A list of the sex acts banned today in the UK porn industry.

[ClawHandsIfYouBelieveInFreaks]

Spanking

Caning

Aggressive whipping

Penetration by any object "associated with violence"

Physical or verbal abuse (regardless of if consensual)

Urolagnia (known as "water sports")

Female ejaculation

Strangulation

Facesitting

Fisting


A link to the article in The Independent which explains more.

The newspaper claims that the "measures seem to take aim at female pleasure" and that they're "arbitrary" choices to make....I'm not sure what part of the list other than female ejaculation is synonymous with female pleasure though!

The writer is scathing about the bans.

Although veiwers in the UK will be able to continue to watch pornography including the above, it will no longer be legal to make such films here.

[AnyFucker]

on the net, sorry

[SolidGoldBrass]

Swallowing urine or female ejaculate is banned, but swallowing semen is not. How is this logical? Swallowing urine might not be something everyone fancies doing, but the same goes for swallowing semen and I'd rather have a pint of cider if you're offering, anyway, but urine is no more medically harmful if swallowed than semen, presuming that the person producing it is clean and healthy. A big reason for feminist objections to this list is that most of the things being banned are things that people could do to other people ie they could be done TO men and most of the things that are not banned are things that men do to women but which cannot be done the other way around.

[almondcakes]

Surely the vast majority of sexual things that have not been banned can be done to anyone?

[Amethyst24]

Hmmm, okay, interesting chat with DP about this over our sausages and cauliflower cheese (it's all glamour chez nous). He knows a bit more about it than I do.

Face-sitting does refer specifically to suffocation, not to giving a woman oral sex while she's above you.

These rules cover a very small category of porn: that made in the UK to be sold in the UK in licensed sex shops etc, which isn't currently already covered by the Obscene Publications Act. So it's chipping away at the margins of an extremely narrow area.

So, really, I don't think this does a great deal to inform the debate about how the vast majority of pornography is produced or consumed although I do feel a bit sorry for the poor luddites going into Prowler to buy a nice fisting video and finding the cupboard is bare

[AnyFucker]

Just the name "stavvers" tells me all I need to know, tbh. Swerve required, methinks.

[FloraFox]

I don't see that darkest. I'd be happy if they banned it all but I don't see that this is about suppressing women's genuine sexuality.

[Darkesteyes]

Ive just read the girlon the net blog. Good summary of it.


Flora the trouble is young people are accessing porn on their phones regularly. If they keep seeing that male pleasure is more important and womens is not only less so but also seen as "abnormal" or nonexistent i can see that being pretty harmful.
I would rather that they wernt able to access any of that content at all but unfortunately i dont know how this can be achieved.

Really sex education in schools needs to cover every aspect of sexuality as well as being responsible and safe sex and yes that does include teaching that women have orgasms too but i cant see a lot of parents being in favour of it.

[GraysAnalogy]

Swallowing urine or female ejaculate is banned, but swallowing semen is not. How is this logical? Swallowing urine might not be something everyone fancies doing, but the same goes for swallowing semen

Aye, I agree 100%. Plus some folk swallow urine for health reasons don't they? sorry, shouldn't make jokes out of this really but you get my point.

[GraysAnalogy]

If young girls/women or even older who are naive to sex and/or porn were to view porn for the first time, I'd like them to see a woman sitting on a mans face - just to show them that erm it can be about female pleasure soley.

[KateeGee]

Face-sitting does refer specifically to suffocation, not to giving a woman oral sex while she's above you.

Well blow me down. Never knew that was a thing. I can go to sleep now. Googling it was a bad idea.

[30somethingm]

This is ridiculous. I think they should ban stupid sized fake boobs, clownishly large penises and men using their penises to slap women.

[YonicScrewdriver]

Amethyst, I thought the article was about extending the restrictions that already exist on UK DVDs to VOD?

[FloraFox]

darkest the answer to that is to discourage porn, not to normalise it by trying to promote other types of porn, that very few people will end up watching.

I should think that 99% of female ejaculation shown in porn is actually urination.

There's nothing empowering about porn for women, neither those watching it nor those performing in it. I would agree that more acts should be added to the banned list but I don't think any should be taken off.

[almondcakes]

Darkest eyes, schools do teach that women have orgasms, and the list of banned things does not include the female orgasm!

You still haven't explained why you think the items on this list are about female pleasure. The only one that seems remotely contentious is female ejaculation.

Other countries have also banned female ejaculation in porn, because in porn it is usually really urination. It is obvious why this would be the case. Why would women find it more pleasurable than anyone else to urinate in front of a camera?

The list of things that have been banned are things that most people would find degrading, aggressive or abusive. Why would women particularly enjoy these?

[Darkesteyes]

Exactly Buffy Thats what i was getting at Ive just done it a bit clumsily thats all.

Flora if you had read my post properly you would have seen that ive said i would rather young people couldnt access it at all.

I wasnt aware that schools teach that women have orgasms My school didnt in the 80s. I left school in 1989 and dont have DC so that is my only frame of reference.
My only other frame of reference is the reaction to Everyday Sexisms campaign for better sex education in schools A lot of ppl agreed with her and if that is the case then a lot of people obviously think the sex education that is currently taught is not adequate.

I dont watch porn It doesnt interest me. I just thought there MAY have been an undercurrent here that involved the slut shaming of women. If i have misunderstood or got that wrong then i apologise but that is what i was objecting to.
I dont like the portrayl of women as holes to fuck either so ....er we are on the same side just to make that clear.

[Homeriliad]

Some of the acts banned seem odd. What the hell is wrong with female ejaculation? As some have said, it could be a consequence of banning watersports, but then what is wrong with watersports? Not my cup of tea, but can't see anything harmful if it's between two consenting adults.

And do these rules also apply to couples making amateur porn and posting it online?

Not sure what I feel about the law telling filmmakers and actors/actresses what they are allowed to do on camera. I understand the idea behind banning simulations of violence, but would we ban simulations of violence in other film genres?

[Homeriliad]

In regards to certain acts not being banned because men enjoy them or vice versa, I think it's more complicated than that. Men and women enjoy all sorts of stuff in common, and I don't think you can say men like doing/watching x and women don't.

And what one person finds offensive or degrading, another person doesn't.

[Homeriliad]

@Buffy. Yep, it's odd. Totally agree with you that it seems completely arbitrary and ill thought out.
I guess any form of film censorship has a certain element of arbitrariness about it, but this seems completely random. I still can't get head around banning female ejaculation (stupid? sexist? both?).

[almondcakes]

Presumably the reason that male ejaculation has not been banned is that in the vast majority of situatuions in which a man and woman both orgasm, there is no female ejaculate and no urine but there is a male ejaculation.

A man ejaculating is usually a sign of sexual pleasure; somebody being asked to urinate in front of others away from a toilet situation is more commonly associated with degrading people than it is with sexual pleasure. I don't know if this is the case in watersports videos, that they are degrading, but presumably censors in all the countries that have banned them viewed a selection first to make this decision.

Most women don't visibly ejaculate. Of those who do, most can't do it reliably enough to film it at the right moment. It therefore seems likely that women are urinating in the scenes termed ejaculation. It would be impossible to censor urination without also censoring female ejaculation scenes.

It may well be that there are a list of things associated with male sexual pleasure that have not been banned. That is an issue, but it is completely different to saying a. things that can only be done to women are the most extreme things that haven't been banned, b. the banned list represents things women in particular find pleasurable to do to others or have done to themselves or c. the banning of most of these items decreases the amount of pornography that shows female pleasure. These don't seem to be true unless there is a further explanation, but they have been argued on here and in the links.

What is perhaps true is that porn rarely showed female pleasure and usually shows male pleasure, and this list reduces the diversity of ways male pleasure is shown, while having no real impact on showing female pleasure.

If they had banned double penetration, people would no doubt still have complained this was a target on female pleasure as it was reducing the number of two man one woman threesomes while continuing to allow the fetishisation of lesbians in two women one man sex scenes, and also declare the whole thing homophobic against men on the grounds we were all secretly morally outraged by penises touching each other.

[TheFriar]

I would have I referred a ban of filming actors whilst theycarexsti under the influence of drugs (ie unable to really give consent)
But vomiting/having if you dont seem to enjoy it is ok but not if you do??

Porn is t my thing but after so many threads on MN I thought I needed to go and have a look. See what my dcs will be able to access to the 1st google page (because they will soon. They are both entering teenage-hood). What I found the most chocking was the way men are 'using' women (turning their the right way etc) and how do out of it a lot of these women look.

[SevenZarkSeven]

Yeah friar mainstream porn is pretty grim and the gist of it is men doing stuff to women which is not the message about sex that is great for our children to learn.