Glenda Simms, Contributor
THE RISE in the number of rape cases and instances of carnal abuse in Jamaica must, of necessity, cause opinion makers, including a wide range of feminist thinkers, to revisit the issue of the meaning and impact of 'smut' and pornography on a wide cross-section of the Jamaican society.
Broadly defined, 'smut' and pornography are indecent language, expressions and publications which carry a large content of obscenity which is blatantly sexually oriented. Sometimes, otherwise progressive people have problem in accepting the anti-smut campaigns that have been pursued in some societies, such as the Philippines and some jurisdictions in the United States of America.
Locally, the recent court action against entertainer Sean Paul raised some eyebrows. Without denying the need to protect free speech and individual rights to make choices in a democratic society, we need to recognise that obscenity must be clearly defined within the context of all civilised societies and that citizens of these societies should know the established norms governing decent behaviour even if everyone does not agree with the bases that historically and contemporarily established such norms.
COMPLEX
One case that brought the impact of pornographic material on young people was reported in The Star Online on January 4, 2002. In this report, eight boys who live in Bangkok allegedly raped a 10-year-old girl who was their friend. The young suspects told investigators that they had been mimicking a love scene from a television drama and ended up raping their little friend.
This case raises the need for us to be aware of the many complexities of the underbelly of violence against women and girls. While it is true that we cannot assume a simplistic relationship between exposure to explicit sexual images in various media and the behaviour of an individual, we cannot dismiss lightly the explanation given for the rape of a 10-year-old girl by a group of her male "buddies".
Letti Bonial, in a 1999 article entitled 'Defining Pornography' pointed out that anti-pornography campaigns date back to the Victorian period in the late 19th century in Great Britain. The issue was controversial then and it is still debatable today. Feminists are usually divided on this issue. On the one hand, there are those who argue that pornography is strongly implicated in women's historical oppression commoditisation and marginalisation.
The opposing view on this matter is put forward by another camp of feminists who "seek to appropriate erotic imagery for women", and are opposed to state-regulation of pornography and smut. Both pornography and prostitution pose ideological problems for feminists and for the wider society because both are integrally linked and in Bonaire's words:
"Pornography, like prostitution, both fascinate and repel us at once, because they are bluntly about sex as sex and nothing more. Prostitutes and pornography remove sex from the arena of romance and love and directly address the libido."
IMPACT ON LIBIDO
Within the framework of such a point of view, we still have to deal with the fact that in a globalised environment all persons, including children, are exposed to the impact of the free expressions of the adult libido.
We must protect our individual rights and freedom, but we must also protect our children from ourselves. We also need to be reminded of the position put forward by Andrea Drown in her 1981 study, 'Pornography: Men Possessing Women'. In this study, the author argued that pornographic images are not only symbols of men's desire to objectify women but they are portrayal of the most insidious forms of violence against women and girls.
In light of the ongoing questioning of the impact of degrading sexual images on women and children, and the link between the libidinal drives of the male and the incidences of rape, carnal abuse and the sexual exploitation of the young, we need to revisit the issue of the impact of smut and pornography on the sexual crimes in the Jamaican society.
Pornography and prostitution are both commodities that are heavily consumed by a significant sector of the male population. Perhaps it is time to ask why? And to what end? We might yet be surprised by the answers!
Dr. Glenda P. Simms is the director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
