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Original poster

to think that a Europe wide ban on pornography is nuts?

199 replies

ophelia275 · 09/03/2013 11:42

The European parliament is seeking a ban on all pornography across Europe.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/european-parliament-votes-on-call-for-porn-ban-8527229.html

I don't think all pornography is bad and I think it serves as an outlet for both women and men to release anger/sexual frustration etc. I don't think a ban would be a good idea because there would always be ways around it and suppressing pornography would just result in more violence and sexual aggression imo. I also don't think there is anything inherently wrong in looking at naked photos of the opposite sex and satisfies a natural urge.

Sometimes I wonder what the EU is going to try and ban next on the grounds of protecting our rights?

OP posts:
LineRunner · 09/03/2013 18:29

Thanks, Murder.

Seems reasonable to me.

pollypandemonium · 09/03/2013 18:33

Are you saying that there was a Resolution on 16th December 1997 calling for a ban of all forms of pornography... etc? So we should have had no pornography for the past 15 years?

flatpackhamster · 09/03/2013 18:33

pollypandemonium

I think pornography is a bit like processed meat. It looks healthy and the government say it is safe in moderation but the long term effect it has is toxic.

Processed meat isn't toxic.

We didn't have it before, it's poisoning our children, why object to a ban?

We did have it before. Porn has been around since forever. Take a look at the frescoes at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Take a look at the carvings on the Karma Sutra palace. Porn has been around forever.

There's no evidence that porn is 'poisoning' anyone. Number of peer-reviewed papers showing a detrimental effect = 0.

I object to a ban on libertarian grounds - it is not your place, nor is it the place of bureaucrats or vicious socialist MEPs, to tell me what it is acceptable for grown-up, functioning adults to look at.

morethanpotatoprints · 09/03/2013 18:35

LRD.

Yes there should be more done to promote the existance of such schemes. However, many wouldn't want this intervention as they are suspicious of the aims and objectives. The girl I helped knew of schemes but was scared she would be prosecuted. Another girl I knew believed she would never get such a well paid job to keep her dc in the style they had become accustomed to. Obviously they had no idea what mummy did, they were secure in their private school. Mummy was filming and humping.

5madthings · 09/03/2013 18:39

I havent seen that advert but using men or women as simply a 'body' to sell stuff is a bit crap imo.

We have come along way with feminism.but the representation of women in mainstrean media is crap. 'sex sells" andthats why its used, i dint yhink its particularly good or healthy and i am concerned about childten today groing up in a culture and society where the proliferation of the media, advertising is so huge. It has a big impact and not necessarily a good one.

pollypandemonium · 09/03/2013 18:40

flatpackhamster

processed meat is toxic

internet porn hasn't been around for ever

stop kidding yourself

LRDtheFeministDragon · 09/03/2013 18:43

morethan - yes, I'm aware that's part of the difficulty. Not just true of mum with the private school kids, either.

FrancesFarmer · 09/03/2013 18:47

Children should be kept away from porn obviously but it's insulting to adult women to suggest that they are "damaged" by porn.

Plus, this whole thing is technically impossible. It's embarrassing how badly informed most politicians are about the internet.

MurderOfGoths · 09/03/2013 18:49

"Are you saying that there was a Resolution on 16th December 1997 calling for a ban of all forms of pornography... etc?"

I have no idea, I can't find what they are referring to Confused

KoalaCakes · 09/03/2013 18:56

"eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU," hahahahahaa...good luck with that.

cantspel · 09/03/2013 19:02

Sex does sell regardless of gender or sexual orientation

www.andrewchristianshop.com/

much more sexual than any womens knicker add i have ever seen and the target audience are gay men

Thisisaeuphemism · 09/03/2013 19:05

The porn industry is a great industry to work in - it cares about its performers - some girls get PhDs! (with their STIs.) And it really cares about the people who watch it - I don't just mean it cares about their money - I mean it genuinely cares about the affect it has on society too. It shows young men how to treat a lady - and women can learn how to please a man properly too. You can't be too young for that!

Joking.

I can't believe women happily defend the porn industry as it stands today.

ShellyBoobs · 09/03/2013 19:11

processed meat is toxic

Get a fucking grip.

CoteDAzur · 09/03/2013 19:16

I don't defend the porn industry.

I defend the rights of consenting adults to do what they want and for all adults to watch what they want without the state telling them what to do.

FloraFox · 09/03/2013 19:19

there isn't the political will and investment to produce the necessary technology to do this. It would essentially need to be national defence level technology. And that does not come cheap. Nor is there the will of programmers to support such censorship. Programmers tend to belong to a culture which supports freedom of information and freedom of speech.

I agree with this statement. When you hear a techie bod spouting that it's all technically impossible, it's worth thinking about their political views. It's also worth considering that technology does not exist in the abstract. Technology solutions are developed to need a market need so it's obvious that a solution that has not been invested in does not currently exist.

As for censorship, where are you living that currently does not have censorship? We currently have laws on offensive communications, threatening communications, hate speech, reporting court proceedings, advertising and libel in addition to the existing laws on pornography. We are currently subject to a more intense level of surveillance than we have been in recent history. But as soon as a ban on porn gets raised:

www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9917189/MEPs-to-vote-on-EU-ban-on-all-forms-of-pornography.html

2500+ comments

Compared with comments on the government plan for courts in secret:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9908393/Sketch-Secret-courts-become-a-Kafkaesque-nightmare-for-Kenneth-C.html

13 comments

FrancesFarmer · 09/03/2013 19:21

All porn isn't anti-woman. I'm not keen on mainstream porn - I find it trashy and vulgar - but you can find porn that is erotic and non-misogynistic.

Perhaps the EU should subsidize the production of feminist-friendly porn.

MurderOfGoths · 09/03/2013 19:23

"I agree with this statement. When you hear a techie bod spouting that it's all technically impossible, it's worth thinking about their political views."

Except for the fact that there are plenty of techies "spouting" facts who have serious issue with porn, and yet still like to deal with hard reality.

LineRunner · 09/03/2013 19:25

Well you know it's all very well arguing that the Romans had pornography, but they also had state intervention on a scale that would take your breath away, including regular overhauls of the civil service by emperors such as Augustus and Claudius. Libertarians they were not.

flatpackhamster · 09/03/2013 19:26

pollypandemonium Sat 09-Mar-13 18:40:06

flatpackhamster

processed meat is toxic

No it isn't.

internet porn hasn't been around for ever

It's been around since the Beginning Of The Internet, and porn has been around since people were able to make erotic images.

pollypandemonium · 09/03/2013 19:29

flatpackhamster

I say it is

TheFallenNinja · 09/03/2013 19:29

Keep it legal and regulate or ban it and push it offshore.

Neither really works, there is no ideal solution.

flatpackhamster · 09/03/2013 19:31

LineRunner

Well you know it's all very well arguing that the Romans had pornography, but they also had state intervention on a scale that would take your breath away, including regular overhauls of the civil service by emperors such as Augustus and Claudius. Libertarians they were not.

Mmm, and I'm not arguing for a Roman system of anything. What I'm doing is pointing out that porn does not exist in a social vacuum. It exists because there is a demand for it to exist and it has been around since forever. Banning it is not going to make it go away. I was hoping to point out to pollypandemonium that porn has been around forever.

Internet porn has been around since the beginning of the internet.

There's a joke that goes that if you took all the porn away from the internet, there'd be just one website left, and it'd be a petition to bring back the porn. Like all good jokes, it's got a ring of truth about it.

pollypandemonium · 09/03/2013 19:31

Perhaps the EU should subsidize the production of feminist-friendly porn.

I'd like to see the directive on that one. How long they would have to debate it and discuss it etc

flatpackhamster · 09/03/2013 19:32

pollypandemonium

I say it is

That's your opinion, and you're entitled to it. But given the assiduity with which the EU bans 'toxic' stuff, I'm sure that if processed meat were 'toxic' then it would have been banned.
So you can say what you like, but you're wrong.

LineRunner · 09/03/2013 19:34

What you wrote flatpack was

Porn has been around since forever. Take a look at the frescoes at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

That argument was essentialist, not contextual. My response was contextual.