Censorship is a tool that gives power to abusers
Thread here.Β
ReadΒ Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Womenβs Rights by Nadine Strossen
Excerpts:
βIn the late 80s and early 90s there was a vocal group of radical feminists who believed that pornography inherently harms women, not just in its production but also in its consumptionβ¦ These anti-pornography feminists teamed up with the religious right and managed to get anti-porn laws passed. In particular, a law was passed in Canada preventing the importation of βobsceneβ materialβ..
β¦. Guess what was seized first? βThe Joy of Gay Sexβ and the like. Guess what businesses started finding all their shipments seized or delayed β sexually explicit or not β to the point where they were being put out of business? Gay bookstores. Β Guess what wasnβt seized at all? Mainstream porn made for straight menβ¦..
Hereβs the key point: Strossen is a legal scholar whoβs looked at a lot of attempts at censorship, and you know what she found happened every time? When you try to censor pornography, even in the interests of protecting vulnerable people, that censorship will be applied first, and hardest, against the people who are most vulnerable. They wonβt come for actual abusers, theyβll come for the abused, and prevent them from accessing resources, education, talking to each other, creating art to express themselves, or organising against those who are actually causing harm.Β
This is old, old business, weβve seen it more than once before, and it never goes the way the antis think it will. Censorship is a tool that gives power to abusers and lets them inflict more harm on those who are abused, vulnerable and discriminated against. Donβt fall for it.
there is this saying about how, if you donβt know how to use a gun, and you carry one anyway on the assumption that youβll figure it out if you ever get attacked, all youβve done is brought your attacker a free gun.
when young antis speak up in favor of censorship, all i think about is that. theyβre bringing their enemies a free gun.
