Tag Archives: stop porn culture

London Porn Protest: The Video

Here is a full-length video of our protest outside the Stop Porn Culture conference.

With thanks to Terry Stephens.

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Some Questions for “Stop Porn Culture”

Recently I have had the ‘pleasure’ of engaging in active debate & discussion with members & supporters of Stop Porn Culture (referred to as SPC from hereon). It’s no secret that I legitimately enjoy a good intense rigorous debate but when it comes to SPC members & supporters I feel flustered. It’s not because they are getting the better of me, it’s not because I can’t find studies/facts against their claims, it’s due to the fact that I can produce studies/facts that dismiss more than a fair share of Dr. Dines arguments. Yet they ignore these and engage in childish behaviors such as name calling, slut shaming & accusations.

In my previous article  I had addressed some concerns that I had about research methods used by SPC, the lack of including homosexual/transgendered/lesbian/female on male humiliation pornography in her (Gail Dines) studies. I correctly predicted a response of ‘most lesbian porn being used by males for their enjoyment’, thus it contributes to patriarchy & the degradation of women. While I do agree that some lesbian porn is more than likely targeted at heterosexual males & heterosexual couples, this statement ignored my other questions & concerns about SPC’s focus. I still stand by my beliefs that if you are against an industry, you shouldn’t cherry pick bits & pieces to fit into your agenda.

Furthering my point on SPC’s bullying, slut shaming, passive agressive snarkiness, I recently stumbled upon this gem while checking my Twitter feed. A retweet of Gail Dines’ making a snide boorish response to my article with this tweet (In case it’s removed by Dines, the quote was “@LaniacUSA @PornPanic @bindelj We don’t have lesbians in SPC. We make everyone take a heterosexual test and swear allegiance to marriage!” . Seriously? She has a PhD, yes a doctoral degree in sociology, is the chair of a college department & head of a international organization (SPC) & cannot (or will not) garner up a better response than a somewhat infantile holier-than-thou approach. Yet, when anyone with conflicting views of SPC posts anything remotely similar they scream & cry afoul. Gail I’m a grown woman with a college education, please don’t resort to elementary-middle school playground style rhetoric & attempts at satire. Just answer the questions & address the criticism with facts or don’t respond.

A question that Gail has been asking women to attending her seminars/conferences & classes has been “Do you shave your public hair?”. Gail believes that the act of shaving ones’ genitals is a part of an ‘ever growing porn culture’ & feeds pedophile type of urges. I disagree with her for a variety of reasons. Apologies in advance for my going into TMI mode; I personally shave (or at least groom) my pubic hair & genital regions for numerous reasons. The first being personal hygiene during my menstrual cycle, I have awful menstrual cycles that will often leak no matter what method of containing I use. I do not enjoy getting blood clots tangled in my nether regions.

Secondly, as I have mentioned, I’m lesbian (not that it should matter) & my last partner had tongue & genital piercings, you can probably imagine how much that hurt when not shaving.

Thirdly, why does this even matter? It’s not Gail’s or anyone elses’ business of the reasoning behind to shave or not to shave (especially consenting grown adults). What’s next is Gail going to go after the razor industry? However all points aside… my questions are if a MALE professor had asked a group of young college aged girls this same question would it be appropriate? Would Gail & SPC throw a tantrum demanding that the professor be stripped of his credentials & charged with sexual harassment? What about beards? If Gail has so much criticism of shaving pubic hairs, why hasn’t she spoke out about women demanding their male mates shave their beards to make them more kissable?

As always stay safe, think for yourself & be kind
– Kat Cooper

Please feel free to follow me on twitter @RealKatCooper & I can be also found on Facebook.

Success! Our London Protest

The build-up to our protest yesterday was hectic, with coverage in the Huffington Post and the Independent in the preceding days.

When we originally planned the event, we thought it would be great if a dozen people turned up: after all, that’s about the size of the typical pro-censorship protest held by Object and other anti-sex campaigners. In fact, at least 50 people turned out, including pornstars, strippers and sex workers.

We’d like to thank those who came – especially former pornstar Renee Richards, who helped build for the event, and turned up to make a speech, despite being seven months pregnant!

Click here for full event coverage and photos from XBIZ.

A Critical Look at Stop Porn Culture (by a Lesbian Woman)

I will start out by letting everyone know that I make absolutely NO money off of the adult industry whatsoever, I have several friends in the adult entertainment industry, I am a lesbian woman, I have a college education (EMT-B & Human Development) I am Canadian, I am a person who politically is a left leaning Libertarian and am a supporter of the adult industry.

I have always been fairly critical of Stop Porn Culture & Dr. Gail Dines’ viewpoint & arguments against pornography. However I used to believe that it was just a group that had misguided views & ideas of what pornography was but its intentions were inherently good. It also crossed my mind that maybe they were so passionate about their cause, that it might have left them blinded to see any viewpoint but their own. Now I believe differently.

One of my issues is that I have never heard Dr. Dines speak on hardcore lesbian or gay pornography. I myself have seen the so-called acts of ‘degradation & humiliation’ (Gail’s words, not mine) in gay/lesbian adult media, but yet nothing has been said about this form of adult entertainment by her or her organization. I know the excuse will probably that the target audience are heterosexual males (especially in the case of lesbian pornography), but I’m genuinely interested in knowing why this is never mentioned. Is it less degrading because the “body punishing sex” is being perpetrated by a member of the same gender? I am in no way agreeing with Dr. Dines’ views on pornography, but her focus does seem to intentionally solely be on heterosexual pornography.

As a member of the LGBT community, this troubles me. Why hasn’t Dr. Dines addressed abuse within same-sex relationships in pornography? I always hear in lecture after lecture the “body punishing” & “women being gagged with penises” explanation. However I never hear about “butch girls gagging femmes with strapons” or “male on male rape fantasy” porn. By this standard it seems to me that Dr. Dines is (possibly even subconsciously) bashing the heterosexual male. I thought she was was supposed to be leader & academic speaker of an anti-pornography organization, not attack the adult viewing habits of the hetero male. The focus seems to be very direct, deliberate, and intentional. Not at the ENTIRE industry like SPC claims.

A number of SPC (Stop Porn Culture ) members/supporters have been extremely abusive toward those with opposing views. Insults, defamation, accusations & assumptions ran wild. These included a passive agressive death threat, accusations of beastiality, claims that I support rape & enjoy watching women be raped, questioning if I am a pedophile, and saying that I was happy when a 13 year old raped his sister. When I questioned/informed SPC about this they told me it was upto the Sex & Censorship moderators on their facebook page to deal with it. I had explained to them that I actually had concern for THEIR organization. Afterall, I wouldn’t want some of my biggest & outspoken supporters to be making these obscene & untrue claims because naturally people assume guilt by association. Despite the people making these claims were on Dr. Dines facebook friends list. These concerns were simply brushed off & ignored. Gail herself has refered to female pornographers/supporters of the adult entertainment industry as ‘scabs’. She especially likes to use immature terms towards males defending the industry brushing them off as ‘boy-men’, ‘creeps’ and ‘porny men’. It shocked me that an academic would resort to using these words. I was dumbfounded and at a loss of words that someone who professes to hate abuse, bullying and derogatory words would behave in this childish, infantile manner.

Gail’s refusal to debate women who hold their jobs in the sex work/adult entertainment industry in high regard is unusual for someone of her academic level. She is highly avoidant when it comes to those who question her beliefs or debunks her research. She often misquotes forums, researchers, and adult stars to coincide with her message. I frankly do not understand it. Why doesn’t she want to debate? Is Gail afraid that the likes of Nina Hartley, Lily Cade and Tristan Taormino will utterly wipe the floor with her uncited & unsourced research? Is she afraid of losing her credibility by having actual people (especially women) currently in the business speak positively about it? Although I don’t know if you could lose much more credibility than by hanging out with the likes of Shelley Lubben (whom now apparently is a ‘Doctor’ as well).

In closing, I am proud to say I support the adult industry, sex workers & the anti censorship movement. I’m proud of who I am & As a PROUD WOMAN I stand by my beliefs.

Warmest Regards & Stay Safe,
-Kat C

Why Are We Protesting on March 15th?

Since the London protest was announced for March 15th, I’ve been asked by some UK pornstars what the event is about. Although Stop Porn Culture (SPC) is well known for its anti-sex campaigning in the US, it is a new introduction to the UK. Their conference next month is aimed at setting up a presence in this country.

SPC is the brainchild of Gail Dines, probably the most prolific anti-sex campaigner around today. She sells a fantasy world in which the all-powerful porn industry is plotting to turn everybody into promiscuous, sex addicted, pornstar wannabes. And she makes a good living from this, having written three books, and regularly featuring in the press and on the speaking circuit.

Dines claims to have studied the porn industry for over 20 years, but a quick read of her work reveals that she neither knows or cares how the industry works. Her job is to scare people into believing that the porn biz is huge and powerful and coming to destroy their children, and then use that fear to build her profile and bank balance. She spreads the usual anti-sex myths – such as porn addiction – and throws in a few of her own, like claiming the porn industry is worth $96 billion, when in reality it might be 2% that size. She is the hero who will take on and destroy the evil Porn Empire. But of course, she needs lots of money to fight this crusade. Although she claims to be a radical, Dines (like so many anti-porn feminists) finds more in common with the religious right than with progressives.

Like all supporters of censorship, Dines hates free speech, and her favourite tactic is to shut down debate. Last year, she attempted to get the industry XBIZ EU event shut down by calling for a boycott of Radisson hotels if they hosted it. Her letter to Radisson, like so much of what she writes, is a work of comic genius, and worth a read.

She attempted similar disruption to our protest of her event, leading her supporters to bombard our event page – which they did. Women who opposed them were attacked especially strongly. Although some supporters asked me to block the haters, I chose instead to support their right to free speech, and responded as follows:

Dear Gail Dines and Stop Porn Culture:

Your coordinated spamming of this event page has been noted. Our response is as follows:

1) We note that we have rattled your cage; we must be doing something right.

2) Unlike you anti-porn fundamentalists, we believe in free expression, and have not acted to block you. We know that pro-porn people are not afforded this right by Stop Porn Culture or Gail Dines. We claim the moral high ground.

3) Although you claim to be on the side of “exploited” women in porn, we know that in reality, you attack them and refuse them a voice. We, on the other hand, represent the women and men who choose to fuck for a living. You will be hearing from them on March 15 in London.

As well as Dines, the conference will feature well known British anti-sex voices, including the journalist Julie Bindel and speakers from Object, which campaigns against everything from strip clubs to lads’ mags.

The purpose of the conference is to attack sexual expression in all of its forms, and to advance the censorship agenda. And the conference will deny the basic rights of women who choose to be pornstars, strippers and sex workers, which is why they will be protesting outside.

Renee Richards

UK Pornstars Fight Back!

On March 15, the Stop Porn Culture circus will come to London, representing a coalition of the loudest anti-sex and pro-censorship voices in the English-speaking world. Former pornstar Renée Richards calls on UK pornstars, strippers, models, sex workers and their supporters to take a stand and join us to protest against those who have, for so long, labelled and lied about the women in the sex industries.

When I woke up yesterday morning and saw the Stop Porn Culture event being tweeted, my first inclination was to get out the banners and sit on the Blackfriars Road for the next four weeks in angry anticipation. This was soon overcome with a worry; a worry that to protest outside the event would be conflicting with Sex and Censorship’s free speech ethos, and that surely if I were to protest outside the Stop Porn Culture’s conference then I would be trying to censor or prevent women such as Gail Dines, Julie Bindel and the women who speak on behalf of the organisation OBJECT, from achieving their goal of spreading their lies* and prejudices about the porn industry and sex workers.

So instead of trying to find my CND tent, I did what most Brits do and passively grumbled to my husband. “But if people don’t protest then surely this gives across the message that you don’t care? Silence can be read as compliance…” He followed this up with “anyway, you wouldn’t be protesting to silence them.” This soon had me flying back to my laptop keyboard and tweeting all of the porn performers I knew.

So if I’m not protesting to silence these women, then what I am I protesting for? Well, I’ll tell you:

  1. Protecting Women

On Stop Porn Culture’s website it has a section called ‘Survivor Stories’ where, as you can imagine from the title, there are lots of accounts from women who have worked as sex workers within the porn industry, as strippers and/or as prostitutes. These accounts are all very harrowing and upsetting, and I am sure that they are real, but my annoyance is this: These things do not happen to all women who work as sex workers. I, and many, many other women I know who have worked and continue to work as sex workers in the porn industry, strip clubs and as prostitutes have not had these harrowing experiences.

This, of course, does not mean that these horrible events are okay just because they have only happened to some women. But instead of banning porn, which is what the women at the Stop Porn Culture conference would like to do, which would push the industry into an illegal terrain where human rights are not accounted for and more harrowing events could freely occur, we should be recognizing it for the legitimate industry that it is. I wish that the likes of Gail Dines, Julie Bindel and OBJECT would put as much effort into trying to unionise sex workers and creating better working environments for sex workers, as they are into trying to ban them.

  1. Get your facts right!

So, again, I’m not protesting to silence the women at this conference, I’m protesting for these women to get their facts right.

The website also contains links to websites which state that new studies from Cambridge University that ‘MRI scans of test subjects who admitted to compulsive pornography use showed that the reward centres of the brain reacted to seeing explicit material in the same way as an alcoholic’s might on seeing a drinks advert.’ Therefore, porn is addictive, right? WRONG! Just because the self-identifying excessive users of ‘pornography show similar brain activity to alcoholics or drug addicts’ does not therefore mean that these excessive users are addicted, or that porn is addictive.

A problem with studies such as these is that the information provided, with words such as ‘similar brain activity’ are then removed to make the information more accessible, or palatable to those who have already made up their minds on the subject. So ‘a small test group of excessive porn users have an MRI scan and show similar brain activity to those who are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs’ which are not yet tested against other porn users who are not deemed as excessive users (what is excessive use anyway? And who gets to decide? Is watching three films a night excessive, or one film a week?)

Neither have these MRI scans taken place on a small test group of excessive porn users who claim not be addicted to pornography. So, the information gained by these limited experiments are then misinterpreted as ‘everyone who watches porn will become addicted’. If these continual studies show that porn is addictive to a small percentage of people, similar to that of alcohol being addictive to a small percentage of people, then surely this is not an argument against its ban. Unless of course the likes of Julie Bindel, Gail Dines and OBJECT think that the prohibition experiment of the United States between 1920 and 1933 worked, of course…

  1. If I don’t object to OBJECT, who will?

This final point is probably the most important: We have the right to protest!

Both articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act protect our rights to free speech and protest. We have the ‘right to speak freely and join with others peacefully, to express [our] views’. In this instance the pro-porn and/or the pro-sex industries’ voice is very rarely heard. Gail Dines is a well renowned author, Julie Bindel regularly writes for The Guardian and OBJECT are no stranger to protesting or speaking out. Yet the men and women who perform in adult films, prostitutes and lap dancers who are regularly spoken about are very rarely heard from themselves. This is our chance!

This is my rallying call… (if only I had a ‘XXX’ beacon to project into the sky à la Batman):

If you work within the sex industry and do not want to stop, do not want other people to speak on your behalf and do not feel as if you voice is being heard and/or want to protect your job, then join us outside the Stop Porn Culture conference on 15 March from 3pm till 5pm.

Location: Outside Wedge House, 36-40 Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London, SE1 8PB

Join the event page on Facebook.

See you there!

 Renée x

* I use the word ‘lies’ because some of the ‘facts’ that I’ve read on the SPC website are completely unfounded, and through empirical evidence of my experience as a porn performer, I find these not to be true. And ‘prejudices’ because the definition of this word is ‘preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience’.