Join Parallax Debates for a provocative discussion on one of the most divisive issues of our time: can pornography be a force for good? Blake and Peter Tatchell will make the case in favour of porn, while Mary Harrington and Zoe Strimpel will warn of the dangers it can pose.
Porn is all around us – you feel it in your fingers: one click on your phone or your computer, and there it is laid bare for all to see. We live in porn world. And a fine and wonderful thing too, argue those in favour. Setting aside the videos involving violence or children which can never be acceptable, and porn is liberating, they claim. After centuries of repression, at last we have at our fingertips a safe and consensual outlet for exploring our fantasies, an outlet of endless erotic variety. And it’s not just for the pleasure of libertines. Porn can be important for people in committed relationships, enabling them to maintain intimacy and excitement. And platforms like Only Fans have further liberated us from the strictures of sexual conformity, by empowering individuals to create and star in their own sexual fantasies and allowing users to engage with them directly. Humans are sexual animals. Porn frees us to acknowledge this basic truth.
But does it really? Does it not in fact turn us into sexual obsessives ready to turn our backs on the grace and tenderness of real human relationships? That’s the question that worries those opposed to porn. Look at Dominique Pelicot, they say, and the 71 local men who came at his invitation to share the pleasure of raping his drugged wife, Gisèle. Could this have happened without internet pornography, which feeds and enables a culture that objectifies women and turns them into sex objects? Porn is destructive; it stokes desires that are never sated, desires that keep reaching for the next extreme. That’s why you can’t just set aside violent porn and leave the door open to the rest. Violence is the extreme to which porn inevitably tends. No, far from liberating us, the unrestrained profusion of porn degrades us.
Chaired by Anne McElvoy, this debate, the second of our new and exciting series of Parallax Debates, will pivot on the question of what pornography truly represents and what kind of people we are and want to be. It may even lead you to rethink your assumptions. We hope to see you there.
Tickets to this event are £15 off for subscribers to How To Plus.
