Feminist Groups to Protest Outside Porn Trade Summit
September 23, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Feminist groups are going to stage a protest outside XBIZEU, a three-day pornography trade summit in London on Friday evening.
Feminists are going to stage a ‘meat market’ outside XBIZEU, a porn trade summit, in London today, September 23 2011.
Dressed as butchers and businessmen, feminist groups will pretend to trade in women’s body parts to make sure their message against pornography comes through loud and clear.
“The pornography industry butchers women. Brutal, body punishing acts are now routine in mainstream porn and women are presented merely as a collection of body parts, deserving and desiring of pain,” says Kat Banyard, Director of UK Feminista.
“The pimps and porn moguls gathered this weekend are part of a global industry ruthlessly seeking new and profitable ways to carve up sexuality and trade away women’s equality. The Radisson Edwardian hotel is hosting a brutal meat market, not a lavish corporate conference,” adds Ms Banyard.
With young people watching on average 2.5 hours of pornography each week, the global pornography industry has been estimated to be worth US$97bn
According to recent studies, viewing pornography could lead to an acceptance of rape myths and attitudes supporting violence against women.
Stop Press Porn is a campaign which is trying to tackle the sexual objectification of women in newspapers and pornography as well.
“This is not the porn of yesteryear. Pornography today is increasingly violent, body punishing, degrading and woman-hating. Hardcore porn is the norm and it is being accessed by boys as young as 11 on the internet and on mobile phones. The messages and images from porn are infiltrating every aspect of our popular culture and women and girls are bearing the brunt of increased levels of violence, sexual abuse and harassment that accompany pornification,” said Anna van Heeswijk, Campaigns Coordinator at OBJECT.
“This porn summit represents pimps in suits, paying in what they term ‘Pussycash’, meeting to plot how to push the boundaries of porn even further to increase their profits. It is their aim to make the sexual violence of porn appears normal and acceptable. It is our aim to stop them. Our message is clear: ‘women are human, stop treating us like objects’,” Ms van Heeswijk added.
The protest will take place around 18.00 (BST), outside the Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel in London.
By Rosaria Sgueglia
[Image courtesy of ElBroka]
“With young people watching on average 2.5 hours of pornography each week”
Nonsense.