“Nature has
placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and
pleasure.” (Jeremy Bentham, the
utilitarian philosopher)
About 15 to 30 % of the World
Wide Web’s traffic is porn and that is quite substantial when you think in
terms of sales revenue from a global product, for example Coca Cola. In this
case, the profit margin is far greater, because unlike a perishable item, a
porno film is like a piece of software that can be consumed multiple times as
new, and does not need to be reproduced after consumption. This lucrative
income makes Internet moguls like Google reluctant to curtail the easy access
to porn that the Google Search Engine is renowned for. As the old adage says, money
makes the world go round; accordingly it makes the World Wide Web spin faster.
And it becomes a tornado when combined with the catalyst of sex.
The internet filter could be
applied easily, with the option to bypass it by filling in a consent form for
example. However, this would only partially address the problem of very young
children gaining access to porn unwittingly; the source of the problem would
remain as people would easily get acquainted to bypass the filter, and the
older children would pass this knowledge to the younger ones. In any case, increasing
censorship and legislation is not enough, this problem has to be tackled from
the root, and we literally need to go into the heart of the problem.
Why is porn flourishing in the
first place? The simple answer is – there is a demand for it, laws of the free
market mean demand will create supply, and vice versa. Since the 1970s, the
growth of conventional porn from seedy magazines & movies to the internet has
accelerated at a rapid pace. The demand for porn is obvious - men are easily
excited by sight, and being the hunters they will happily pay for it. In terms
of supply, the argument of women in poverty being exploited by men is there,
but given that porn primarily emanates from wealthy western-liberal nations, it
is more about making easy money, and increasingly women have started to take an
active lead in this arena. This means, the value of having shame has
diminished, sexual behaviour in society has ‘progressed’ to become more like
the species in the jungle under the ethos of ‘freedom’ and thus sexual
freedom. This explains the mindset of hostility
towards the veil in favour of the bikini, using the fig leaf of women’s rights,
and no surprise that most vocal to save Muslim women happen to be non-Muslim
men.
Apart from money, there is the
notion of value. The much talked about ideology of ‘freedom’ post 9/11, and by
inference sexual freedom; this encourages one to pursue sexual pleasures
without any form of moral self-restraint. Inevitably, certain sections of the
population will get bored and lust will induce them to look for other ways to
experiment with new things, reaching for a higher climax, and that unfortunately
includes the abhorrent ‘porn’ involving children, violence and even domestic
pets.
I know the category of domestic
pets may confuse some readers, especially those brought up in traditional
conservative societies. Sometime back, a doctor friend said women in this
society have intercourse with dogs and other animals, but as dogs are domestic
pets, it is more common. The grin on my
face concealed the fact that I was astonished, as well as perplexed, I
scratched my head and could not fathom how this would be possible, and why
would anyone want to do this, given that there is no shortage of men. Of
course, it has nothing to do with the supply of able men with testosterone, it
relates to finding new ways to get a bigger climax, maximise carnal (material)
satisfaction, something that is rooted in secular European philosophy.
In addition to moral revulsion, the
legal objection comes from the notion of consent, children and pets cannot give
consent and subjecting women to violence or at least projecting that with
pornography and the consequence that follows is problematic legally and morally.
In fact child porn should be termed child abuse, the issue came to surface in
recent times after the conviction of Mark Bridges, the killer of little April
Jones. The police found pictures of child abuse on his laptop. Surely there is a connection there.
How does production and
consumption of porn tally with women’s rights? Given that the West is the torch
bearers of women’s rights, and a major supplier of porn, one could argue the
two are compatible, and I wonder how many parents would feel that way seeing
their children involved in such activities. How do the Femen fit in all this as
they go about promoting welfare of women ‘dressed’ (undressed) as primitive cavewomen?
Do they endorse pornography too as long as women are not compelled into it? What
about its impact on the wider society and gender relationships?
Others would see porn and women’s
rights as a paradox, two opposing notions. If you want women’s rights upheld by
law and that is easy, just make more legislation, but the notion of women’s
rights also demands respect and that can only emanate from the heart. You
cannot expect young men to respect women from the heart, when they are also
subjected to materials that portray women as meat for gratification, and they
are encouraged to seek sexual gratification without legal responsibility under
the value of sexual freedom; hence they view women as isolated objects for
consumption rather than someone who is part of his family, like his mother or
sister. This is depicted in the Hollywood film industry.
The production of porn is another piece of evidence that confirms that women’s right is merely a convenient political tool used to bash ideological opponents. It’s cheap propaganda; these porn consumers talk about their crusade to liberate women in Afghanistan from forced marriages, yet rape is rife in their backyard, not only in the armed forces but widespread in society. The US marines want to liberate the Afghan women from the veil to the bikini, so they can enjoy the regular striptease at home. Then, they have the audacity to talk of paedophilia, when really young prepubescent children including babies are raped and filmed, and the content is disseminated through the net, and I wonder what the ethnicity of these people are! Now the media and politicians like Jack Straw have lost their venomous snake like tongues!
Indeed, the media has conveniently
kept silent about the ethnicity of the porn producers, only if they were
Pakistanis or Arabs we would have seen this in the headlines! And thankfully, the
Muslims are lagging behind, because they are unable to find available Muslim
women due to cultural, religious and family constraints. Whist the supply side
is low in Muslim societies; the demand continues to rise as the secular notion
of freedom creeps in, and it is easy to view porn online. Its only matter of time, we will see Muslims
graduating from consuming conventional porn to abhorrent porn, see how the
media changes its colours in reporting the same crime.
Yamin Zakaria (yamin@radicalviews.org)
Published on 17/06/2013
London, UK
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