Why This Is Hell

A forwarded email:

Please find below a message from Julian Petley regarding continuing
opposition to the 'extreme pornography' provisions in the Criminal
Justice and Immigration Act (which comes into force in January 2009)
and the government's more general attacks on sexual freedoms.


From Julian:

I am writing to tell you about CAAN (Consenting Adult Action
Network). CAAN itself is the natural progression from some of the
campaigns AGAINST what government has been doing in respect of the
laws that govern sexual behaviour. It is a loose-knit network of
campaigning groups, with the overall aim of creating some
counterbalance to the current "moral majority". At its heart is a
simple statement of principle - which is what you are being asked to
sign up to. For further details of CAAN and the statement, please go to:

www.caan.org.uk/statement.html

The principle is intended to assert the right of consenting adults to
express their sexuality with one another without interference from
Government: the bedroom is not a place best suited for the
application of criminal law. We are aware that no matter how we draft
such a statement, there will be dissent: some born from genuine
political difference; some no more than detractors looking for
loopholes. For example, we pass on the issue of "harm": we suspect
that there probably IS a level of harm that government should be
concerned with; but that a society that tolerates two grown men
beating each other up in the confines of a boxing ring is probably
not well placed to lecture adults on a shared interest in sado-
masochistic sex. Beyond the basic principle, there are a number of
issues we believe to be germane: the extreme porn law; legislation on
Vetting; lap-dancing; the criminalisation of prostitution; and so on.
Of the various issues acknowledged by CAAN, campaigning is active on
just two: the extreme porn law, and the Vetting law. The latter, in
that it regulates the "fitness to work" of around half our working
population and has the potential to bar from work anyone who merely
possesses "sexual material that is violent in nature", could prove
far more devastating in the long run than the extreme porn
provisions. I hope that this helps to explain where CAAN is coming
from, and allows you to sign up to the statement of principle. If you
feel that you can pass details of this campaign on to any one else,
please do so.

Professor Julian Petley,
School of Arts,
Gaskell Building,
Brunel University,
Uxbridge,
UB8 3PH.

I've got used to websites being blocked at work - after all there are issues with academic freedom - but equally students shouldn't be allowed to download pornography all day. Of course, when you find any websites with gay and queer in the title being blocked - say http://www.gayhistory.com/ and http://www.queertheory.com/ are blocked, you do begin to sense a certain amount of over sensitivity.

But to block http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/ ?


Dworkin is anti-porn, the author of Pornography: Men Possessing Women (or Processing Women as one essay put it a few years back).

Blocking her site is a little counter productive I'd say.