PORN AGAIN

The recent rape culture debate engendered by the on-line behaviour of some Wellington secondary schoolboys underlines some serious problems facing our society.

Interest in sex by young people is nothing new.
Improper behaviour, objectification of women, sexual assault and rape is nothing new.
The immediacy of access to indecent material and the ability to quickly promulgate it is new.

When I was a whippersnapper, becoming interested in sex the pornographic options were severely limited. In the 1960's, in New Zealand there wasn't much in the way of titillating material. Nowadays an advertising billboard or lifestyle magazines in doctors waiting rooms are raunchier than the 'girlie' magazines of the day.

Well-thumbed and traded magazines like Man (Australian) were like gold. These, if ever acquired had to be hidden, preferably away from home in the hideout that most kids of the time had. Ours was a self-built shack in the bushes up the back of our house that contained all sorts of treasures (home-built crossbows, shangeyes, items from the tip), stuff you had to hide from your mother (the jumper you burnt a hole in, fireworks, homework assignments and later, the girlie mags) and things you were building (early versions of skate boards, sleds, trollies, bikes etc).

Novels were always pretty tame or at least the ones we could get hold of. Henry Miller, Anais Nin, D.H. Lawrence, Lawrence Durrell and all of the serious but naughty writers, even if the international bans were lifted were still never on sale,. We had to make do with the suggested titillation in Ian Fleming novels and rubbish like Kyle Onstott (Mandingo series), Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susan. These books fell open at the one or two spots where some sexual activity was badly written about.

Every now and again some kid would turn up with one of those trashy American pulp fiction books that some onanistic sailor had brought in to the country. You know the type. They're probably collectors items now and fetch a lot of money. Our copies, after being passed around so much were ripped, soiled and, after being hidden in the 'shack' damp and mouldy.

'Real' sexual activity took place in the neighbourhood with some of the friendly girls but this was always of the 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' variety. There was no alcohol involved, little touching and, I'm pleased to say, a great deal of awe and respect.

I'm not saying that we were innocent but the times, compared to today certainly offered a lot less than the smorgasbord of pornography available today. Apart from the sheer scale - volume and variety - it is the ease of accessibility that is astounding. Pornographic images, videos, sound recordings, writings and cartoon variants can be found at the click of a button with virtually no age restriction. The formats cover every form of media including interactive video games. I wonder how many parents are unaware of what their kids are accessing on-line.


Now I'm not a wowser - hey, I and my schoolmates 'wanked for the olympics' in our time and we kids were very prurient and would avidly read and pore over whatever we could get our hands on. I bet that Robert even trawled through the bible for the rude bits to get his jollies.
No, it's not the sexy images and titillating stories that are on offer and causing problems, it's the nastiness of the content. There is so much implied (overtly or subtly) violence in pornography that is cancerous. I said in the opening of this post that "Improper behaviour, objectification of women, sexual assault and rape is nothing new" but, today, the pornographic offerings, easily and freely accessible and in so many forms and degrees of awfulness is the 'norm'.

There is no excuse or justification for rape, sexual assault or sexual violence. None. Mealy-mouthed apologies and "well, it happens' shrugs are not good enough. The Wellington jokers and those roast buster guys in Auckland have to be slammed, and slammed hard. What we also have to look at though is the availability and accessibility of the filth in the media and on the internet. OK,OK, I hear you saying that freedom of speech etc. should allow this and that people should be free to make their own choices. I can see that but I can also see an insidious decline in values and a dumbing down of sensitivity. China and India seem to have no problem in shutting down a lot of the more extreme internet offerings. Why can't we?

We can't teach young people about the need for consent and the importance of proper and healthy relationships while the opposite is freely touted in magazines, in film and on the internet porn sites. The slippage in values is something that the current and future generations are seriously going to suffer from. I'm happy that I won't be around in 30 or more years to witness the aftermath of this.