Instead of a sit in, we’re getting a facesitting. That’s not a pithy joke, by the way. There is literally going to be a mass facesitting in Westminster. Bring your friends.
The protest is being mounted (wink wink) in response to a to a new series of draconian restrictions against streaming porn produced in the UK, which was recently passed via the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014. The now-censored sex acts include, among other things, female ejaculation, many staples of consenting BDSM (such as spanking, caning, and physical restraint), and the aforementioned face-sitting, which was deemed “potentially life threatening” by the British Board of Film Censors. Britons, there is a possibility that you are doing it wrong if that’s the case.
While it’s perfectly legal to perform BDSM in the comfort of your own home and there are no restrictions on watching foreign porn, pro-porn Britain still isn’t just going to take this lying down (these jokes are basically writing themselves at this point). As our sister site Styelite reports, a group of brave souls using the hashtag #pornprotest plan to stage an event right outside the house of Parliament at noon on Friday, during which fully clothed participants will simulate the perfectly legal sex acts in something called “The Sex Factor.”
#PornProtest @ukindymedia @OccupyLondon @_Charlie_rose @ObscenityLawyer @stavvers @backlashuk @AlixFox @aft_mag pic.twitter.com/utcpWODfLP
— Zoah Hedges-Stocks (@Zoah_HS) December 5, 2014
The hashtag and accompanying protest idea was created by “Sex Worker of the Year 2013” Charlotte Rose, who also works as a political activist and sex therapist. She and other civil liberties advocates claim that not only is this government censorship of personal freedoms, but that female sexuality in particular is being unfairly targeted—can you even imagine a world where “male ejaculation” was not allowed?—and that by demonizing BDSM regardless of consent, the new legislation trivializes the importance of consent in the first place.
“Pornography is the canary in the coalmine of free speech: it is the first freedom to die,” obscenity lawyer Myles Jackman told London24. If this assault on liberty is allowed to go unchallenged, other freedoms will fall as a consequence.”
But there is hope out there, kinksters: a motion to annul the new laws has also been filed by Liberal Democrat MP Julian Hupper, and will be debated in Parliament on Friday. Let’s just hope having to walk past a bunch of people pretending to smack each other’s butts for love and justice changes enough minds to overturn the new restrictions.
(vis Stylite)
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