A postulate – the amount of prurience, perhaps the amount of censorship, in a society remains constant over time. All that changes is what people are prurient about, who desires the censorship and why.
We have finally managed to get to where we should be concerning the censorship of pornography:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] A CPS spokesperson confirmed the change, which followed a public consultation: “It is not for the CPS to decide what is considered good taste or objectionable. We do not propose to bring charges based on material that depicts consensual and legal activity between adults, where no serious harm is caused and the likely audience is over the age of 18. “The CPS will, however, continue to robustly apply the law to anything which crosses the line into criminal conduct and serious harm.” [/perfectpullquote]What consenting adults do is up to consenting adults. The purpose of government is to enable – to empower – consenting adults to do as they consent. To maximise their opportunities to live their life as they desire.
So, good, we’re where we should be.
Except, of course, we’ve still all those people campaigning against pornography, it’s only the reasoning that has changed. Still the same middle class women worrying away at the idea that perhaps men might be enjoying themselves too much. The reasoning has changed, sure – today it’s that by enjoying themselves men might be objectifying women instead of sinking into iniquity by sinful thought and action. To the extent that objectification is not the modern sin of course.
Unless it involves sugar, tobacco or alcohol. Then the usual prodnoses feel more than welcome to interfere in other people’s lives…