I moved from north to south and am reasonably settled now.
And here we go:
There have been various articles relating to Graham Coutt's new sentence, which will imprison him for life for the murder of Jane Longhurst. He has continually protested and claimed it was manslaughter. Who knows? We know he had hundreds of pornographic images on his computer - from hangedbabes.com, necrobabes.com (which is really bloody tame), etc - and this kickstarted Liz Longhurst's campaign against violent porn, later changed to 'extreme' porn (beyond hardcore, I guess), and the reason, primarily, the government is planning to prosecute against possession of 'extreme' pornographic images. You can see the whole Criminal Justice Bill (which had its first reading last week, I think?) here.
And you can read about the case here.
There are two statements made by Liz Longhurst in that article that stand out for me:
"I do feel now the public perception is that [Jane] was a wonderful girl and would never have done any of the things that were alleged."
...
"He [Coutts] is so restricted, he is so narrow-minded, he is in this rut of seeing everything through the eyes of perverted pornography"
Riiiight. So any woman who enjoys those kind of activities can't possibly be perceived as 'wonderful'? Well, aren't I lucky my mother loves me anyway, despite knowing what I get up to, what I stand for. But yes, joe public would certainly not perceive this as 'wonderful' in the least, and indeed, 'wonderful' girls don't get off on devious sex or, well, sex at all, do they? And then she goes on to call Graham Coutts 'restricted' and 'narrow-minded'. Erm, what the crap?
I'm not trying to belittle her loss or defend Graham Coutt's actions, but her statements are pretty anti-woman and perpetuate the madonna/whore myth that still dictates what female sexuality is supposed to be. That, for me, is the biggest problem with this law. It, again!, infantilises women, supposes that 'wonderful' girls don't do kinky sex and never watch or read pornography.
So what is a 'wonderful' girl's sexuality supposed to be composed of, then? I have absolutely no idea.
EDIT: Finally! Some decent public debate on the issue on Comment is free.
13 comments:
Verte: I thought the comment is free article was good too and have a written a post about it for the SUN blog and also linked to your post as I think what you have argued is correct esp. about the way women are perceived sexually.
It is never on our own terms and much of the time on someone elses.
Btw: you have moved south then...
I have indeed. :) And I'm going to start going to some feminist discussion groups and such, so hope to meet you at some point!
Ooh, thanks! That's ace. I'll link your blog over there in the BDSM community, too...
That does sound really good Verte re: feminist discussion groups. Yes, it would be good to see you.
Thinks for the links and I agree with the comments you have made over at SUN blog.
I plugged your blog here:
http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/boards/activism/149793/0
And I'll give you details of meetings... I'm thinking of getting involved with organising Feminist Fightback later in the year, too.
Ta for that Verte. Much appreciated!
I look forward to these meetings.
Eep. I'd not been chekig yoiur blog lately verte, and here I find all kinds of yummy stuff.
I always find it interesting that people seem so hung (ha) up on (supposed) murderers' porn collections. Where do people get evidence that this "porn made him do it" rather than "hmm, he liked these sites, that reveals something about him, rather than creates it."
Louise:
Cool! Might you consider submitting your blog on SU or an edited version to Backlash's 'women's views'? There are a few other FACers on there.
Trin:
*aw shucks* Thanks. Must write more. The weather here has been monstrous and I've been feeling lethargic.
I think we should possibly think about posting responses from a feminist perspective to political/moral/religious etc activism against SM. It might prove quite useful as a way of collecting feminist views, perhaps (and, probably, allow for lots of debate)? Backlash have now linked us, so I hope you don't mind if I write something reasonably substantial about this legislation? I need to submit something to their 'women's views' page anyhow.
oops: SM-feminist, that is! Not our individual blogs...
oh, i totally get what you mean about the weather. ugh. which is partly why i'm not making a more substantive comment right now. but: cool wrt the various linkages starting to happen.
Verte: I'm all for that. I tend personally to run more into the anti-0porn folks though, and don't want to derail.
Verte: "Cool! Might you consider submitting your blog on SU or an edited version to Backlash's 'women's views'? There are a few other FACers on there".
Yeah, I might do that, thanks for that.
BD: the weather here has actually mostly been floods and wind and storms and hail... But stultifying heat is far worse, I agree...
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