Backlash platform for women's voices
Just forwarding a message I saw on Informed Consent - basically Backlash are looking for articles written by women expressing opposition to the "extreme porn" law.
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Hi all,
I'm writing from Backlash, the umbrella organisation set up to oppose the UK government's proposals to ban "violent pornography" (you can find full details at our site, http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk). We are setting up a section on our website devoted to expressing women's opposition to the ban, and thought you might want to contribute. Apologies if you are a man receiving this email; please forward it to any women you think might be interested.
One of the most offensive aspects of the government's policy of censorship is the assumption that all pornography, and by logical extension consensual sexual activity, is always something inflicted by men on women, who suffer as a result. In effect, the government is suggesting that a sizeable proportion of adult women require protection from their own sexuality.
We believe that this misrepresents the experience of millions of women. In their consultation, the government ignored the responses of individuals (who were mostly against their proposals) in favour of the responses of organisations such as county police forces (who mostly supported their proposals). We hope to provide a platform for individual dissenting voices.
What we are looking for are short pieces from women (100 to 600 words) answering the following questions -
1) How would you describe your sexuality?
2) What role has "violent pornography" played in your life?
3) What do you think of the UK government's proposal to ban "violent pornography"? Can you suggest any better means of improving attitudes towards women?
We hope to get a diverse range of voices, so responses can be as academic and analytical or as angry and personal as you like. Submissions will be edited as little as possible to preserve writers' points of view, though we reserve the right not to use unsuitable material. It would be helpful if you felt able to let us know your name (a pseudonym is fine), age, occupation and town/general area of residence, which we hope to print with the article as part of our drive to show that we are representing the views of a wide variety of women. However, this is not essential.
We are also happy to receive articles which are longer and more freeform than the template above; but we would like to get responses from a lot of women, to show that our campaign does enjoy wide support. So if you have limited time, or essay composition isn't your thing, hopefully the above questions should be a quick and easy way to register your opinions. We are also happy to receive responses from women who don't personally consider themselves kinky, but are opposed to the ban anyway. The same goes for women who live outside the UK.
It is our hope that some of the material will be picked up by the national media, either in the form of articles we place ourselves, or by journalists who visit the site, so please bear in mind that your words might end up being quoted. (We hope!)
Please send any contributions to penny @ backlash-uk.org.uk (remove the spaces to make the address work). Please also forward this email to any other women who you think might be interested.
Thanks for your help,
The Backlash team
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There are already some articles up at http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/womensviews.html .
Edit: Apparentely articles from men are welcome also.
---
Hi all,
I'm writing from Backlash, the umbrella organisation set up to oppose the UK government's proposals to ban "violent pornography" (you can find full details at our site, http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk). We are setting up a section on our website devoted to expressing women's opposition to the ban, and thought you might want to contribute. Apologies if you are a man receiving this email; please forward it to any women you think might be interested.
One of the most offensive aspects of the government's policy of censorship is the assumption that all pornography, and by logical extension consensual sexual activity, is always something inflicted by men on women, who suffer as a result. In effect, the government is suggesting that a sizeable proportion of adult women require protection from their own sexuality.
We believe that this misrepresents the experience of millions of women. In their consultation, the government ignored the responses of individuals (who were mostly against their proposals) in favour of the responses of organisations such as county police forces (who mostly supported their proposals). We hope to provide a platform for individual dissenting voices.
What we are looking for are short pieces from women (100 to 600 words) answering the following questions -
1) How would you describe your sexuality?
2) What role has "violent pornography" played in your life?
3) What do you think of the UK government's proposal to ban "violent pornography"? Can you suggest any better means of improving attitudes towards women?
We hope to get a diverse range of voices, so responses can be as academic and analytical or as angry and personal as you like. Submissions will be edited as little as possible to preserve writers' points of view, though we reserve the right not to use unsuitable material. It would be helpful if you felt able to let us know your name (a pseudonym is fine), age, occupation and town/general area of residence, which we hope to print with the article as part of our drive to show that we are representing the views of a wide variety of women. However, this is not essential.
We are also happy to receive articles which are longer and more freeform than the template above; but we would like to get responses from a lot of women, to show that our campaign does enjoy wide support. So if you have limited time, or essay composition isn't your thing, hopefully the above questions should be a quick and easy way to register your opinions. We are also happy to receive responses from women who don't personally consider themselves kinky, but are opposed to the ban anyway. The same goes for women who live outside the UK.
It is our hope that some of the material will be picked up by the national media, either in the form of articles we place ourselves, or by journalists who visit the site, so please bear in mind that your words might end up being quoted. (We hope!)
Please send any contributions to penny @ backlash-uk.org.uk (remove the spaces to make the address work). Please also forward this email to any other women who you think might be interested.
Thanks for your help,
The Backlash team
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There are already some articles up at http://www.backlash-uk.org.uk/womensviews.html .
Edit: Apparentely articles from men are welcome also.