Iceland – Anti Porn But Pro Vibrators
Have you ever thought about moving to Iceland? Well think again. A new moderate-right government is being pressured to block online pornography as part of an ongoing cultural debate over free speech and gender equality. (I can imagine the local residents packing their bags as I am writing this).
The proposal is to block access to websites, installing web filters and making it illegal to use an Icelandic credit card to purchase pornography. Does this actually solve anything or just push the industry and it’s ethics underground?
This measure was introduced by former Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (not anti porn Girls star Lena Dunham). This so called attacked on the Icelandic Porn Industry is the result of a strong feminist force that wishes to eradicate degrading or violent images of women in the public sphere. Frankly, I’m quite over hearing the anti feminism arguments towards porn. Do feminists sit there and watch a good amount of porn before they make these comments? Or just the ones that really are degrading? All porn is not bad and I would think that banning pornography would just make things worse for women. Can you image all the built up sexual energy from men who can’t release that tension over a good sex scene? (Can you see it – men running around chasing women to show them a boob or bit of leg?).
It was made more interesting by the fact that Iceland ranked first on the World Economic Forum’s 2012 Global Gap Report, which compares progress towards sexual equality in 135 countries ( that’s not cause of porn, that’s because it’s Iceland)
But what really makes this a contradiction is that we are talking about a country where an unenforced ban on selling pornography has lingered since 1869. In 2012 they outlawed strip clubs and have criminalised buying sex (but not selling sex) yet mini vibrators are sold in grocery store checkouts. So does that mean if we get rid of porn and strip clubs in Oz we can sell sex toys in supermarkets? Hello Woolworths!
Sending my support to he porn industry in Iceland. ( And this article to Woolworths and Coles).
Xoxo
Dr Nikki
