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from the internet-will-route-around-it dept.
French porn star piqued over Macron's desire to crackdown on X-rated films
A star of French porn films has challenged President Emmanuel Macron to meet with him and female porn actresses after France's leader aroused his anger by linking the porn industry to violence against women and inequality. Manuel Ferrara was furious over the president's speech at the weekend which outlined his plan to tackle violence against women and ensure equality between the sexes. According to Macron pornography makes women "an object of humiliation" and that action needs to be taken because porn films are now so widely watched among school children.
Ferrara hit back on Twitter and invited the president to discuss the issue. "I am involved in this industry that you are trying to demonize by making this kind of remark. I am ready to sit down with you and discuss a topic that by all accounts you know nothing about. I'm waiting for your call!" In an interview with France Inter radio the porn star continued to criticize the president saying he found his remark "shocking". "He demonizes the porn industry and is jumping to conclusions (faire un amalgame). It's the same with video games. It's like saying 'a teenager who plays Call of Duty is going to pick up a gun and kill everyone in his school'."
[...] On Saturday Macron announced his plan to extend the powers of France's broadcasting regulator CSA to cover X-rated films as well as launch an awareness campaign on pornography in secondary schools. "The CSA plays an indispensable role in regulating audiovisual content everywhere and stopping the most undignified behavior becoming a form of tacit propaganda," said the president. "Today we do not regulate access to video games, internet content and pornographic content that is increasingly available."
Also at BBC and Reason (archive).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @04:20PM (13 children)
Here's a situation where a government nominally wants to reduce misogyny, but they're willing to tackle free speech to make that happen. Ignore the fact that the nature of the internet makes a lot of censorship efforts moot anyway.
So which is more important: mandated equality and fairness toward women in media, or free speech?
In the former, porn can be labeled as degrading to women and steps taken to remove/reduce it, but this in effect makes mass censorship okay (which makes, e.g., a net neutrality repeal or worse just fine). In the latter, porn becomes less problematic in the context of the free speech issue...But then "those other people" get to say, post, and publish whatever they like (and this is the position historically taken by the US).
What is the "official" view on this from the left?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:21PM (7 children)
If you want "mandated equality and fairness toward women", then you allow this. Do you think women are incapable of consenting? Do you want to treat them like children?
Plus what about when there are no women involved at all? Do you only want to bad stuff for straight people?
Macron's wife might be pushing this. She may really run France; she was his high school teacher. She is 24 years older, and went after him when he was only 15. She belongs in prison. Her daughter was in that same high school class. Macron's GILF may still have teacher-like authority over him (probably their kink) and may be a bit jealous about younger-looking women.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:37PM (6 children)
As long as she was sexy when she was 39, no crime was committed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:57PM (5 children)
She was in a position of authority over him. Teachers, prison guards, superior military officers... all have this issue.
She could threaten his grades. She could reward him, causing unfairness to the other students. (unless she went for all of them!)
Plus of course age 15... unless maybe France has zero STDs and does not have the concept of child support.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:33PM (4 children)
I suspect that you are judging France by the laws applicable in your own country. You may like your own laws and think they are wonderful - and indeed they might be - but rest assured that not every country agrees with that premise. The age of consent in France is 15 years. Macron's wife did not commit an offense under French law, and therefore should not be judged by you as though she has done something wrong. Had she done the same thing in your own country then she should be judged by your laws. However, the French President hasn't be caught boasting about how he sexually assaults women, unlike at least one President we can name.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:58PM
To compare to the U.S., IIRC some U.S. states have an age of consent of 16 but consider it to be 18 if the older party is a teacher or other authority figure.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @09:39PM (2 children)
She was his teacher. She was grading his tests and homework. She could demand sex for a good grade. That improperly influences him, and it is unfair to the other students.
Is that really OK in France? What about superior officers in the military? What about prison guards? What about a judge hearing your criminal trial?
And as for your last comment, "they let you" is consent.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday December 01 2017, @04:09AM
The Donald thinks there was consent. There was consent. There wasn't consent. Who knows?! We'll see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations [wikipedia.org]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/11/22/president-trump-and-accusations-of-sexual-misconduct-the-complete-list/ [washingtonpost.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/nov/30/donald-trump-sexual-misconduct-allegations-full-list [theguardian.com]
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-running-list-of-all-the-women-whove-accused-donald-trump-of-sexual-assault_us_57ffae1fe4b0162c043a7212 [huffingtonpost.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday December 02 2017, @10:18AM
Had Mrs Macron tried to exert influence over her students by such threats she would have committed a crime - the student could have reported it and she would likely have received a serious sentence as punishment. Again, French law is probably different to your own laws. In fact, in each of the other cases that you mentioned there is always the possibility raising a complaint that will be investigated fully under the law. You also have no idea whether the relationship was initiated by the student or the teacher. As it resulted in marriage, you will probably find that both parties were willing to get together and, as both parties were also legally entitled to have a relationship what would you suggest should have been done? Should they have been forbidden to meet - despite having done nothing wrong - simply because it _might_ result in inappropriate pressure being brought by one of them against the other despite there being legal safeguards against such events being in place? Again, stop looking at this matter with your own laws in mind because elsewhere they may have completely different views to yourself on how to prevent such things.
Wait a minute, here we have a powerful man sexually assaulting women and, perhaps because they felt intimidated or threatened in some other way, they have given 'consent'? NO THEY HAVEN'T. How is this different to your allegations that a teacher cannot have a relationship with a legally consenting student? Who knows what the victims of the sexual assault were thinking. The fact that they were also of legally consenting age does not make this a slam-dunk case. They might have had fear of physical personal danger, of danger to their spouse, of threats to their financial future because 'contracts might be threatened' or jobs held in the balance. Do you think that that is acceptable? It isn't acceptable for a famous film director to do such things, nor an actor, but for a business man it is an entirely reasonable thing to do? Perhaps you ought to have a closer look at your own laws to see if better protection can be afforded to the people it is supposed to be helping. As the heading that you initially selected states: "What about the power relationship?". Et tu, Brute!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @05:41PM (2 children)
I wouldn't advocate banning porn. I would regulate it heavily. Its all too common where poor very young women who didn't realize they signed up to get abused by assholes who take her to near suffocation, and on't listen to her cries. You should see how many women break down crying afterward with bruised faces and ..
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:08PM
Breeder sluts deserve to face the consequences. There should be less regulations not more.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 01 2017, @12:31PM
It's called acting fool, some people get off on strong women cry, so there's porn featuring that. What, did you think they really moan like that too? Out was a true story of fucking his sons girlfriend and her mom too? Dumbass
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:18PM (1 child)
What is the "official" view on this from the left?
There isn't one. Many feminist organizations are pro-porn. Or, at least, proponents of the idea that women should be free to pursue porn if they wish.
I've linked examples on this topic before but not gonna try that search at work!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday November 30 2017, @10:08PM
I have to say, I like Canadian feminist Wendy McElroy [wendymcelroy.com]'s overview and opinion on the issue.
In general, I believe there's a way to do porn that respects the rights of performers. There's also porn that doesn't do that. And what laws that exist regarding porn should focus on that, not censoring anybody. Make sure all the all the people involved are adults who are getting compensated fairly for their work, and what they're doing is basically not substantially different than what other kinds of actors are doing.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.