for all Australians (and I can’t tell you how many emails I’ve gotten from Aussies pleading for some kind of help as this thing is about to come down). I reflect that it’s hot as hell in Australia right now, and snowing here in London, but they’re about to get out in the heat and start protesting over the holidays.

Here’s a snip from the middle of her fabulous retrospective post, in regard to censorship and the Australian filter — it’s appalling:

Censorship

The battle against censorship has continued apace this year. My focus has mainly been on Australia thanks to the ongoing battle over the planned mandatory internet filter but also due to other ridiculous incidences of censorship and sexual oppression.

* In March it emerged that the muddled and very flawed net filter plan involved using the AMCA blacklist, a secret collection of URLs that only selected politicians and bureaucrats were allowed to see. Thanks to the inherently anti-democratic nature of this blacklist, it was promptly leaked to the public on Wikileaks. The list revealed that perfectly legal websites such as Abby Winters, I Shot Myself and Whale Tale had been banned, along with political sites such as an anti-abortion site and a pro-euthanasia one. The ACMA scrambled to change their list and maintained that it only contained child porn links but the incident proved just how much of a slippery slope mandatory censorship will be.

* STOP PRESS – I was still writing this post and the news has come through that Conroy has given the filter a green light. Suffice to say I am NOT HAPPY JAN.

* In July police raided the offices of Garion Hall, owner of AbbyWinters.com, the largest Australian adult site. Egged on by a tabloid journalist who told them the models were underage, officers seized computers but in the end did not press charges. The incident brought to light a lesser-known law that means it’s illegal to shoot “objectionable films” in Australian states. No cases have been brought to test what “objectionable” means.

* In August the Melbourne Underground Film Festival was due to screen Jennifer Lyon Bell’s Matinee, a relatively tame yet explicit depiction of two consenting adults having sex. The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification banned the film without having seen it, preventing the festival from screening it in public. The festival directors pointed out that the OFLC had passed Lars Von Triers’ sexually explicit and violent film Antichrist for another festival because it was “art” but that Jennifer’s beautifully shot example of erotica was considered too dirty for everyday people.

* In July I looked at the inconsistent and hypocritical decisions made by the OFLC with regards to “art vs porn” using 9 Songs as the example.

* In the UK Anna Span celebrated a small victory over the British film censors. [ed. note: link is mine, to my interview with Span] Her movie Women Love Porn had been held back from release for almost two years due to the presence of a female ejaculation scene. The BBFC said it was urine; Anna brought in experts to prove otherwise. The censors begrudgingly gave way although they still maintain that female ejaculation isn’t real. The case highlights how censorship often discriminates against expressions of female sexuality.(…read more, msnaughty.com)