Voices of Resistance:

the re-emergence of feminist

anti-porn activism in the UK

Julia Long
Research Student, LSBU
Porn Cultures: Regulation, Political
Economy and Technology
Monday 15 June 2009
Outline of presentation

 ‘That’s all gone’, ‘times have changed’: what

happened to feminist anti-porn activism?
 My research: rationale, aims and design
 Context: ‘pornification’
 Interviews: emergent themes
– Motivation
– Influences
– Experience of activism
– Impact on personal biography
‘That’s all gone’
 I went through a period, this would have been in the 90s, where
the feminist movement were blockading just about everything,
and I remember going into the offices where I worked and it
being picketed by the feminists and things. Now, that's all
gone... I think everybody accepts now that women will
always be thought of as sex objects by men, but the thing
about 'well, don't treat me as a sex object' - well, I'm sorry love,
everybody is going to - that is life.

Deric Botham, Trojan Publishing, Euroticus Publishing (R4,2008)

‘Times have changed’
 ‘I wasn’t comfortable with it but times have changed. I asked
the young people [sic] we work with on the programme and
they all said they’d kill to be offered the chance to do a sexy
photo shoot for FHM. Women feel empowered by doing them
now. Some people say it’s a men’s con trick to get them to
take their clothes off but it isn’t. Young women on the
programme said they’d do it to show off to their female friends.
Judy was a bit less comfortable with it as she’s been a feminist
since the 1970s but even she could see it was all right. I
thought Chloe looked lovely.’

 Richard Madeley, Metro 20 October 2008

FHM magazine, July 2008
 ‘It made me feel sexy
and girly’
Chloe Madeley
Research background and rationale

 Disparity between discourses of ‘gender equality’

and what was happening in the culture:
normalisation of porn and sex industry - pornification
 Prevailing discourses of ‘empowerment’, ‘choice’ and
‘agency’
 2006 - started to hear of new anti-porn groups
emerging
Pornification

 ‘Striptease culture’, ‘sexualisation of society’

(McNair, 2002; Attwood et al, 2009)
 ‘Cultural mainstreaming of pornography’ (Sorensen,
2003)
 ‘Pornification’ (Paasonen et al, 2007)
 Expansion of global sex industry (Jeffreys, 2008)
 ‘Re-sexualisation of women’s bodies’ (Gill, 2009)
 Non-academic accounts: Levy, Paul (2005); TV and
news features – ‘Online Damage’ (R4), ‘The Sex
Education Show v. Pornography’ (C4)
My research aims

 To investigate feminist anti-pornography

activism in the UK since 2005
 To offer an analysis of the impact of feminist
anti-pornography activism since 2005 and
its political significance
Research questions
 What kinds of activism? Locations? Resources?
 Who are the activists? Motivation? Involvement in other kinds
of activism?
 Analyses and understanding of pornography?
 Aims and visions?
 Strategies? Campaigns and activities? Experience of
activism?
 Perceived effectiveness of their campaigns? Impact?
 Political significance? Implications for a broader feminist
movement? How does it relate to other forms of feminist
activism in a global context in the 21st century?
Research design

 Mapping feminist anti-pornography activism

across the UK
 Two ethnographies:
– Anti-Porn London
– Object
 24 interviews with activists
Interviews

 24 semi-structured interviews with activists

from case study groups and other groups
across the UK
 Topics covered: motivation; influences;
understandings, feelings and perspectives on
porn; experience of activism; impact of
activism (includes impact on biography)
What kinds of activism?

 Campaigns, eg:
– ‘Bin the Bunny’ (Anti-Porn London)
– ‘Stripping the Illusion’ (Object)
– Lads mags protests (EM Fems, Object)
Anti-Porn London

 ‘Bin the Bunny’ campaign

Object

 ‘Strippingthe Illusion’ campaign to relicence

lap dancing clubs as SEEs
Object: ‘Feminist Fridays’

 Anti-lads mags
campaign, WH Smiths,
Liverpool Street
What kinds of activism?

 Events, eg:
– Fem08, Sheffield
– Feminism in London, October 2008
– ‘Challenging Demand’ conferences, Glasgow
 ‘Individual’ activism
– Blogs, signing petitions, writing letters to MPs
– ‘Riot Showgrrrls’ – anti-porn cabaret!
– Stickering, direct action
Emergent findings (interviews)

 Three activists:
– Nadia, 32
– Roberta, 28
– Jenny, 17

 Active in: Object, Anti-Porn London, London Feminist

Network; Nadia and Roberta also involved in Fawcett
Society
Interviewees

 Nadia: 32, university educated, professional,

heterosexual, in a relationship,mixed heritage, no
children, no disability
 Roberta – 28, university educated, professional,
heterosexual, single, white British, no children, no
disability
 Jenny – 17, final year A levels, white British, no
children
Motivation

 Objection to pornification
– music videos, newspapers, lads mags, lap dancing clubs,
boyfriends’ use of porn
‘ what it really was for me was music videos…which show
the women completely naked almost: dancing for men,
being sexual for men, being there for men, not even singing
or having any place in the video in their own right.’ (Jenny)
‘I just used to get so angry going into a newsagents and
being surrounded by these images of naked, airbrushed
women’ (Nadia)

‘The whole dehumanisation of women – we’re just objects’

(Nadia)
Motivation

Pornification seen as priority:

‘to me (pause) the kind of pornification of society and the

objectification of women is key - that is the most important
battle that I think that I want to be involved in, I mean, that is
the key to everything. The battles…to do with equal pay
and pensions, I think will only be won when men see
women as human beings, not as sex objects…for me
personally the thing that I get most worked up about, umm,
is the pornification of society really.’ (Roberta)
Motivation

 Sexual harassment at work – linked to pornification

– Men going to strip clubs at lunchtime; men slapping
women’s bottoms; crude sexual remarks – seen as a joke
 Boyfriends’ use of porn
– ‘he just made me feel so disrespected as his partner’
 Concern for family members
– protective of younger sisters – ‘I’d hate them to go through
what I went through’ (Nadia) – Facebook page
Motivation

 Wanting to meet other feminists

...none of my friends are feminists, they wouldn't define themselves as

feminists, so to me it's really important - you know, that's been an
important part of it, actually becoming friends with other feminists as
well…
it's just good for me to feel that I can be myself, because when I'm with
other friends, I mean, I love them dearly but if I start going on about
stuff then it's a kind of, you know, rolling the eyes and raised eyebrows
and (pause) they'll humour me to a certain extent but they just don't
connect with feminism in the same way, and so I feel quite constrained
in what I can say some of the time so it's really good to have the
opportunity to discuss it (Roberta)
Motivation

 Trivialisation of / hostility to feminist perspectives

– ‘prude’ label
– ‘culture and society has told them that they should impress
boys… and going against that would just be like social
suicide. Which isn’t too smart’ (Jenny)
– ‘I’ve got a lot of hassle for saying that I think [the
normalisation of porn] is wrong’ (Jenny)
– Personal – ‘it’s all about, you’re this, and you’re that…’
– ‘I’m always getting told, be quiet, be quiet. I’m fed up of
being told to be quiet, I’ve got just as much right to be heard
as anyone else - everyone else’s sexist opinions in the
media!’ (Nadia)
Influences

 Family members
– Mother (Jenny)
– Father (Nadia)
 Teachers (Roberta)
 ‘I’ve always been a feminist, I just didn’t know that was what I
was’ (Nadia) – ‘feminist since age 14’ (Jenny, Roberta)
 University education didn’t provide feminist education (Nadia,
Roberta); nor school (Jenny)
 ‘seeing the experience of other women, and the fact that it’s all
around us’ (Roberta)
Experiences of activism

 Meeting like-minded women, feminists

– ‘I was just so happy when I found Object!’ – Nadia
– ‘I think that's been one of the really, the most, many positive things that's come out of
it really’ - Roberta
 Collectivism and solidarity
– ‘just the opportunity to feel some solidarity… and not be closed down’
(Roberta)
– ‘There is that affinity.. they do have your back.. you really do feel like a
group united’ (Jenny)
 Reactions of public: challenging, intimidating,
encouraging
– ‘sometimes they agree with you!’ (Jenny)
– ‘you do get told to fuck off quite a lot, and ’you’re only doing this cos you’re
ugly’’ (Roberta, on ‘Bin the Bunny’ protests)
Experiences of activism

 Empowerment, exhilaration
– ‘I feel really positive that I’ve made a stand’
(Roberta)
– ‘I love activism, there’s nothing more empowering’
(Jenny)
– ‘The protest outside the lap dancing club was
fantastic’; ‘I feel so good afterwards… before I
found Object I just felt really impotent, that I
couldn’t do anything to stop it’ (Nadia)
Experiences: Mixed / women-only

 Value of women-only organising

– ‘I think, umm, it's important to keep LFN meetings women-only, I really, I
really do believe in the idea of women-only space…’

 Place for / necessity of mixed organising

– ‘you know I don't think that the battles that we're fighting will ever be won if
we just, um, you know, push all men to the sidelines’

 Ambivalence:
– ‘And also, because a lot of women will be in situations [at home or at work]
where they'll be overruled by a man or that a man will come in and take
over’
– ‘bulldozed by men’
Impact – group / campaign

 Stripping the Illusion

– ‘Brilliant at raising awareness’
– Strategic: focus on licensing frustrating but
important
– ‘People say it happened really fast, but it didn’t
seem to me to happen that fast!’
 Bin the Bunny
– ‘huge mountain to climb’
– effective at raising awareness
Impact - personal

 Personal relationships
– ‘I was quite naïve… I’d never, ever challenged them [boyfriends
using porn]… I am now at the point where I would absolutely not
accept any relationship where the guy was using porn’
– ‘it’s brought out some conflicts in my current relationship’
– ‘I’ve managed to raise awareness amongst my friends; my close
friends support me in what I do’
 Knowledge, confidence, empowerment
– Educational: ‘it does give you statistics, information and
arguments’
– ‘if I had my chance over I could really sock it to him!’
– ‘Object gave me a focus’
– ‘It’s made me less inclined to keep quiet, I’m more outspoken’
Hopes and aspirations

 Personal aspirations
– To continue and grow the movement!
– MA Women’s Studies
 Funding for groups
– ‘just thinking what we've achieved already, you know, in our
spare time, I think if we could all do it full-time, and I think it
would be a really supportive atmosphere - it would be great,
it would be like a feminist utopia!’
Concluding thoughts & questions

 Relationship of young women to feminism

 How activists develop and maintain a
feminist consciousness
 Significance of perspectives and experiences
of activists

 Email: longj2@lsbu.ac.uk