More Memetics

"Love Our Lurkers Day" on November 11th (or the "Global Day of Delurk", as I called it here) was a fun success for most of the kinky blogs involved. I received a high number of comments by my standards - thank you to everyone who took the time to write.

Some of them came from other bloggers like Bonnie, who organised LOL day (a special thanks for that as well), or Dr. Ken of Spanking Minnesota, or Todd and Suzy of the American Spanking Society. On an occasion like this, we are a bit like talk show hosts who trade trips to each others' shows. It's always nice to be appreciated by one's fellow writers. But I'm happier still about seeing some thoroughbred (ex-) lurkers come out into the open, like Rachel or K'Ehleyr, who said that this was the first comment they ever left on a spanking blog. That is what Delurk Day is all about.

In any case, it was fun to take part in the event. Hell, I even changed my usual "every four days" posting routine to do so! To repair the ensuing glitches in the matrix, you are getting this post a little early, restoring the original sequence. I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself this time - I figure now that I've heard from so many of you, it's your turn to learn some new tidbits about me.

Spanked Hortic aka Prefectdt has tagged me with a new internet meme. I did one before in Seven Vices and a Survey. This time, the number seven is involved again, even though the task at hand isn't quite so extensive. The rules are:

- link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog

- share seven facts about yourself on your blog - some random, some weird

- tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog

- let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

That sounds easy enough. Here are seven weird and random clues to the identity of the man known as Ludwig:

1. Even though I grew up in Munich, Germany, I was not born here. I'm also told that my moment of conception happened when my parents were vacationing in South America.

2. I've always had a passion for history. The first real book I ever read in my life (discounting childrens picture books) was the biography of a famous German explorer.

3. I got my first personal computer at the age of 10 and learned English entirely from computer games - mostly text adventures and fantasy RPG's. By the time we got the subject in school, I was already fluent.

4. In Gymnasium (the German equivalent of high school), I had long hair and dressed in lumberjack shirts and other grunge fashion. It was the 1990's, "Generation X" and all that...

5. I have travelled all five continents. Well, except for the sixth one, Antarctica, but I fully intend to do that one day. And I'll travel into space, too.

6. During my final university year, I smoked two packs of cigarettes per day, then quit abruptly - one of the 3-5% of people who manage to do so through willpower alone. The first week was utter hell, though.

7. I always score INFJ on the Jung Typology Test. The type is usually called "The Counselor" (or "The Conspiracy Theorist" in the comedic version).

I'm tagging these seven other bloggers with the meme: Michal "Altair" Valášek of Lupus Pictures, Amelia-Jane Rutherford, Apple of Marks and Stripes, Irelynn and Smudge of Freshly Spanked, Jenni of My Dirty Little Secret, and Tom of Punished Butts.

Global Day of Delurk 2008

Bonnie of My Bottom Smarts has declared November 11th the third annual "Love Our Lurkers Day". It's a tradition she started two years ago, with considerable success. The idea is for all us spanking bloggers to get together and invite our silent readers to leave a comment and introduce themselves. Many lurkers came out of the shadows in 2006 and 2007, some of them have been regular commenters and active members of our virtual community ever since. This year, more bloggers than ever before have been asked to join in the effort. Including me - having started my blog in January, this is my first opportunity to be part of this annual event, and I'm happy to take Bonnie up on her invitation.

I'm calling it the "Global Day of Delurk" here, though, to emphasise the world-spanning range and the historical significance of the occasion. Besides, love really depends on the individual, doesn't it? I mean, I have no doubt that most of my readers are perfectly likeable people. Regardless of strong sadistic tendencies, compulsive despotic behaviour, savage narcissism and other common, harmless kinky quirks (all of which this author shares). But until you poke your head up and give me a chance to get to know you, I can't really say if I love you or not.

The blog usually gets somewhere between 800 and 1100 unique visitors per day, with growing tendencies. Not all of them stay around for long, but a pleasingly large number do and keep coming back. So in theory, there are certainly enough of you around for a lively de-masquerade ball on this beautiful day.

I know that it's enjoyable to be a lurker. There are quite a few places where I'm one myself, actually. My dictionary defines "to lurk" as "to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush" or "to remain in or around a place secretly or furtively". Naturally, twisted people like us love that kind of activity. But when you come to think of it, an ambush or voyeur's concealment is only half the fun until you eventually make your presence known to the unsuspecting victim. That's sort of the point, isn't it?

So if you've been lurking around Rohrstock-Palast, no matter for how long, eight months or eight days, and if you have never left a comment before, let me invite you to introduce yourself. No strings attached, no obligation to ever write anything else, no compromising of your privacy of any kind. I'll just add your profile to my mad scientist's database for... research purposes, that's all.

Off with the masks! Off with the masks!

(Pietro Longhi, "The Ridotto in Venice", ca. 1750)

Movie Review: Bordello Patrol

Producer:
Pain4Fem (released in 2005)

Entire Story In Fewer Words Than Are In This Sentence:
Prostitutes are blackmailed and caned by the police

Victim Appeal:
This title marks the beginning of Pain4Fem's "police stories", a series of films "that lays bare the darker side of authority". It chronicles the exploits of Austrian policeman Karl Schwenk and his female assistant. Here, on their first mission in the seedy underworld of Vienna, they conduct an ID check in a brothel. Before long, two of the employees there find themselves receiving a dose of extrajudicial punishment.

Appropriately enough, the two young prostitutes are played by vanilla pornstars Paris and Jenifer aka Rachel Evans. Paris has dark brown hair with reddish tips and is pleasant to look at. Jenifer is visually spectacular, with a long mane of light brown / blonde curls, a gorgeous, slender figure and a most spankable little ass. Extremely easy on the eyes, that girl. They don't get a whole lot of acting to do, but when a movie has eye candy of this magnitude to offer, that is a tolerable loss...

Gratuitous Sadism:
The police soon determine that Paris and Jenifer are in the country illegally. But instead of alerting the immigration office and having them deported, Schwenk makes the ladies an offer they can't refuse: if they perform in a couple of quickie sex videos that he will film and sell over the internet, he will let them go. Needless to say, the girls agree. The brothel's madam knows that she is in trouble herself for employing illegal immigrants, so she happily provides a room for the impromptu porn shoot.

The room turns out to be an "S&M suite" with a whipping bench in the middle of it, a big bed and various spanking implements hanging on the wall. The police officers are somewhat surprised, but start using the gear right away. Schwenk ties Jenifer up with some leather restraints and orders her to lie on her back on the bed. While his assistant films the action, he then instructs the other girl to use a vibrator on Jenifer. After two minutes of that, Schwenk has a "sweet idea" (as he calls it) and starts whipping Jenifer's pussy with a strap. That goes on for a while. Satisfied, the policeman removes her fetters and tells the young woman to put her clothes back on. Paris is supposed to be next. But while Schwenk is contemplating his next move (examining a cane with studied curiosity), Jenifer manages to grab his handgun and threatens to shoot him. She forgets to move the safety switch, though, and is quickly subdued.

"That was a big mistake!" growls the policeman and proceeds to turn the video shoot into a full-blown CP session. For starters, he ties Jenifer to a wooden beam and whips her back for a couple of minutes. After that, she is made to strip fully naked and fastened to the bed to get her bottom caned. It's a fairly long scene and most of the strokes are repeated from different camera angles. By my counting, Jenifer takes 33 individual lashes in total. Then it's the other girl's turn to taste the cane. Schwenk orders Paris to bend over the bed, but she keeps flinching and he ties her down on the whipping bench for the rest of the punishment. This time, fewer strokes are repeated from different angles. I believe Paris gets 35 in total. The canings are moderately severe and produce fairly vivid marks because the two vanilla models are obviously not used to this kind of treatment. Both of them have some lovely welts by the end.

Best Reactions:
Both girls are in genuine discomfort and give enjoyable reactions. Paris even cries a bit. However, my inner sadist would have to pick Jenifer's caning as his favourite part of the film. It's a very sexy scene, about 18 minutes long and with a good rhythm, measured and unhurried, but not too slow. She is tied to the four corners of the bed so that her arms and legs form an X, showing off her near-perfect body and her slightly raised, beautiful ass. Moreover, Jenifer's pained reactions are great, just the right mixture of vocal distress and struggle for composure. She moans, yelps, breathes heavily, flinches, wiggles her bottom, bites the pillow... A lot of things to see and hear in this excellent CP scene.

Best Line:
There isn't a lot of memorable dialogue in this movie, but one politically incorrect line towards the beginning had me snorting with suppressed laughter. The policeman determines that the first of the illegal immigrant prostitutes is Czech. He asks the other one for her passport, looks at it and remarks: "Ah, a Slovak... That's the same thing, anyway, isn't it?"

Tsk tsk. I wonder if this is supposed to be a portrayal of the arrogance and ignorance of the Austrian police or a tongue-in-cheek statement by the filmmakers. Maybe a little of both. Obviously, Czechs and Slovaks will disagree strongly to being lumped together like that. But the line shouldn't be taken too seriously, I think. It's rather funny with Schwenk's casual, mumbling delivery, and the joke is really on him. Besides, a bit of gross over-generalisation never hurt anybody. When you come to think of it, aren't Germans and Austrians the same thing, too?

Nice Psychological Touch:
It is implied that Jenifer works at the brothel as a professional domme. Schwenk asks her about it and jokingly addresses the girl as "Miss Dominatrix". She never replies a word to that - I don't think the actress understands much of what he is saying, to be honest. But let's assume that her character is a pro domme. Let us also assume, for the sake of the argument, that she is vanilla and only doing the whips and chains thing for profit. In an establishment like that, it's not a very far-fetched idea. And it's obvious that she didn't like the pussy whipping one bit. Grabbing the police officer's handgun afterwards, she angrily exclaims: "You really hurt me, you pig!"

I think it adds a bit of spice to the story. It's an interesting little twist, a mercenary "I'm only in it for the money!" dominatrix, who has presumably never been whipped or caned, forced to take a taste of her own medicine. Schwenk clearly delights in the task: "Now you can experience what you're always doing to others!" A very strange psychology is at work here. After all, there is nothing wrong with being an honest mercenary - the girl earns some money, her kinky clients are happy, everyone gets something out of it. But still, it is hard not to feel a vague sense of "justice" while you watch her ordeal at the hands of the police. Even though that is non-consensual and therefore an entirely different thing! Maybe it's because I wish that all pro dommes would take a good thrashing at least once, so they know what they are doing.

How Good Is It Really?
"Bordello Patrol" is a pretty inspired effort by Pain4Fem and I enjoyed it a lot. The "police story" plot is silly but fun. There are some neat little touches. During the opening credits, a synthesised version of Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" morphs into cheesy spy thriller music. Officer Schwenk provides a deadpan English voiceover with his heavy Austrian accent. As with most P4F movies, the main strengths are technical craftsmanship, good-looking models and solid CP action. There are two extended, hot and well-filmed caning scenes. I liked the girls' positions in particular, one tied to the bed and the other over the bench. Jenifer is stunning to behold, pity that this is her only full-length CP movie to date (she has a couple of scenes on Spanking Server).

What You Learned:
Cops are normal people, too. They like spanking gorgeous girls, shooting porn videos and making a few extra bucks by selling the clips online. Breaking the law enforcement code of professional conduct can be so much fun!

Spanking for Votes

Alright, another YouTube clip. A lame one, but the idea has kinky potential. Let's take a leap from the 16th century to the 21st century. If you are a cynic (and most of us historians are), you can say that politics haven't changed all that much - it's still all about intrigue, opportunism, manipulation and back-stabbing (back-slapping?).

But we shouldn't complain too much. As my favourite political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli pointed out in his Discourses on Livy: "Let not princes complain of the faults committed by the people subjected to their authority, for they result entirely from their own negligence or bad example." Well, in the age of democracy, the reverse is true as well - that is, we the people get the politicians we deserve. Actually, that was probably true in the old days already, when rulers came into power by inheritance or force instead of elections. As above, so below.

Speaking of elections, I'm glad that November 4th is finally around the corner. The US presidential race has been one of the political hot topics of 2008, of course. The international media are saturated with it, the blogosphere is saturated with it, and I'm saturated with it, too. For months now, there has been so much coverage in the German papers and news channels, you'd think it was the election of our own head of government. Which it almost is, in a way, because of the tremendous political, economic and cultural influence the United States wield around the globe. Anyway, as my good American penpal Indy tells me, she is getting a bit tired of the subject herself: enough buildup, time to vote and get it over with.

But whatever you may think about the glitzy (and fantastically expensive) machinery of US presidential campaigns, they certainly know how to stage politics as grand opera, which can be fairly entertaining and leaves ample room for parody. I sometimes wonder if the real TV pundits lampooned in the attached video clip are more accurately described as political analysts or theater critics. Probably theater critics, and bad ones at that. Most of their oh-so-insightful soundbites aren't any smarter than what is being said here.

I don't think the clip is all that funny or inventive. It's pretty dull, actually, but there is a lot you could do with the basic concept of "spanking for votes". I mean, think about it. The question I ask myself is, why didn't they get Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin in there? With paddles! Now that would have been fun. Michelle could have lectured about the pain of underprivileged minorities and Sarah about the importance of traditional values in school, while they whack the living daylights out of each other. That's what I'd call change in the political culture (can't write a column about the elections without the big C-word somewhere). And as the opening act, they could have staged a "MILF spanking contest" between Hillary Clinton and Cindy McCain. Also with paddles, of course.

Mind you, I would prefer canes myself, but that would be too European. Definitely not patriotic enough for Palin. Maybe Michelle Obama would go for it. Hey, she is a Harvard graduate and we all know how erudite and open-minded she is. Not one of the unenlightened plebeian peons who "cling to guns and religion" (what a success that remark was, for the Republicans). On the other hand, we shouldn't forget that hockey mom Palin is fairly cosmopolitan, too. As she keeps reminding us, Alaska is right next door to Russia, and that ought to count for something. With a bit of luck, we could persuade her to use the birch in addition to the paddle. It's a good weapon of choice for someone who likes hunting and outdoor fun.

What a pity that we will never get to see it. When it comes to porn, all that the American campaign of 2008 leaves us with are fake promises of an Obama sex video (used by cyber-criminals to spread malware) and Larry "The Maverick" Flynt's spoof Who's Nailin' Paylin? (haven't seen it, but I hear it contains a lot of deep drilling). Neither of which is kinky.

In a few days, it will all be over, anyway. To the Americans reading this blog, I hope you are planning to vote on Tuesday. If not, let me add my voice to the ones asking you to do so. I'm not going to make an endorsement. I certainly know who I'd vote for if I was an American citizen, but this is a spanking blog and I don't want to go into US party politics. I'm European and it's not really my job, anyway. What matters is that you vote for one of the candidates, that you exercise your democratic right and make your voice heard.

A Birching for the Nine Days' Queen

When you ask kinky people about their favourite CP scenes from the movies, Lady Jane is mentioned frequently. It's a serious, somewhat staid British costume drama released in 1986 and largely forgotten by the mainstream audience today. But spankophiles still remember it fondly because of That Birching Scene featuring a young Helena Bonham Carter in one of her first roles (she was 18 at the time of filming).

Most of you have undoubtedly seen it already, so the attached video clip won't be new to you. Even so, I wanted to pay homage to "Lady Jane" on the blog sometime. It's a great little scene in a good and arguably underrated film. I recall renting it on VHS some ten years ago, around the time when I got my first internet connection. "Lady Jane" was among the first titles I specifically sought out after hearing about them on one of those useful "spanking in the movies" lists. My local video store only had the German-dubbed version and it wasn't until later that I saw the English original. But the birching scene was exciting nonetheless and didn't disappoint...

The movie chronicles the short life of Lady Jane Grey, who was the nominal Queen of England for nine days in 1553. It was a time of fierce struggle between Protestants and Catholics. Young King Edward VI was dying (probably of tuberculosis) and his half-sister Mary, a staunch Catholic, was next in line for the throne. This threatened not only the English Reformation as a whole, but especially the King's advisors and officers - Protestants who enjoyed very powerful and financially lucrative positions. Lead by John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, they persuaded Edward to change the succession, passing over the princesses Mary and Elizabeth in favour of his cousin Jane. The ill-conceived plot failed, however. Jane and her supporters were quickly overthrown and "Bloody Mary" won the day. She was imprisoned and eventually executed in 1554.

"Lady Jane" portrays the Nine Days' Queen as a tragic heroine, a youthful idealist and zealous reformer, and finally as a religious martyr who chooses death instead of renouncing her Protestant faith. The film also focuses a great deal on the romance with her arranged husband Guilford, the son of John Dudley. Sadly perhaps, this is the biggest historical inaccuracy - by all accounts, the real Jane and Guilford never got on well. In the movie, they start out with a deep disdain for each other and for their forced marriage, but they eventually fall in love. I actually liked the fictional love story. It's anachronistic and follows the typical "mismatched romance" film formula, contrasting a studious and bookish Jane with her fun-loving, but sensitive husband. But I admit to having a soft spot for that kind of thing. Kitschy love stories are one of my guilty pleasures. Especially when they involve corporal punishment.

Speaking of which, let's get to the birching scene. It takes place towards the beginning of the story, when Jane's parents inform her that she is to be married to Guilford Dudley. The headstrong young lady promptly refuses and has to be persuaded with a taste of the rod. This is apparently historically accurate. Jane had an unhappy relationship with her parents, who enforced a strict disciplinary regime, and there are sources which claim that she was literally beaten into consenting to the marriage. What sounds horrible today would have been viewed as acceptable at the time - Jane was a young noblewoman expected to obey her parents' will, if need be through the use of force.

The depiction in the movie is certainly not among the longest or most graphic CP scenes ever filmed. There is no nudity and we don't see any strokes landing, just facial reactions. Instead, the scene gets its intensity purely from the character interaction and the dramatic staging - the elaborate punishment ritual, the whipping bench, the male servants leaving the room, and so forth. I like the ominous first look at the birch, the slow and graceful movement as it comes into the camera's view. And Helena Bonham Carter feigns some fairly good reactions to the beating.

Moreover, I empathise with Lady Jane's character, her scholarly devotion, her love of learning. This aspect is accurate as well. While Jane Grey wasn't the progressive social reformer portrayed in the film, it is generally agreed on that she was one of the most learned women of her time, with a comprehensive education in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and contemporary languages. She was also of royal blood, not some peasant girl getting whacked for stealing bread. Jane's fine mind and noble status make her chastisement all the more interesting for me. While the scholar in me identifies with her and roots for her, my inner sadist delights in her ordeal.

The aftermath is great, too, with boy-king Henry dashing in to end his cousin's torment. Another totally fictional event, of course, but adding a nice touch of damsel in distress. An exquisite scene as he finds poor Jane in a tearful heap on the floor and comforts her. I found the story he tells her quite intriguing - how he as the king couldn't be subject to corporal punishment and how a servant was whipped in his place to pay for his transgressions. That kind of "sacrificial lamb" concept is right down my alley, I'm fascinated by the psychology of it.

In summary, I recommend that you go out and rent "Lady Jane". Not only does it contain one of the all-time great CP scenes from the movies, it is a pretty decent film from start to finish. Some viewers might find it a bit overlong and talky, but history buffs like me will love it. Helena Bonham Carter gives a magnificent performance in the title role and has good on-screen chemistry with Cary Elwes, who plays Guilford Dudley. The supporting cast features several actors from The Royal Shakespeare Company, including John Wood as the Duke of Northumberland and an already bald Patrick Stewart as Jane's father.

Website Review: Spanking Online

1999 was the year when I got my first internet connection. Before that, I had only sporadically surfed the web from (vanilla) friends' places - not a convenient environment to search for kinky porn. So I guess '99 marks the real start of my still ongoing corruption process. It was also the year when Spanking Online was founded, which became one of the first CP paysites I ever subscribed to.

Today, "Spanking Online" is still around, now going on its tenth anniversary. It has expanded into the Xerotics network, which also includes sites like Spanking Digital, Spank My Bottom and Spanked Schoolgirl. "Spanking Online" or SOL underwent several different layouts over the years and remains one of Xerotics' main flagships. Time for me to take another look and find out how it holds up against the much larger competition in this day and age.

Like all the sites in the network, SOL sports a rather flashy, colourful design. This is true not only for the previews, but also for the members area - after logging in, the first page features a list of the most recent updates as well as half a dozen advertising banners for other spanking paysites. As a result, the entry page has a cluttered, somewhat "spammy" look that may not be to everyone's taste. The site's content can be accessed via the updates list or with the help of a navigation bar at the top of the main members page.

Basically, there are five major video areas: two separate "Archives" with material dating back to the early days of SOL, a section simply titled "Movies", another one with "Full Movies 2007", and a recently added page with "HD Movies" (high definition). With the exception of the last two, all of these areas are further divided into thematic subsections like "School Girl", "Domestic", "OTK" or "Severe". Overall, SOL offers one of the largest spanking movie archives on the net.

While the wealth of material is commendable, it is not always laid out in the most user-friendly manner. Especially in the older archives, where scenes are often broken up across different subsections - you might find one segment of a session under "Hand Punishment Movies" and other parts of it in the "Velocity Zone". It must be said, though, that the newer sections are more coherent and easier to navigate. Basically, you can retrace the evolution of the SOL members area as it grew bigger and more diverse over the years. New subscribers will take a few minutes to find their way around and discover all the different corners, but that is not a major complaint. Actually, the historian in me finds the "spanning the ages" layout rather entertaining in its way.

The technical quality of the videos also varies considerably. The ancient ones are in .rm format at 320 x 240 pixels, the most recent high definition .wmv's have an impressive resolution of 1280 x 720. Most of the content falls between the two extremes. The movies are split into several parts, but the newer ones are often available as a single download as well.

Most of the action is straightforward CP without much buildup or backstory. There is a fair bit of chatter in many of the sessions, though. Hand, strap and cane are the most common implements, but I also saw the tawse, the slipper and the hairbrush being used. The severity ranges from light and playful to pretty hard in some of the "high velocity" clips (I like that term). Not all videos are complete or exclusive to SOL - some are previews of full movies from other Xerotics sites like Fetish Flixx or Spanking Vids. Actually, "Spanking Online" feels like a hub for the rest of the network at times.

As expected for a site of this age, the cast is pretty enormous. There are male tops, female tops and dozens of different victims, including well-known faces like Pandora Blake, Sarah Collins, Catherine Corbet, Niki Flynn, Elizabeth Simpson and Amber Pixie Wells. One SOL girl I liked a lot is Isis aka Tara, a dark-haired, exotic beauty with a gorgeous bottom and interesting reactions. Her "Schoolgirl Returns" caning scene alone is worth the price of a one-month subscription.

In addition to the movie sections, the members area also includes picture galleries and an Ezine archive going back to 2002. The Ezines contain readers letters, model interviews and some extra movies. I thought it was an interesting little feature, but it was discontinued in mid-2006. Nowadays, there is a free Spanking Online Blog with various previews, though.

All things considered, SOL isn't quite the juggernaut one might expect after such a long history, but a reasonably good site. It would benefit from a facelift to clean up the design and streamline the navigation. On the plus side, there are tons of content and most of it is quite enjoyable. You can purchase a regular SOL membership or, alternatively, a deal at Spank Pass that includes three other sites. For the real Xerotics addicts, there is also a 14 sites for 1 year offer.

Return of the Censor Slayer

In The Prolefeed Menace, I argued that, when it comes to dealing with the kink haters who oppose our lifestyle and demonise what we do, we have to go on the offensive. It's all very well to back-slap each other here in the spanking community, and it has its uses - honing our pro-kink arguments, offering moral support, showing like-minded individuals that they are not alone. But what we really need to do is add our voices out there, in the wider public discussion. That's where the real struggle is taking place, not here in the safety of our ghetto.

Besides, who doesn't love a good flame war once in a while? As Heraclitus was fond of saying: "War is the father of all things." Not the mother, mind you - women are usually too smart for this kind of macho crap. But seriously, the quote shouldn't be read as an endorsement of mindless jingoism. What he is saying is basically that conflict and crisis are the motors of change, and I agree with that. Whether it needs to be violent is another question. In any case, bring your fireproof jackets as a precaution - anti-BDSM crusaders tend to get angry when they are confronted with reasoned arguments.

Their own arguments, it must be said, are usually less than stellar. They are mostly based on unwarranted claims and subjective preferences rather than empirical facts or logic, with a healthy dose of "the end of civilisation" hysteria thrown in. Ironically, the individual freedom they seek to restrict is the main foundation of Western civilisation and its successes, but hey - a proper zealot is not deterred by (nor usually aware of) self-contradiction.

Here are some points from the recent "violent pornography" debate. For the record, these are not strawmen arguments I'm inventing to easily tear them down. They were all actually put forward by the pro-censorship crowd - I've seen it with my own eyes. Of course, none of this is new, and neither are my rebuttals. I just wrote this (and the companion piece) as a personal take on the issue - not because I think it's a stunning new insight or something you haven't heard before.

"Violent porn encourages violent behaviour" - This is the central claim of the censorship supporters, so I have already addressed it in great detail.

"Children must be protected from seeing violent porn" - I agree, they should be protected. What I object to is the notion that it is primarily the job of the state to do so. Not only is the idea that you can just legislate a perfectly safe and child-friendly environment into existence utopian, it is also dangerous, because it discourages individual responsibility. First and foremost, protection lies within the responsibility of the parents. There are various laws and tools already in place to help them with this - age verification systems, adult content blockers, cybernanny software, and so on. Ultimately, as any expert on the protection of minors will tell you, personal supervision and education work best.

But there is no case for banning things outright simply because they are (or perhaps might be) inappropriate for children. Such censorship would restrict the freedom of every adult and of society in general. Bluntly speaking, why should my freedom be limited on the grounds that some parents are too incompetent or too lazy to keep an eye on what their kids are watching? If you let your children surf the internet unattended for seven hours per day, you have no one but yourself to blame. It is not the state's job to take over your parental duties.

"People must be protected from seeing violent porn" - It's hard to see why. We have already debunked the claim that violent porn encourages violent behaviour. So the argument seems to boil down to the notion that people should be protected from inadvertently seeing material that they might find offensive.

Needless to say, this is a ridiculously weak rationale for introducing sweeping laws that restrict the freedom of everyone. If you ban everything that someone, somewhere might find offensive, you won't have any media left before too long. Subjective tastes vary considerably and are no basis for legislation. Why should my freedom of viewing the images I like be taken away because someone else dislikes them? Does their subjective taste matter more than mine?

As well as that, the chance of inadvertent exposure to "violent porn" is extremely slim. Compared to mainstream pornography or mainstream horror films, violent pornography is a niche product. You have to actively look for it - so the only people who really risk exposure are the ones who presumably want to see it. And even if you do stumble across such a website by accident, what do you think all the disclaimers and adult content warnings are for? No, the only protection I need is from patronising nanny-state supporters who want to tell me what sort of material I should and should not see...

"Most people find violent porn repulsive" - This is a variation of the above argument with an emphasis on numbers. "But most people are offended by this filth! No one likes it except for a handful of perverts!"

For one thing, this isn't true. In fact, I don't see all that many people who have a huge problem with violent porn. The ones who do are the usual suspects - over-zealous moral guardians, religious conservatives, radical anti-porn feminists. It goes without saying that they hate all other forms of porn and kink, too - even the "tamer" ones. On the other hand, it would seem that most people just aren't interested in violent porn one way or another. They don't watch it, they may find it weird and unerotic, but they are not bothered or alarmed by its existence, either. They simply don't care.

But let's grant the proposition that "most people" would, if you confronted them with it, find violent porn repulsive. Actually, I consider some of it to be rather icky myself. But why shouldn't it exist? No one forces me to watch it. More importantly, why should the subjective preferences of many be more valid than the subjective preferences of a few? What it comes down to is a matter of taste, nothing more. A free and fair society does not discriminate against people on the grounds of taste (the fallacy of the pro-censorship argument is that it equates "distasteful" with "morally wrong").

"Violent porn is degrading" - It is hard to see how the acts of consenting adults, who engage in them for fun, self-exploration and to live out fantasies, could possibly be degrading. Not to mention that "degrading" is a very vague term, especially in a legal context. Maybe people who are not into it themselves do find the material degrading. But then, we are talking about subjective taste again, which is not only insufficient for censorship, but also poses the question: why should their taste matter more than the preferences of the kinky people who willingly engage in these acts?

"Violent porn is degrading against women" - The usual addendum to the above argument, seeking to embellish the prejudices of the anti-kink movement with the noble cause of feminism. Of course, it inherits all the aforementioned problems. When it is hard to see how violent porn could be degrading against anyone, it is even harder to see how it could be degrading to women in particular. Are women more easily degraded? Are they weaker and more vulnerable than men, do they need special protection, like children? If there is any chauvinism here, it is not inherent in the kinky practices being targetted by the argument, but in these patronising implications.

The only degradation of women that I can see in relation to violent porn is this presumptuous and condescending arrogance of the anti-kink movement, telling women how they should and should not explore their sexual desires, and what desires they ought to have in the first place.

"Violent porn portrays dangerous acts" - Believe it or not, I have actually heard this argument, too. So now, the good censors are concerned about our health. The implication here is the old canard that viewing automatically encourages imitation - another nanny-state theory that failed. Sure, people (presumably vanillas who accidentally watch a violent porn clip) will all think: "This is great stuff! Let's do a mock hanging!"

Back on planet Earth, the vast majority of the kinky people I know frequently and repeatedly emphasise the guidelines of safe, sane and consensual. Of course, there are some cases of irresponsible BDSM play resulting in death or permanent harm. However, they are much fewer in number than deaths or serious injuries in boxing, bungee jumping, skiing, mountain climbing, hunting or motor racing - activities that are seen as perfectly normal and unobjectionable.