This house believes that pornography involving consenting adults can be socially beneficial

Held at the Oxford Union Society on Thursday 5th November 1998

Transcript of contribution from Dr Tuppy Owens

I'm Tuppy Owens, sexual catalyst and editor of a the Sexual Freedom Coalition campaign newspaper Consenting Adults.

I see no point in discussing porn with people who have never seen any, If you don't want to see it, close your eyes or leave the room.

I'm opening up with some of the controversial photos from the Robert Maplethorpe book, recently seized (and later returned) by the West Midlands Police from University of Central England, so you can see what the fuss was about.

But the Oxford Union is a rather unusual place to look at sexually arousing pictures -- better be at home with a stiff dick or juicy pussy in your hand or, preferably both! Looking at porn and perhaps getting aroused in a non-sexual environment may seem confusing and conflicting.

Women especially might find the experience difficult, especially if you've always believed porn to be bad. You may feel torn between your thoughts and your feelings in your groin, with the resulting wetpatch on your seat. So I'll explain. The blood is flowing into your pelvic area, waking up your genitalia and moisture is seeping into your vaginal walls and down into your vulva. This is normal and nothing to be afraid of.

I would like to ask that, if you get to the stage where you are bursting to come, either just do it, but please don't get up to visit the lav until the opposition speaks!

These photographs are by Ron Raffaelli -- hounded out of town and made bankrupt. It's still illegal -- for making beautiful images of sex!

It's already been established that Porn is not harmful. The Danish government did a ten year study which concluded that looking at porno is not harmful to adults or children. They lifted its ban on pornography in 1965, admitting that it was a violation of human rights to prevent individuals deriving pleasure from porn. They were right: the sex crime rate in Denmark fell by 66 per cent.

The Danes bought a lot to begin with then didn't bother much any more. It didn't really change their lives or values. It just made them feel safer because the sex crime rate had dropped.

Interestingly, they don't sell kiddy porn in Denmark because they think it's immoral (and the market so small it's no great loss) So you see -- when people are given freedom they don't go mad or become evil -- they take responsibility for their lives and in their work.

So why, Oh why couldn't Britain follow their example? Ten years later, a British study culminated in the Williams Report which reached similar conclusions but rejected by Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Governments know that by controlling our sexuality, they can control us. Still people go to prison for selling images such as this! But not if you get a trial by jury because juries never seem to think there's anything wrong in it -- nor is there!

15 reasons why Porn is beneficial in society:

1. Acting as a safety valve

   Looking at porn which shows people all the wild sex they may never get, and produces orgasm to relieve tension. Thus people are less likely to commit sex crimes.

2. It's useful In sex therapy. I am a sex therapist and use porn to reduce sexual anxiety.

   Don't get me wrong, showing a picture of a gorgeous pussy isn't going to turn a homosexual into a heterosexual. Nor should it . But porn is used to educate and help people accept sexual activities better. Most men know that cocks vary a lot in size and shape and so don't worry about being weird, but women often go mad worrying, especially nervous that they played with themselves and made the labia become weird shapes. So we show them photos of all the various kinds of pussies and they relax.

   Showing couples how blow-jobs look helps them feel less nervous, showing pictures of masturbation helps lessen the guilt. Once couples find out it's OK to masturbate together, sex therapy proceeds quickly and successfully.

3. It spices up the sex-lives of millions of couples who've been together for a long time, They look at the porn together, get turned on and have hot sex.

   Most people have fantasies about having group sex or doing wild things that are difficult to organise or realise. So porn allows you to witness the scenes of your longings, without all the worries of jealousy, breaking friendships, -- your neighbours might not speak to you again if you invite them round for an orgy -- or breaking the law.

4. Porn provides spicy fantasy lives for people without partner or are in a dull relationship. Women tend to read novels and men look at top-shelf mags, films and videos, or satellite TV.
5. Porno is very popular. When the photographic process was discovered it was used to create porn before anything else.

   The reverend Chad Varah, founder of The Samaritans, 87 next week, and a member of Keeble college and this Union, told me that he supports my work, and told me a story last week that in the 60's Sight and Sound magazine did a survey of West End cinemas during the afternoon and found there were four times as many viewers squashed on uncomfortable seats in tiny basement porno theatres than in the plush cinemas showing big movies! People love porn!

6. Porn provides more orgasms, which is beneficial for people's health, strengthening the heart and lungs, circulation and leaving them with a feeling of well-being. When I go for a medical check-up, they always say "You must be an athlete" -- and I just say "No, I enjoy a lot of big orgasms".
7. Porn is beneficial to many of the people in it. You may find this hard to believe but being sexual in front of a camera can have a profound effect -- especially on women -- they blossom sexually. Porn is a fun job for those who enjoy it.

   Look at these women -- in their everyday life and in porn. Do they seem harmed or unhappy? It's a myth that women are drugged and dragging into pornography.

8. Porn is amusing and lots of people watch it at parties or show it around in the pub, which lowers inhibitions so that people feel less worried about discussing their sex lives. Laughter and sex go together happily as both are joyful.
9. Porn is shocking This might be the most difficult one to accept but people love to be shocked. Seeing something shocking challenges everyday standards, helps people put things into perspective, makes life less grey, and is cathartic -- bringing all your repressed emotions to the surface and thus refreshing you.
10. Porn is educational This is especially true in fetish and S/M porn, where it's sometimes difficult to find out how to give an enema, put someone in bondage or whip them without damaging them. I wish it were more so, teaching shy people how to make sexual approaches, and educating society that disabled people can be great lovers. People can learn about safer sex from those books and films that show it.
11. Porn can be enjoyed by everyone whatever their education and class (unlike the media which provides different messages to each). The rich and sophisticated can enjoy their erotic art and when that gets taken to court, the judge is in a dilemma because it breaks the rule that the refined don't show their sexual feelings, and how can he ban a work of a great artist?
12. Porn is subversive It's an insult to British adults to ban us seeing hard porn. It's a way of nannying us, and controlling us. It's a very clever device -- because to control the people's sexuality, you control the people. Porno is thus subversive, and subversion of a police state is very a important benefit to society.

    Quite a lot of pornographers have political motivation -- and use it to discredit careerists, embarrass hypocrite and make political statements.

The last three are reasons why banning porn is harmful to society:

13.Banning porn is an insult to sex -- if we can see pictures of everything else, why not sex. Sex is beautiful, not shameful.

14.Banning porn means that the authorities get to see it all, and we don't. If it depraves and corrupts that means we have depraved and corrupt authorities, and if it doesn't, then what's the point of the ban?

15.Finally, Banning porn means society is not free to make our own choices. You are all intelligent adults here, and you don't need someone else to decide what you may and may not read and view.

Don't worry -- there is no slippery slope -- in porn, or drugs. Cannabis does not lead to heroin, and watching a beautiful blow job doesn't lead to snuff movies. This is a false argument to keep us afraid.

Nobody I have ever met has seen a snuff movie. They don't exist. They are a figment of the gutter press's imagination and food for their "double porn". The News of the World sells millions of papers every Sunday, creating scandals and exposing orgiasts so they can turn its readers on then tell them it's disgusting.

It's very important to me that the British stop being repressed, it's time to take our freedom back, and make our society a safe and happy place.