In forbidding darkness, a young man is blindfolded, gagged, and tied to a chair. His clothes are shredded, his body is splattered with fluids, and his semi-erect penis is dripping.
This is one of my favorite kinds of erotic imagery: intensely revealing, sadomasochistic, and with plenty of fodder for storytelling and my imagination. I love the implications of what came before the moment shown here in the form of dripping semen on this man’s thighs and (especially) his mouth.
Pictures in the same style as this one, yaoi, were a blessedly positive and foundational outlet for my sexual interests as a teenager. Unlike the overwhelming majority of images, which are monopolized by a consumer-driven male gaze, finding visuals with which I could relate was far more likely if those visuals were drawn. Had I been punished for or banned from viewing erotic works like these, I simply wouldn’t be the sexually healthy adult I am today.
Yet it is merely the possession of images like this one that a new UK law criminalizes:
Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 comes into force on 26 January and makes owning offending pictures a criminal offence punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment. An image is deemed to be extreme if it “is grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” and portrays in any way an act which threatens a person’s life, or which results or appears likely to result in serious injury to someone’s genitals or breasts.
The ill-concieved law, passed earlier this year, is extraordinarily troubling because it has extreme implications that hinder not only sexual freedom, but also free speech. Among the many other problems, there is no distinction between photographs or drawings and so the law will criminalise thousands of previously law-abiding people who have a harmless taste for unconventional sex.
In other words, the law criminalizes people like me (if I lived in Britain), or you, just for viewing the picture above.
While I’m sure anti-porn lobbyists like the ones who backed this legislation believe they are protecting society in general, such negligent law making and clear censorship is an obvious symptom of sexual paranoia.
(via orz.4chan.org)
Update (August 7, 2010): Unsurprisingly, the above-mentioned law has been abused multiple times.