Both: What are your thoughts on GC feminists participating in cancel culture?

submitted by worried19 from self.GCdebatesQT

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[–]DistantGlimmer 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I get the distinction but in a way by going out and protesting the misogyny in it publically you are presumably trying to get less people to watch the movie so both actions hurt the bottom line for the pornographers. The reality is we're not going to get a movie like that banned in this climate but on principle I think it should be banned.Free speech should not allow people to profit offcontent that hurts and exploits women and children. If theoretically a large theater could get shamed into not showing a movie like 50 sShades and then it start a chain reaction of getting people to question why movies like that are shown as major releases at all I think that is positive activism.

[–]worried19[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

50 Shades is awful and promotes awful things, but what would be the justification for actually banning it? Like making laws to forbid its release? I wouldn't want to live in a country where the government could tell artists (such as they are) what to write or what to film. It still falls under free speech. Once we start allowing the government to tell us what we can and can't say, then anyone with unpopular views can be silenced.

[–]DistantGlimmer 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

We already censor porn though. We don't allow actual child porn or really vile abusive porn to be shown in wide release movies even if there would probably be sadly enough of a market to make those films profitable. I don't even care if I kind of line up with conservatives on this one issue. The pornification of society is doing real damage which is more important to me than free speech absolutism. We need to bring back much stricter obscenity laws.

[–]worried19[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Well, sure, but that's porn. And pretty much the only illegal ones left are child porn and bestiality.

As far as actual movies go, there's not real censorship, just the MPAA. It's voluntary, but they give ratings, and if you don't have an acceptable rating, then you don't get shown in movie theaters. But your movie can be released on other platforms. I don't want to return to the days of government censorship of movies and books. Would you be in favor of banning romance novels? They have a lot of rape and abuse and other terrible content.

[–]DistantGlimmer 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah, to be fair I haven't seen 50 Shades (and no interest at all in seeing it) so I don't know if it would qualify as obscene by a legal standard. but I'm mainly just arguing in the abstract here. I think we are allowed to have standards and tighten or loosen those standards and while people have a right to produce consensual pornography and claim it is art they don't have a right to a massive audience or a profit from it. In the 70s there was a feminist activist movement to limit or ban porn which unfortunately did not succeed and things are so much worse now. I think it is a legitimate area for activism

[–]worried19[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it's a legitimate area for activism, but I'd limit it strictly to actual pornography, not movies, television, or books. We could perhaps be successful in exerting enough pressure for violent porn to be made illegal again, the way it used to be.