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Pleasure (and Danger) in Parliament: What Happened to the Non-Violent Erotica Classification?
Kath Albury, School of Media & Communications/National Centre for HIV Social Research, UNSW
| [ Go to this paper in the timetable ] |
Despite several years of planning by the state and federal Attorneys-General, the proposal to replace the X category with a more restrictive 'Non-Violent Erotica' classification was overruled by federal Parliament in May 2000. This paper offers some Foucauldian (and other) readings of the discourses which circulated in the debates around the amendment; particularly in the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislative Committee.
Rather than re-hashing classical pro and anti censorship arguments, it specifically examines the tendency of both legislators and witnesses to conflate representations of consensual fetish sex acts with 'sexualised violence against women'. What might this mean at a time when a variety of popular 'women's' texts, from CLEO magazine to 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' are demonstrating an increasing interest in (or acceptance of) 'perverse' sexual pleasures, including fetishism ?
