Earlier this week, the UK announced new regulations to its adult film industry. Much of the new legislation is centered on sex acts that are traditionally associated with female pleasure. Female ejaculation, strangulation, and facesitting are among the things that have been banned. Below, Complex editors Shanté Cosme and Dana Droppo discuss the wider implications of these new laws.
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Shanté: So, facesitting—it’s apparently very dangerous. I wonder if they accompanied this with relevant stats. Like, each year, 809 people die a slow, painful death via vaginal suffocation. Actually, the word the BBFC used was "life-endangering".
Dana: Life-endangering is a really interesting way to put it. Regulating porn—specifically things like female ejaculation, face-sitting, and fisting—seems like the quickest way to alienate the lesbian population, not to mention women interested in getting off. If we're talking porn regulations, let's focus on the health of the performers.
Shanté: Exactly. Let's focus on consent. Regulations should protect the performers. Not limit what we watch for pleasure.
Dana: These regulations send the message that it's not OK for women to experience pleasure.
Shanté: It's also troubling to me that female ejaculation is banned, because it's the exact equivalent of male ejaculation. Yet one is deemed vulgar and the other is deemed natural.
Dana: And that sex for pleasure is shameful and dangerous. Female ejaculation is dangerous? Tell me one dude who's gone blind for an hour after a girl cums in his eye. Male ejaculation is clearly more dangerous if we really take these allegations seriously.
Shanté: Next we'll ban O faces and women moaning. Also, women ejaculating is not common, but it is normal. It seems like it might be affirming for women who experience such a thing (sidebar: jelly!) to see that other women are capable of the same.
Dana: Yes! Women and the LGBT community are constantly inundated with images/video from mass media and mainstream entertainment that don't include representations of the sex that makes us feel good.
Shanté: Or, sex acts that degrade or humiliate women (i.e.: facials that appear unwanted). Yet, nothing of that nature appears on this list.
Dana: We watch hetero men get off All. The. Time. If the laws are supposed to protect kids under 18 from watching things that can harm them as they develop, let's teach them that sex is beautiful, powerful, and can be totally safe and done on their terms. Doing that requires communication and openness, not repression and shaming.
Female ejaculation is dangerous? Tell me one dude who's gone blind for an hour after a girl cums in his eye. Male ejaculation is clearly more dangerous if we really take these allegations seriously.
Shanté: Agree. Shaming or limiting any form of sexual expression seems like such an antiquated idea for a modern country such as England. I just imagine Queen Elizabeth’s lips pursed, flushing scarlet at the word "female orgasm" being said aloud. Who knew the UK was so damn repressed?
Dana: I'd bet my life at some moment in her life, Queen Elizabeth enjoyed getting spanked hard.
Shanté: Agree. She looks like she knows how to live.
Dana: The other thing that kills me is that having the government define people as sexual deviants and say they're dangerous, criminalizes them and opens them up to violence from the community. It's pre-Stonewall thinking. It's the kind of message that opens up space for hate-filled people to attack trans, lesbian, and queer members of our society. It's ignoring the tragedy of the murder of Islan Nettles because of her sexual deviance. The danger isn't to young kids watching facesitting scenes in porn, it's to communities that are already fighting for protection, understanding, respect and humanity, when those things should be every human's right. Institutionalizing the message, "Your kind of sex is not OK," is the dangerous move.
Shanté: Also troubling: Pinpointing women in literal positions of power. Missionary is all good. But a woman on top of a man, in a dominant position? INSTA-BAN, obviously. It's difficult to wrap your head around the rationale.
Dana: Because there isn't one. How can they determine the difference between moral and immoral sex, but not between consensual and non-consensual? They have banned "physical or verbal abuse, even if consensual." Rule #1 of sex is consent and communication are the only rules. What about the huge percentage of the population that likes to be dominated and peed on?
Shanté: The former more, probably. LOLZ aside, the UK needs to learn to live and let live, and let freak flags fly.
Dana: Yes! If we're doing it for the kids, having access to porn is a really important resource for education. Especially for kids who grow up in households where sex isn't talked about or go to schools where sex ed isn't inclusive.
Shanté: What's also strange is that they have not banned looking at freaky porn from other countries. They've only said,"Don't make that shit here." As if they were imaging that, on a list that ranks the most moral porn of all time, the UK would snag the top spot.
If the laws are supposed to protect kids under 18 from watching things that can harm them as they develop, let's teach them that sex is beautiful, powerful, and can be totally safe and done on their terms. Doing that requires communication and openness, not repression and shaming.
Dana: It's actually quite sad for the limitless talent that no doubt exists within their borders. They could be stifling the next Stoya or Belladonna. Is that not a disservice to the British cultural community?
Shanté: Stoya is a national treasure. It's clear they just don't want people to be happy. That's the takeaway here, right? Limiting porn makes people sad. Especially when the limitations seem to be anti-female pleasure. Clueless men have been ignoring female pleasure for centuries. A whole nation now? It's too much.
Dana: America has some shit to figure out, to say the least, but if there's one thing this country does well it's porn.
Shanté: I've never felt as much patriotism than I do at this very moment.
Dana: It's enough to make me want a green card.
Shanté Cosme is a deputy editor. Follow her on Twitter here. Dana Droppo is Canadian. She is also on Twitter.
