Eradicating sexual exploitation in porn should not be at the expense of sex workers
Conservative MP Arnold Viersen recently introduced , adding two offences to the Canadian Criminal Code regarding pornography: one for making material without written confirmation of performer鈥檚 legal age and consent and another for distributing such material.
Curiously, both acts are already illegal.
- Co-authors of this article with are , University of Toronto, and , Memorial University of Newfoundland
Canada has some of the most stringent laws in the world around child sexual abuse material and consent to sexual activity. It is . Rules are stricter with higher punishment if the material depicts a minor, including fictional characters.
This new bill would not enhance existing measures to curb online sexual abuse. Instead, it vastly increases surveillance of porn workers, a highly stigmatized and overly policed group.
There is absolutely a need to prevent online sexual exploitation, but protective measures must extend to everyone 鈥 including porn performers. Laws must be developed with meaningful sex worker consultation. Failure to do so risks exacerbating the violence Viersen claims he is seeking to prevent.
Evidence of dangerous policy is clear in the United States, where 2018 legislation 鈥 Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) 鈥 have resulted in sex workers鈥 social media accounts being banned and .
Other restrictions have for legal sex workers. A recent U.S. government accountability office report found these laws made life for sex workers, but have only been applied to over three years.
The problem with 鈥榳ritten consent鈥
Currently in Canada, it is to circulate in any way 鈥渁n intimate image of a person knowing that the person depicted in the image did not give their consent to that conduct.鈥 Written proof from the person depicted isn鈥檛 necessary, ensuring greater privacy for performers.
In contrast, the proposed new bill states that consent 鈥渕eans the voluntary agreement, in writing, of the person whose image is depicted in the pornographic material.鈥 But documentation isn鈥檛 voluntary if mandated by law and potentially made public any time a complaint is filed.
Porn studio productions already follow extensive and model release documentation processes, similar to other media and performance industry standards.
Nothing in Bill C-302 improves upon those practices. Instead, the expansion of legal powers would be felt most heavily by independent content producers, burdened with having to prove they are not exploiting themselves.
Porn studio productions follow extensive informed consent and model release documentation processes.
Donald Tong/Pexels, CC BY-SA
Such record keeping requirements represent a risk to sex workers who are already stigmatized. can lead workers into illegal or quasi-legal activities where they need not provide identifying information to police or government officials, .
As Conservative Sen. : 鈥淥f course, we don鈥檛 want to make life safe for prostitutes; we want to do away with prostitution.鈥
Similar sentiments against pornography persist.
Sex worker testimony an afterthought
Deeming sex workers either helpless and incompetent 鈥 or immoral and obscene 鈥 politicians routinely ignore their expertise on the relationship between porn, online platforms and consent violations.
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This was clear during the , the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, when sex worker concerns were dismissed by Plett and others.
It happened again in 2016 when , a motion for the Standing Committee on Health 鈥渢o examine the public health effects of the ease of access and viewing of online violent and degrading sexually explicit material on children, women and men.鈥
Most recently, sex workers were sidelined when Viersen instigated parliamentary committee meetings on 鈥.鈥
Sandra Wesley, director of the Montr茅al-based sex worker advocacy agency Stella, : 鈥淭he response that I got back is that sex workers are not relevant to this conversation.鈥 Invited to the hearings, however, were .
After mounting a social media campaign, sex worker rights groups were finally included - in the final day of meetings. In , Jenn Clamen of the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform said:
鈥淸Sex workers] have been organizing for over 50 years against violence and abuse in the industry. It鈥檚 why we started organizing 鈥or this reason, sex workers are best placed to be at the centre of this discussion.鈥
Bill C-302 fails to recognize the established by porn industry professionals and activists. This bill isn鈥檛 about consent, but eradicating an undesirable sexual citizen: the sex worker.
Exploiting consent to harm sexual minorities
Legal scholar notes, while consent is ostensibly about ensuring personal freedoms, it actually entails 鈥渁 series of unspoken presumptions about what is normal human behaviour,鈥 such that 鈥渢he availability of consent hinges on the 鈥榬easonableness鈥 of the defendant鈥檚 conduct.鈥
Since what is judged reasonable is contained within laws governing morality, some sexualities and acts are considered fundamentally objectionable, falling outside what groundbreaking sexuality studies scholar called the 鈥渃harmed circle鈥 of heteronormative monogamy.
Anti-sex worker policies, steeped in moralization and infantilization, do not recognize porn performers鈥 ability to consent to sex work. This reproduces the stigma underlying that prioritize 鈥済ood鈥 victims over 鈥渂ad鈥 ones.
Consent is too critical a framework to be weaponized by politicians looking to do away with undesirable sexual citizens.
is a professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary