Woman's Hour discussion on Porn today.

[Somesweetday]

I switched the radio on today part way through a discussion with Professor Clare Mcglynn . Her new book is The rise of Extreme porn and how we fight back.

I'll listen to the whole of the interview later but what I heard was extremely interesting. It ranged from the insidious effects on society of the wide spread viewing of porn, the legislation and implementation of laws on extreme porn etc. She is calling for a publicity campaign to inform women of the damage done by strangulation - she likens the effects of this on the brain as similar to repeated concussion.

I think most people, not just women know the dangers of strangulation. Those who partake in erotic asphyxiation know the risks and take multiple measures to reduce harm.

Her point was that a lot of women don't know the brain damage caused by strangulation.

She likened it to the brain damage suffered by rugby players and talked about how that is widely publicised and something is being done about it.

Given that a lot of the women being inveigled into this sexual activity are very young women in relationships with young guys who think this is normal behaviour I doubt very many of them know the risks they are putting themselves at.

The interview was very wide ranging. And covered a lot of topics. Racism in the porn industry was another issue. She also talked about the current piecemeal way legislation has been introduced to address individual issues as they arise and the need to draw the legislation together in an encompassing way. And to enforce it

But that's the bloody point - this once extremely fringe activity is becoming mainstream thanks to the proliferation of extreme porn and young people particularly are not aware of the risks. Add in the huge levels of coercion young women face to accept this kind of shit and no wonder we're seeing an increase in brain damage, strokes and death. No one who cares about women and girls would underplay the risks involved.

And just to be clear - there is no 'safe' way to perform sexual strangulation!

Absolutely agree @Jamclag

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/relationships/5527275-strangulation-in-relationships-normalisation-in-media

This.
It’s a huge red flag for risk of being killed for a start.

The main things I picked up on were that this is strictly NOT stuff which needs to be searched for: It is completely mainstream, including every perversion, torture, normalising 'daddy' incest, and is available especially on X, where there is no limit at all on anything posted, not even the feeble restraint of the openly advertised porn sellers.

Yes I picked on the point about X as well.

I used to use Twitter but since Musk changed it to X and totally changed the whole ethos the only reason I go on it now is to get live updates of my local football team. So although I have heard rumours about how bad it is I don't think I had really taken on board the availability and truly abhorrent nature of a lot of the material on there.