Page 84 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 February 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
a 10 per cent, even a 20 per cent swing either way, but the result is overwhelmingly against X-rated videos.
So, let us have a look at what the videos category under "X-rated" in Australia allows. These videos depict and portray things such as incest. This is something that not many people know. They think that all these things are automatically banned. If they contact the Film Censorship Board they will find that these things are not automatically banned. Bondage and discipline are not automatically banned. They are allowed as mild fetishes provided that there is supposedly no suggestion of coercion or pain on the person. In other words, it is perfectly okay to tie people up in a video. That is okayed by the Film Censorship Board, provided it does not look like it is against the person's will, et cetera.
The availability of pornography has greatly increased in Australia over the years. I think we all understand that with declining moral values in civilisations in the past, there has been a decline of those civilisations. But moral leadership is not dependent on religious convictions, it is simply a sense of what is right and what is definitely wrong. People in Australia say that these videos are definitely wrong.
We look at what effects these videos have on our society. Do they have an observable effect? Last week Barrie Watts was sentenced to life imprisonment. The reason for that was that on 27 November 1987 a 12-year-old girl, Sian Kingi, had been shopping with her mother. She decided to ride her pushbike home without her mother. On the way she was abducted by Barrie Watts and his wife, Valmae Beck. They took her into the woods. Barrie Watts forced her to commit indecent acts then raped and stabbed her. Barrie Watts and his wife, Valmae, had had many arguments about his addiction to pornographic videos, particularly ones that represented teenagers. Teenagers, we know, can appear in pornographic videos provided they are not under age. Barrie Watts and his wife have been sentenced to life imprisonment, but that will not bring back Sian.
Feminists are against pornographic videos. Indeed, Robyn Morgan coined the phrase "Theory and practice, pornography and rape". Pornography degrades both men and women. Men are shown as lustful and unable to control themselves. Women are depicted as playthings, as in the video Girl Toys, to be used anywhere and at any time. According to these pornographic X-rated videos, women are available at any time, to any man, and are eager to please in any way, often with multiple partners. This unrealistic portrayal of sexual behaviour can and does, the research shows, lead to unreasonable expectations and demands by men, who in turn place unreasonable pressure on women to act in ways that are distasteful to them.
It has been said that people with sexual hang-ups can benefit from X-rated videos. This is akin to showing
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .