Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry (44 page)
Caroline Norma
Challenging Pornography in Japan: the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP)
Over the organisation’s 10-year history, members of the Tokyo-based Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) have initiated a wide range of research projects and campaigns against pornography and prostitution in Japan. These activities are described in the organisation’s yearly journal (
Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai: Ronbun/shiryoushuu
) and Webpage (
http://www.app-jp.org/
), as well in a number of books. The Group’s activities mostly focus on the harm of pornography for women and children in its production, distribution, and consumption in Japan.
The harms of pornography production are documented in the Group’s investigation into a Japanese pornography production company called Bakkii Visual Planning. This research has involved APP members monitoring a chat forum run by the company for consumers of a particular film series in which women are dragged around by the hair, pushed face first into bathtubs of water, set alight, and beaten up. In the chat forum, pornography users discussed with the series producer what sex acts and abuses they wanted to see women undergo in the next release of the series. APP members documented the harms that were requested by pornography consumers, and then matched them to the abuses that were perpetrated in the next release of the film series. These findings were published in a 2004 article that discussed producer/consumer collaboration in the abuse of women in pornography (
Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai
, 2004, pp. 6–9).
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In another major project to document the harm of the distribution of pornography in Japan, APP members received funding to survey counsellors and lawyers working with women’s support organisations in Tokyo about their experience of assisting sexual assault victims whose abuses featured pornography or prostitution. The APP collected a large volume of qualitative data on this
issue, which was presented in an article published in 2003. The Group identified 7 different ways in which pornography is used by sex offenders to victimise women. These include women being: 1) forced to watch pornography, 2) forced to re-enact scenes in pornography, 3) forced to appear in pornography by boyfriends or husbands, 4) raped by men provoked by consuming pornography, 5) blackmailed by pornography made of them, 6) having pornography made of them distributed on the Internet, and 7) women having their faces superimposed onto pornographic pictures distributed on the Internet (
Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai
, 2003, pp. 5–73).
The APP has also led a campaign to mobilise support for an amendment to be made to the Tokyo metropolitan youth development regulations to regulate the selling to minors of graphically animated pornography that glorifies rape or incest. In this campaign, the Group has faced strong opposition from gamers, manga authors and publishers, gaming industry associations, lawyers associations, and the heads and other leaders of the Socialist Party of Japan and the Japan Communist Party.
Another one of the Group’s activities includes a campaign against ‘upskirting’, and the secret filming of women in public places like bathhouses, fitness clubs, public toilets, and ‘love’ hotels. The Group believes this kind of activity is not just a sex crime of individual men, but is closely linked with the sex industry in Japan, because the footage is often compiled and edited into films that are sold as pornography. The small cameras that are used to secretly film women and girls are sold in Akihabara, which is a shopping district where pornography is sold in Tokyo. The APP campaigns for a national law to be enacted against this filming activity, as well as a ban on the small cameras being sold or possessed when used for unlawful purposes.
The Group also campaigns against the producers of DVDs and Websites dedicated to pictures of underage girls wearing bathers and other revealing clothing. This genre of pornography is openly sold in districts like Akihabara, and is recognisable from shelf labels that indicate the age-range of the children in the different films (e.g. ‘second year primary school’). These films evade Japan’s child pornography law because they are perceived not to be arousing or provocative enough because children’s genitals are not shown. Nonetheless, the APP has audited chat forums of online sites selling the films, and has documented sexualised discussion among consumers. On the basis of this research, the Group campaigns against the films as a form of child pornography.
Other research projects by the APP have included content analysis of 32 different violent pornographic films with findings published in the Group’s 2000
edition journal, and sponsorship of Catharine MacKinnon to speak in Tokyo in 2002. Group members publicise their availability to speak at forums against pornography, and run workshops to promote abolitionist activity in Japanese society against pornography and prostitution. In its daily activity, the group further aims to foster support networks for women harmed in the production of pornography in Japan.
Bibliography
Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai
(2003) ‘Ankeeto chousa kekka no bunseki’ pp. 5–73.
Yamamoto, Yukino (2004) ‘Seisaku genba ni okeru henka’,
Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai
pp. 6–19.
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An English translation of this article will be published in a volume edited by Caroline Norma in 2012.
Susan Hawthorne
Quit Porn Manifesto
Just as lung cancer and other illnesses were identified as having links to tobacco consumption, pornography is linked to an increase in harm to women. The tobacco industry, like the pornography industry, pumped billions of dollars into advertising and sponsorship around the world. Particular targets of that marketing were young people at a point in their lives where they are especially vulnerable to peer group pressure and to the idea of looking and being cool. Advertising towards men emphasised manliness (think ‘Marlboro Man’).
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Advertising towards women emphasised beauty and sexiness (think Virginia Slims). Cigarette placement in films was the norm, and holidays in Europe were associated with Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes.
Pornographers use all the same tricks to get their message across to consumers. But this time it is not a product, but a person. By and large, that person is female and young. The purchasers, on the whole, are male. Boys are groomed through masculine culture to become purchasers, responding to pornography as propaganda (Jensen, 2007). Propaganda for a particular kind of social structure that fosters the exploitation of women by men, that is, patriarchy. The message for men is about manliness, about power and pleasure. Just as in tobacco advertising, the message for women is different: it’s about presenting an aura of sexiness and of being appealing to men.
The first reports of the dangers of cigarette smoking appeared in 1964 when the
Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health
was released in the USA. Tobacco advertising is banned in many countries and sponsorships of sport almost unheard of 45 years after the
Surgeon General’s Report
. While feminists have been providing evidence for the harm of pornography for many years (Dworkin and MacKinnon, 1988; McKinnon and Dworkin, 1997) the Surgeon General has not appointed an Advisory Committee to report on Pornography and Health.
Pornography increases suffering
Pornography influences the kinds of intimate relationships people have. Pornography has deleterious effects not only on the individuals in those relationships but also on the extended family and on later generations. Trauma is not restricted to the generation in which it occurs (Atkinson, 2002).
The making of pornography is itself harmful to those involved in its production: to the women portrayed in porn shoots and the men making those films. While the upshot may not be lung cancer, it does have detrimental effects on health and it is highly likely that the impact of pornography results in the death of some of its players.
Some say that pornography is freedom of expression. Whose expression is free? The women with cum on their faces? The young girls and boys penetrated anally? Get real. This is not about freedom of expression, it is about endorsing men’s violence against the feminised other: women, children and animals as well as men who are poor, gay or from a despised ethnic group.
Pornography is an industry, just like tobacco is an industry. It is intended to make large profits for a small number of individuals and corporations. There is no greater social good to be found in pornography. Instead, it has negative effects on the developing brains of young men exposed to endless streams of porn culture (Doidge, 2009, pp. 102–112). Those young men (from age 11 according to Dines, 2010) are not engaging in instinctual behaviour, but a learned behaviour that requires ever more stimulation. It leads to an escalation of ‘learned need’ on the part of men, and suggests that the more pornography there is, the greater the damage (Doidge, 2009, pp. 104–106). And further, that porn causes erectile dysfunction in men (Murphy, 2010). Rather than enhancing the sexual experience, pornography requires a bigger and bigger fix to the point where only the most gratuitously violent images have any effect.
“Porn is bad for your health” says Linda Thompson (2010). It’s bad for women’s health because of the increase in sexually transmitted diseases and physical injury by those engaged in the production of pornography. Add to that the post-traumatic stress disorders and psychological effects of abuse. These, however, are not restricted to the makers of porn, but also to the watchers of pornography. They lose their capacity to form intimate relationships with others. “The consumers become the consumed” (Murphy, 2010).
Pornography has many defenders including those on the left who want to dismantle capitalism but leave the pornography industry intact. But if we want a society in which justice is at the centre, then we cannot justify supporting pornography. Porn is about injustice and hatred.
Who is porn good for? It’s good for capitalists. It’s good for organised crime. It’s good for the purveyors of violence, such as those in the military who give porn to soldiers in training (Caputi, 1992). It’s good for those engaged in genocide who film the rape and torture of prisoners and then distribute this as porn (Clarke, 2004). It’s good for a handful of corporate exploiters. It’s good for patriarchy.
Strategies to Quit Porn
Identify the reasons why you want to Quit Porn. Reflect on when you first used porn. Your age, the social setting in which it occurred. Think about whether the things that were important to you then are now. Ask yourself whether you were pressured to use porn? What made you continue after the pressure ceased? Do any of those things still matter? Reflect on what you thought was good about porn. Did that good feeling always continue? Did you experience any negative feelings? Try to identify them. How did using porn affect your partner? Did you ask? What affect did porn have on your relationship? Are any of them strong enough reasons to help you Quit Porn?
Reflect on your politics. Are you in favour of social justice? Do you think racism is a bad thing? Do you put ecological issues high on your list of priorities? Do you think women should be treated with respect? Do you think that people in poverty should get more equitable access to resources? Do you think it’s a good thing that slavery is illegal? If you answer yes to any of these and you use porn, how do you justify that to yourself? How do you justify it to others? What do you think of your justifications after pondering these issues?
Create a plan to Quit Porn. It might include changing some social settings that make it hard for you to refuse using porn. Work out how you might change these. It might include changing habits and routines. Try to replace these with something active, something that will give your mind and body energy. It might involve some quite strong emotions. Finding a supportive person or group might be helpful in dealing with your emotions.
In the plan you create to Quit Porn, try to work out whether you feel more comfortable with your politics now? Does that help you to Quit Porn?
Put your plan into action. Just as smokers have relapses, it’s possible that circumstances and a range of other events might create obstacles to giving up porn. It’s worth continuing through these difficult patches. If you need to make several attempts before you Quit Porn, think of your previous attempts as practice runs. Reflect on what helped you to stop and what encouraged you to use again. Think about the things you might do to get you through the next time.
Using porn is learned behaviour. If you learned it, it is possible to unlearn it. While the plasticity of the brain means that using porn affects the brain, it also means that by not using porn, you are creating new ways for the brain to operate. You are changing your behaviour. People have changed their behaviour over millennia. Feminism helped women changed their behaviour, and most reasonable people in this society have worked to stop themselves from expressing racist views. It is possible to change the way you live in the world. It is possible to change how you relate to others.
Reasons to Quit Porn
Why bother to Quit Porn? Just as smoking affects a person’s quality of life, using pornography does too. It reduces social interactions and the quality of that interaction. Relationships become disengaged and people are dehumanised.
Who do you support? The profiteers and purveyors of violence? Or those harmed by pornography?
Porn is bad for you. It’s bad for boys. It’s bad for girls. It’s bad for women. It’s bad for men. It’s bad for our relationships with one another.
It’s time to Quit Porn.
Bibliography
Atkinson, Judy (2002)
Trauma Trails, Recreating Song Lines: The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia
. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Caputi, Jane (1992)
The Age of Sex Crime
. The Women’s Press, London.
Clarke, D. A. (2004) ‘Prostitution for everyone: Feminism, globalisation and the “sex” industry’ in Starke, Christine and Rebecca Whisnant (Eds)
Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography
. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, pp. 149–205.
Dines, Gail (2010)
Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
. Beacon Press, Boston; Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Doidge, Norman (2009)
The Brain That Changes Itself
. Scribe, Melbourne.
Dworkin, Andrea and Catharine A. MacKinnon (1988)
Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women’s Equality
. Organizing Against Pornography, Minneapolis.
Hamilton, Maggie (2010)
What’s Happening to Our Boys?
Viking, Camberwell.
Jensen, Robert (2007)
Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity
. South End Press, Cambridge, MA.
MacKinnon, Catharine A. and Andrea Dworkin (1997)
In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings
. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Murphy, Cameron (11 June, 2010) ‘Working with Men to Stop Pornography’ Workshop presentation given at Stop Porn Culture Conference, Wheelock College, Boston.
Stark, Christine and Rebecca Whisnant (Eds) (2004)
Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography
. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Tankard Reist, Melinda (2009)
Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls
. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Thompson, Linda (12 June, 2010) ‘International Organizing against the Sex Industry’ Workshop presentation given at Stop Porn Culture Conference, Wheelock College, Boston.
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‘Marlboro Man’, Wayne McLaren, died of lung cancer in 1992.