The latest bit of trivia to grip opportunist politicians and journalists is an accusation that a front bench Tory MP watched porn on their phone whilst in the House of Commons. Really? We have the potential for global conflicts to turn into WWIII, and the end of humanity, we have inflation that continues to soar as a result of years of money printing, and the idea that everything can be fixed by resort to the Magic Money Tree, along with the effects of NATO's economic war against Russia, pushing energy prices into the stratosphere, we have a huge list of drugs that are now not available as a result of Brexit and other disruptions to the supply chains resulting from lockdowns, and this is the most important thing they can focus on??
But, the moral hand-wringing is wholly hypocritical. All news channels have made a story of it, but it was probably most hypocritical in the prudish attitude from Channel4 News, given that from its inception, Channel4 has relied on soft porn to boost its ratings. An early example was Eurotrash, and one of the latest is Naked Attraction, a programme whose only purpose is to have members of the public put their genitals on full public display. It would be interesting to have asked the Channel4 journalists how they feel about working for a channel where its not a question of merely watching porn as a passive activity, but of being ana active pornographer, peddling soft porn for ratings.
Moreover, the assumption is made that its only men who watch porn, and so the issue is conflated with misogyny. In fact, all data suggests the opposite, and that at least as many women watch porn as men, and why wouldn't they? After all, watching porn is not illegal. And, again, the hypocrisy of Channel4 is exposed in that regard too, because, not only is it the case that women watch porn, but they also make porn too, as Chennel4 illustrated in their series - Mums Make Porn.
Watch live House of Commons coverage and you will see nearly every MP fiddling with their phones, and there is no reason why watching porn on the phone is any different to watching cat videos, or playing Candy Crush. The issue ought to be MP's not paying full attention to proceedings, and like the majority of the population, it seems, being only separable from a screen by surgical procedure.
The data shows that at least half the adult population watch porn at some point and to one degree or another, and that is just those that actually admitted to it, meaning the real figure is much higher. Another report shows over more than 50% of women watching porn, and 40% making their own. Many of us who grew up in the 1950's and 60's thought that we had done away with all of this prudishness and priggishness, exemplified by Mary Whitehouse and her reactionary crew, but it seems that the reactionaries are back with a vengeance in this regard, as in others too, at least in so far as they can use it for short-term, opportunism.
3 comments:
I was wondering (since I haven't seen this topic being addressed that often by revolutionary socialists) what is your opinion regarding gay rights? Should a Marxist support legalization of same-sex marriage and adoption by the bourgeois state, for example? I apologize if this is not the proper place to ask this.
Yes, of course, Marxists support same-sex marriage, and its legalisation by the state. Marxists, also envisage a future state in which bourgeois marriage itself will disappear, but in so far as individuals seek to marry, then they should be free to do so on an equal basis be they gay or straight.
We do not look to the capitalist state to provide solutions for us as a class, but that does not mean that, for as long as it exists, we demand that people be treated equally under the law, and that the state itself gets out of the way of the working-class developing its own self-activity and self-government.
In raising demands, for such equality, we, however, do not promote any illusions in the capitalist state, or its class neutrality. To the extent that bourgeois states have adopted policies on gender, ethnic, and sexual orientation equality, it is only because these measures do not contradict the general interests of the ruling class in perpetuating its class rule, and exploitation of workers as a whole.
Thank you for your answer.
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