3 reasons the war on porn is really a war on women

The hatred of porn claims to be all about protecting women: Rescuing innocent women from exploitation, looking out for the safety of female performers, and ensuring that society remains clean and wholesome so women aren’t rampantly abused by sex-maddened men. Critics of porn also usually cite the “think of the children” argument, but at its core, the anti-porn movement is focused on misogynistic attitudes about women, female pleasure, and empowerment for women who choose to work in the sex industry.

Porn haters form sometimes uneasy and unlikely alliances; one of the few places, for example, where radical feminists and conservatives are willing to share the table is when they’re meeting to talk about porn. They’re united in one simple cause, that of abolishing porn, and it often involves punishing women along the way. No matter the origins of anti-porn attitudes, the core belief underlying them is usually the same: Women are not autonomous and able to make their own decisions, so wiser people need to do it for them.

Here are three examples of how a movement to “save” women really just ends up targeting them instead.

1) The great British sex act ban of 2014

News broke this week that the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations for 2014 in barred a truly bizarre assortment of sex acts from U.K.-produced porn. Notably, the list included things like female ejaculation, fisting, and face-sitting, suggesting that Britain’s censors have a problem with women getting off.

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