Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry
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The role of the sex industries in fuelling and maintaining patriarchy is highlighted by research into male motivations for going to lap dancing clubs (Frank, 2003). When men were asked why they frequent strip clubs, common responses included that they wanted to meet women who were not ‘feminist’ and that, with a growing fear of sexual harassment lawsuits at work, they wanted to ‘let out frustration’ and be in an environment in which they could revert back to traditional male–female roles and relationships.
Patriarchal relations are most blatant in relation to prostitution – an industry based on the premise that men can buy access to women’s bodies. The effect on those exploited in prostitution (the majority of whom are women and girls) is devastating, with statistics showing that prostituted women are more likely than not to experience serious sexual and/or physical abuse at the hands of pimps and punters (Home Office 2004b), and that 68% of women in prostitution suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the same level as torture victims (Farley et al, 2003). The prostitution industry further undermines broader struggles for women’s equality. What is the meaning of our efforts to combat sexual harassment and male violence in the home, in the workplace, and on the streets if men can buy the right to perpetrate these very same acts against women and girls in prostitution?
Prostitution represents an extreme end of commercial sexual exploitation. But sexual objectification exists on a continuum, with images and messages stemming from pornography increasingly seeping into all aspects of popular culture. Feminist language of ‘choice’ and ‘empowerment’ has been co-opted to legitimise sex-object culture and promote the sex industry as liberating. In fact, treating women like sexual objects dehumanises women and this is a core element of sexism. The more acceptable it becomes to view women as a sum of body parts, the easier it becomes to disrespect, mistreat and act out violence towards women as a group. This makes anti-porn activism crucial in challenging the industries that promote the attitudes and beliefs which underpin sex discrimination and male violence.
‘Activists Rise Up’
It is an exciting time to be an anti-porn feminist. Women and men across the country are increasingly speaking out against the oppression of women. This spirit of resistance has been mobilised by the Million Women Rise marches which galvanise thousands of women to call for an end to male violence; by the Reclaim the Night marches organised annually by the London Feminist Network and other groups nationally to take back our streets; by the Feminism in London conferences, and the UK Feminista Activist Summer Schools; by the success of the OBJECT-Fawcett campaign to challenge the mainstreaming and proliferation of lap dancing clubs; the student union-led campaign against sexist beauty pageants being reintroduced into universities; monthly OBJECT Feminist Fridays to campaign against sexist lads’ mags (see Long, this volume); and the Demand Change! OBJECT-Eaves coalition to tackle the demand for prostitution.
Lessons learned in challenging sex-object culture
• Big vision, achievable goals
OBJECT mobilises activism around campaign goals which are achievable while providing a broad analysis of sexual objectification and sexism.
In relation to lap dancing, the legislative goal of the Stripping the Illusion campaign was relatively straightforward – to change the way that lap dancing clubs are licensed. Lap dancing clubs promote the idea of women as sexual objects who are always sexually available and who exist to fulfil the sexual fantasies of men (see Stella, this volume). They represent sites of commercial sexual exploitation, with performers paying to work and structural conditions of competition leading to women often ending shifts in debt to the club. They make sexual harassment seem normal, and they create no-go zones for women who feel unsafe walking past them at night. Yet, until 2010, lap dancing clubs were licensed in the same way as ordinary leisure venues. This rendered it virtually impossible for licenses to be refused, and acted as a green light to the industry which doubled in size over 5 years.
The 2010 change in the law allows local councils to license lap dancing clubs as Sexual Entertainment Venues. This allows councils to consider the gender impact of clubs and set a limit on the number of licences they grant, which can be set at zero. This is a powerful tool to clamp down on the lap dancing club industry and OBJECT are in the process of supporting local communities to lobby their councils to apply this legislation to its fullest.
As well as pushing through legislative change, the Stripping the Illusion campaign exposed the reality of the lap dancing industry and located arguments about licensing within the broader context of sexism and sexual objectification of women and girls.
• Making women’s voices central
A central goal of OBJECT’s work is to provide a platform for women who have been exploited in the sex industry to speak out about the reality of their experiences. This is crucial to counteract the glamourised portrayal of lap dancing, prostitution and pornography peddled by the mainstream media. Perhaps the most effective campaigning tool developed with survivors of the sex industry has been 2 short films in which actors read out the testimonies of women involved in prostitution and lap dancing. OBJECT and Eaves screened the Demand Change! film in Parliament on the eve of the vote to criminalise the purchase of sex from a person who has been exploited. Survivors of prostitution from the film were quoted in the House of Lords debate and their testimonies marked a crucial turning point in discussions. It was powerful to inform these women that their words were pivotal in changing the law.
Testimonies have also helped to create a sense of solidarity amongst women who have been exploited in the sex industry who often feel isolated in their experiences. Throughout the lap dancing campaign we were approached by former lap dancers who expressed relief at seeing the other side of the story being put forward and who wanted to share their experiences about what they consistently described as an exploitative and soul-destroying industry. After identifying a clear need for support, OBJECT has been awarded funding to work in partnership with a women’s service provider to establish provision for women who have experienced harm in the lap dancing industry.
• Partnership work
Partnering with Eaves and the Fawcett Society and building coalitions with NGOs, unions, politicians, activist groups and survivors of the sex industry has allowed us to share expertise, divide the workload and effectively reach audiences less accessible to us as a single organisation. It has also provided an inspiring model for joint working and helped establish a unified force committed to ending the sexual objectification of women.
• The importance of activism
Grassroots activism has been pivotal to OBJECT’s success as a campaigning organisation. As well as influencing policy, activism empowers the individuals and groups who take part. It ameliorates feelings of isolation and powerlessness and provides opportunities to unite and make change.
In spreading anti-porn activism, it has been important for OBJECT to set a tone that is bold and unflinching in our demands whilst providing a welcoming and uplifting experience for those involved. Creativity, visual stunts and the use of songs and chants have been instrumental in terms of making noise, taking up space, and creating a sense of solidarity which has characterised our protests and inspired ordinary people to take action.
Examples of our activism include a protest outside the lap dancing industry awards ceremony in which placard-holding OBJECT activists descended upon the red carpet queue of men in suits, banging tambourines and chanting ‘Women, Not Sex Objects!’, then enacting and filming our own awards ceremony outside the venue. We awarded the lap dancing lobby for, amongst other things, ‘promoting sexist attitudes’, and ‘the biggest misuse of the word gentlemen’ in reference to ‘Gentlemen’s Clubs’!
OBJECT’s monthly Feminist Fridays involve targeting high street retailers, writing anti-sexist slogans on brown paper bags, and covering whole displays of lads’ mags with messages such as ‘love women, hate sexism’ and ‘FHM – For Horrible Misogyny’ (see Long, Thompson
, this volume). The displays are followed by songs, sit-ins, and congas as we hand out leaflets and collect signatures.
Monthly activist meetings give opportunities for activists to brainstorm ideas and take ownership of campaigns whilst providing guidance to ensure that campaign messages remain consistent.
As well as organising protests and stunts, OBJECT develops diverse ways for people to get involved in campaigns. This includes devising ‘Lobby Your MP Weekends’, organising ‘National Days of Action’ to collect signatures, and producing template letters, consultation responses, toolkits and ‘Joint Statements of Support’ to facilitate individuals and NGOs to take action. Politicians and policy makers often refer to campaign actions they read about in the media, or to the number of letters they have received urging them to support our campaigns.
The power of persistent lobbying, campaigning and activism should never be underestimated!
• Use of the media
OBJECT press-releases our actions and regularly uses the media as a tool to spread awareness, garner support and help put issues on the political agenda. We have built a media contact list and made relationships with key journalists who support our work. However, when campaigning against the multi-billion pound sex industry the playing field is uneven in terms of access to media coverage. This makes utilising alternative media outlets such as online discussion groups, social networking sites, email newsletters and YouTube videos a crucial part of anti-porn activism.
Challenges
Challenging the sex industries which groom society into accepting the objectification and commercial sexual exploitation of women as normal, is threatening to those who profit and/or benefit from this multi-billion pound system and the sex-object culture that it promotes. It is therefore not surprising that there is widespread and structural opposition to feminist activism on this issue. An important part of the OBJECT campaign has been to provide arguments to counter the claims and accusations used by those who defend sex-object culture and seek to silence anti-porn activists.
This involves exposing the truth about the sex industry to challenge claims that it is ‘harmless fun’ or glamorous. It involves moving beyond arguments centred on ‘individual choice’ to provide analysis of the power imbalances and structural inequalities which influence our choices; refuting accusations of being ‘anti-sex’ by demonstrating that sex-object culture is more related to sexism than sex; challenging charges of censorship by making it clear that objecting to an industry which normalises sexual violence and discrimination against women is taking a political stand against sexism; and revealing the harms of representing women as sexual objects who are always sexually available in a society in which sexual violence is endemic and inequality between women and men is rife.
Grassroots anti-porn activism provides a powerful vehicle with which to take on and win these arguments.
Conclusion
Feminist activism means challenging the institutions, mechanisms and attitudes which promote, legitimise, and keep sexist practices and beliefs in place. The intensification of the sex industries represents a vicious backlash against gains made by the women’s movement. As anti-porn activists, we refuse to stay silent whilst women are objectified, sexualised and dehumanised.
There are important battles to be won, but our experience is that the tide is turning in favour of feminist activism. Standing united as women is vital to achieving the changes we are fighting for. This unity requires facing and challenging the oppressions which can divide us so that our diversity, as women, becomes our strength. It will be our ability as a movement to continue to grow in strength, diversity, and numbers as we continue to speak out and take action against sexism that will resoundingly put to rest the notion that feminism is dead. Our wins demonstrate the power of collective action. They show that treating women like sexual objects is neither inevitable nor unstoppable, and that there are growing numbers of women and men who are willing to stand up and object.
Get involved!
Bibliography
British Crime Survey (2005/2006). Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence. Supplementary Volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales.
Farley, Melissa, Ann Cotton, Lynne Jacqueline, Sybil Zumbeck, Frida Spiwak, Maria E. Reyes, Dinorah Alvarez, Ufuk Sezgin (2003) ‘Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder’ Journal of Trauma Practice 2 (3/4), pp. 33–74.
Frank, Katherine (2003) ‘Just Trying to Relax: Masculinity, Masculinizing Practices, and Strip Club Regulars’ The Journal of Sex Research 40 (1) pp. 61–75.
Home Office (2004b) Solutions and Strategies: Drug Problems and Street Sex Markets. UK Government, London.
Povey, D. (Ed) (2005) Crime in England and Wales 2003/2004: Supplementary Volume 1: Homicide and Gun Crime. Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 02/05. Home Office, London.
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1 This is an excerpt from a longer article; for the full version contact the author at anna@object.org.uk Do not quote from this article without permission from the author.
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5 Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005/2006.
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Melinda Liszewski
A Collective Shout for Women and Girls
What started as an idea in the minds of a group of women who had only just met, has evolved into a dynamic grassroots campaign movement challenging the sexploitation of women and girls.
In late 2009, 7 women met to discuss an idea for a new national movement in Australia that would challenge the sexual objectification of women and girls in popular culture. Melinda Tankard Reist had just launched her collection, Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls. It was part of a growing body of research into the harms of an increasingly pornified culture and many women were asking ‘So what can we do?’ The name ‘Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation’ (
In 2009, the word ‘sexualisation’ was relatively new to the Australian discourse on the health and well-being of young people. Research papers from the USA, Australia and the UK all documented the ways in which children – especially girls – were sexualised (e.g. Rush and La Nauze, 2006 a, 2006 b; Zurbriggen et al., 2007; Papadopoulos, 2010). Yet despite the demonstrable harm to girls’ health, and an Australian Senate Inquiry into sexualisation, there had been little to no response from government and regulatory bodies.1 The industries significantly responsible for sexualisation – advertisers, marketers, the fashion and beauty industries – had not been made accountable for the harm they were doing.
We began by establishing an online presence with a Website, Facebook page and Twitter account.2 Interest in our movement was so great that even before the site was finished, concerned individuals began to sign up to Collective Shout. The Website was designed to act as an online meeting point for supporters. Members were invited to alert us to sexist and objectifying advertising and products by using the forum and blog facility. This allowed others in the Collective Shout community to join those members in protesting or boycotting offending products or services.
In our first 12 months, Collective Shout has racked up a significant number of wins against major corporations.
• The Australian Football League forced AFL Queensland and a Gold Coast football club to withdraw from a sponsorship deal between the sexist restaurant chain, Hooters, and an under 16s foot
ball team.3
• Major Australian underwear retailer Bonds withdrew their range of bras for girls as young as 6.4
• Complaints against Calvin Klein’s simulated sexual assault billboard were upheld by the Advertising Standards Board following our campaign against the portrayal of violence against women to sell jeans. This attracted significant worldwide media attention.5
• Collective Shout helped to stop a Gold Coast racecourse’s plans to hold a ‘bikini track sprint.’6
• National grocery retailer Woolworths pulled out of a joint ‘Lynx’ promotion which offered winners a visit to the sexist Playboy Mansion-styled ‘Lynx Lodge’.7
We have been part of global campaigns against: Amazon, for selling a guide to child sexual assault; Etsy, for selling rape greeting cards; and rapper Kanye West’s Monster video clip, in partnership with Adios Barbie, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (Australia), and Media Watch. We have a current campaign against the importation of toxic US-style child beauty (sexualisation) pageants to Australia.8
None of these wins would have been possible without the active participation of Collective Shout supporters who are growing in number and strength. Individual members have told us that they had previously felt alone in their concern about the sexual objectification of women and children. But now, with the knowledge that they are part of a bigger movement, they feel empowered to speak out and take action. They are challenging retailers about sexualised clothing for children, are bold enough to confront shop managers for their open display of pornography, and willing to persist with writing to the Advertising Standards Board about sexist advertising. At times, opposition to Collective Shout has been fierce, but when we support and encourage one another we stand strong for a world free of sexploitation. We invite you to join us.