NCJ Number
104371
Date Published
1986
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper challenges the censorship proposals of Canada's Fraser Committee regarding pornography on the ground that this strategy does not address root causes of the general and sexual exploitation of women.
Abstract
The censorship recommendations of the Fraser Committee reinforce the traditional concept of sexual relations as a private activity that is pleasurable but objectionable when brought into public discourse and representation. The committee did not examine why other private activities such as eating, sleeping, and quarreling should not also be barred from public representations. Feminist anxiety about censorship is not based on an acceptance of existing sexual imagery or a belief that sexist images are harmless. It stems rather from the belief that sexist images reflect the deeper problem of socioeconomic discrimination against women. Women's status will be changed less by changing or eliminating sexual images than by guaranteeing equal pay for equal work and by providing equal opportunity for women's full participation in the Nation's socioeconomic life. The censorship of sexual images inevitably introduces subjective, authoritative judgments by people whose views of sexuality and its expression are not shared by many others. Clear cases of violent and abusive sex and sex that involves the abuse of children must be prosecuted, but efforts to eliminate images of such behavior do little to prevent the behavior itself. The mounting of a comprehensive program to improve the status of women and children in society and impart the knowledge and relational values appropriate for consensual and mutually satisfying sex is a more effective strategy than censorship. 2 footnotes.