Hyperkinks: ATVOD anti-porn law edition

Posted at 16:33 on 3 Dec 2014 by Pandora / Blake

Tags: anti-porn law, atvod, AVMS, censorship, Extreme porn legislation, Fairtrade porn, fetish art, Gender politics, Hwyel Phillips, Kink activism, Politics, Sarah Bright

Since my post yesterday about the new anti-porn law, there's been a hell of a lot of online media coverage. Please read, share, and help however you can. Let's keep the conversation going.

The Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 - link to the actual legislation, which you should read if you are unsure exactly what sort of content has been banned.

News

• UK porn legislation: What is now banned under new government laws - The Independent
• Pornography law bans list of sexual acts from UK-made online films - Guardian
• United Kingdom Ramps Up War on Porn and Women's Sexuality - AVN
• Spanking BANNED from porn under new government law - what else isn't allowed? - The Mirror, including a viewer poll in which 90% vote that BDSM porn between consenting adults shouldn't be banned.
• The Government is literally going to pay someone to watch porn at a cost of 36k per year - Political Scrapbook.
• Brits ban female ejaculation and sadomasochism - Metro (French)
• Spanking and caning - just two of the sexual acts now banned in British porn films - The Telegraph
• Harsh words banned in British pornography - Breitbart
• An article by the senior examiner of the BBFC for the Guardian which pompously splains the legislation without actually adding any new data whatsoever.

Comment

• Porn censorship - we are all fucked (but without leaving marks) by Girl on the Net. "Its massively ironic that in a world screaming about how important it is for us to teach people the difference between porn sex and real life sex, porn censorship is forcing any kind of sex that doesnt fit the mainstream porn formula (girl sucks guy off, gets fucked facially, vaginally and anally by a succession of dudes before eating all their jizz) off the screen."
• The new UK porn legislation will turn erotic film into boring, unrealistic male fantasy by female porn director Erika Lust. "We should be teaching them about the importance of female pleasure, not censoring it."
• No spanking or bondage: why the governments new porn laws are arbitrary and sexist - New Statesman. "Regulating depictions of these acts those relating directly to female sexual pleasure make it seem like society is at risk from exposure to womens enjoyment of sex".
• British Censors Ban Spanking, Female Ejaculation And Other Sex Acts From Online Porn - Huffington Post
• UK bans spanking and female ejaculation in porn - Salon. "Several of the now-banned acts (for example, all that life-threatening face-sitting) are cornerstones of femdom pornography, which carries explicit (no pun intended) messages of female domination, agency and pleasure. Additionally, regulations on physical and verbal abuse, for instance, completely ignore that concept of consent, despite the fact that it is critical to BDSM and healthy sexuality in general."
• U.K. Censors Online Porn; Spanking, Rough Sex, Other Assorted Kink Banned - Reason. "It's a strange, highly-subjective list of sexual behavior deemed too deviant for folks to be exposed to. (Who knew women orgasming were so scandalous?)"
• The UK Bans Spanking, Female Ejaculation in Porn - Free Thought Blogs. "These prohibitions bear no connection to anything regarding actual issues of sexual ethics such as consent."
• Damaging censorship: BBFC, ATVOD and the web by Valery North. "But the internet? The internet was my saviour! Here, at last, were images and narratives, and personal accounts, of people enjoying sex the way I imagined it. The way I needed it."
• Sex for grown-ups - Sometimes It's Just A Cigar. "These laws are supposed to protect children, instead they treat every adult in the UK as a child."
• A ludicrous, badly written law that criminalises sexual minorities: Pandora Blake on the UK porn restrictions - Free Thought Blogs. "Pornography and other sexual expression is all too easy to censor, since many people arent willing to publicly say that they like it and think they should have a right to have it. And this is even more true for pornography catering to unconventional tastes: as hard as it is to write a letter to the editor saying, Bring back my porn!, its harder still to write one saying, Bring back my kinky porn! But we have to be willing to do this."
• Support Spanking Porn Producer Heroes - Spanking Blog
• From Anarchy in the UK to Censorship in the UK - Mind Chaotica. Some inaccuracies here - non-UK-produced sites will still be legally accessible to UK consumers. This legislation only affects UK producers (for now).
• We Called the UK Ejaculation Police to Find Out Why Squirting Vaginas are Illegal and Jizzing Cocks Are Fine - Vice. "What, precisely, is the difference between a squirting vagina and a jizzing cock? Are we not all human? If you cut us, do we not bleed? If you arouse us, do we not make a damp stain with our junk?"
• My letter against ATVOD censorship regs - Valery North. "The most direct effect will be to force the UKs independent, feminist, fair-trade producers of sexual material out of business, meaning that representations of mutual sexual pleasure, positive informed consent, and negotiation, and which embody the values we should be teaching young people about sex and how to behave towards one another, will be harder to find. Meanwhile, the juggernaut of male-dominated, exploitative sexual oppression will roll on unaffected."
• The War on Pornography - Erotic Review Magazine. "It is not really a war on porn. It is a war on difference." Some good history and context here, although there are obvious flaws in the opening claim that no feminists are challenging this legislation. (See: every other link in this post.)
• ATVOD: what, no gags and bondage?
• New UK Legislation Bans Female Ejaculation, Facesitting, Some BDSM From Streaming Porn - The Mary Sue. "The real kicker on this list is female ejaculation, which, unlike the other conscious acts on the list like spanking or water sports, is a real physical thing that happens to some women naturally when they climax".
• Porn laws: Banning spanking is bonkers and downright frightening - Telegraph
• The Spanking Galleries supports our UK friends against unfair legislation
• UK ban on spanking in porn punishes the wrong people - BaDoink. "There is more than a whiff of anti-feminine groupthink within ATVODs rulings."
• The new porn laws are too far - Aft. "Watching a caning isnt going to make us all go and pummel our partners to death."
• Ten Reasons Why the New Porn Regulations Must Go - Cliterati
• Erotic Thoughtcrimes - Spanking Theatre. "Have you forgotten film is make-believe?"
• A thing about porn (oo-er) - MatStace

Snark

• Other Things Banned by the AVMS Regs (2014) - CJForrest. "Any depiction of tea-making not in accordance with ISO-3103 (anyone putting the milk in first will be shot on sight!)."
• Leaked: The Complete List Of Sex Acts Banned In UK Porn - The Poke. From "rumpy-pumpy" to "meeting the Queen".
• Coalition-approved list of porn restrictions - Innocent Loverboy. These are great. "Trampling: This will depend on the opinion for which the person is being trampled upon. If it is an opinion promoting less restrictions on porn, it is perfectly acceptable."
• Some Pearl-Clutching Prudes In The UK Just Banned A Whole Bunch Of Fun Sex Acts From British Porn - D-listed. This whole post makes me happy. "If you take away spanking and fisting and calling someone a filthy little crumpet, what else is left for you to do? Shake hands before delivering an efficient and dignified blowjob?"

British fetish porn producers

• How the new legislation affects Strand Productions by Sarah Bright. "We have over the past few years moved more and more of our Business away from the UK and whilst in Spain in October we made the final and actually heart-breaking move to take up our Spanish residency."
• The cold, dead hand of the censor by Hywel Phillips (Elegance Studios). "We will not be pre-emptively stopping production. We vehemently object to the suggestion that the censor has the first damn idea about how to signal consent in BDSM scenes, and believe that they should seek the advice of those in the BDSM community instead of presuming that we know nothing."
• New legislation - a post by my business partner Nimue Allen who, like me, is strongly affected by these new restrictions. "I'm angry that it's possible to return from a week of filming consensual, legal sex acts, in a way that allows performers to express their fantasies, to find that suddenly those acts are illegal to film."

What you can do

• Write to your MP. You can cite this EU equality legislation if you like.
• Sign this Change.org petition and this 38 Degrees petition, although the Government are only obliged to take any notice of official petitions. We submitted an official one this morning, I'll let you know when it's been approved. Meanwhile you might as well sign the others anyway, it costs nothing and will only take a minute.
• Donate to Backlash UK, the sexual liberties lobby group who are campaigning against this legislation. Backlash maintain a legal defence fund to help those targeted by this sort of legislation. I've just set up a monthly 20 donation. These are the people who will help us if we get targeted. Give them your money.
• Come to this protest outside Parliament at midday on Friday 12 December. I'll be there.

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