Today our esteemed PM, the right honourable David Cameron, announced that from henceforth, ISPs will have to block all online pornography – and consumers will have to take practical steps to exercise their inalienable right to watch other people fuck, by “opting-in”. And up and down the land, the feminists they cheered,
yea, they anointed Cameron with balm and placed a crown of roses upon his shiny, red face. For Cameron had revealed himself as a champion of women, and protector of the innocence of children.
Except, not so much.
You see, beyond the fact that far wiser heads than I have expressed grave doubts about the efficacy of the plans, Cameron is only concerned about “corroding childhood” when it suits him – or to be precise, when it doesn’t bother Rupert Murdoch.
Yes, reader, I am talking about Page 3. Page 3, which our very adult PM sniggered about when discussing the issue in Parliament. Page 3, which Cameron has told readers to “turn the page” on. Page 3, which Cameron sees as a “consumer choice”.
But Cameron, what about the corroded childhood of the girl who walked down the corridor at school while boys rated her and her friends out of 10, while holding up page 3? What about the corroded childhood of young girls who grow up in a world where clothed men do things and naked women are things? What about the corroded life of the woman who was raped while a man told her she was beautiful and should be on page 3? What about them Cameron? Don’t they matter?
Put briefly, no they don’t. It doesn’t matter that young girls grow up in a world where the most widely circulated newspaper advocates a racist conception of beauty. It doesn’t matter that young girls grow up in a world where the “get your tits out” chanting starts as young as eleven – and who knows, maybe younger. It doesn’t matter that young girls grow up in a world where on the day Jessica Ennis won a sodding gold medal for her country, the largest image of a woman in The Sun was of a woman with her boobs out, pictured for the gratification of men, with a snarky little box next to her mocking her ability to think for herself.
None of this matters, because Rupert Murdoch says it doesn’t matter. And what Rupert Murdoch says goes in this so-called democracy.
In this country we live in, internet porn corrodes childhood; Rupert Murdoch porn, arguably far more damaging in terms of its widespread reach and context, is a consumer fucking choice.
