It seems like we have entered a new period of self-appointed censors of public morality who are determined to inflict their personal (religious) beliefs on the world at large. As a Brit I’ve had first hand experience of this in UK as in the 1970’s housewife Mary Whitehouse grabbed the nations attention (and Thatchers’ too) by deciding thet she alone would become the arbiter of what we could see on our televisions and in movie theatres.
Printed media didn’t escape her attention either and she sued…. and won …… a case against Gay News for publishing a blasphemous poem. Sadly in the environment of the day, Gay News never stood a chance.
It was always about sex ; something the Mary Whitehouse’s of the world had major hang ups about, especially gay sex. As sociologist Richard Hoggart observed at the time “her main focus was on sex, followed by bad language and violence. Odd: if she had reversed the order, she might have been more effective“
Who would have thought that some 50 years later we would be writing this editorial about a more discreet, but just as effective, movement that is about sex in general, but hate and homophobia in particular. As a publication that is about sexuality we are more than aware that we have to deal with subtle censorship aimed at either stopping us, or in the least, making our existence difficult .
For example social media platforms such as Facebook (where we have some 131K followers) and X formerly Twitter. and Instagram have now removed all queer/gay/lgbtq+ tags. It means that we cannot direct our postings or advertising to our potential audience. And God forbid we show a photo of so much of an naked ankle, as we are immediately threatened with with permanent banishment…. that will include losing the whole mailing list we have built up over the years.
Yet these same online platforms are more than happy to publish all the tacky sexual encounters of Trump in very specific details. Personally the fact alone that anyone could ever have sex with him makes we want to barf! None of the media have made any effort to censor and spare us, and if anything , have overloaded us by repeating this all on a daily basis.
Politicians cannot stop being very publicly outraged by anything remotely sexual like an erect penis in a recent Netflix TV Program. Yet only this week the British Parliament had to finally pass a new rule that MPs arrested for serious sexual or violent offences should be banned from attending Parliament This in the same week that William Wragg, Conservative MP admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on the Grindr dating app
It made me think about our friends who curate and present Satyrs and Maenads: the Athens Porn Film Festival. This specialized event, one of the best on the circuit, caters for a very specific market, and is so successful that the Greek National Tourism Organisation commissioned them to make a film. However it would appear that no-one in the Tourism Office knew that ‘porn’ was about sex, and the powers that be had near heart attacks when they saw the finished wrk and immediately banned it from ever been shown.
It was by Menelas an Athens based pornographer and curator who likes the simple aesthetics and sensuality of everyday life and dry humour, and we are so happy that he has allowed us to screen it.
As gay men we were always indoctrinated that our lifestyles were immoral ……. and don’t even mention the sex. And now we sense parts of our society want to push us back into the closet, and lock the door, we need to stop take it lying down, Unless of course, we are having SEX
So there we have it : YouTube have decide to censor us too :however if you still want to still the very explicit
video click here https://www.seas-uk.org/post/welcome-to-athens-2018
Labels: 2024, What Sex Got To Do With It
