Holiday o' the day: International Fetish Day
Friday, 16 January 2015 08:19 pmThe third Friday in January is International Fetish Day, originally launched as National Fetish Day in the UK not just to celebrate the BDSM community across the pond, but to protest a round of restrictive pornography laws aimed at extreme imagery - defined by the law as sexytime with animals or corpses (or the appearance of it, if it looks realistic enough that it would fool the average Bob), life-threatening sexytime (ditto), and sexytime that even looks like it would cause injury to the ass, genitals or breasts.
"But that sounds reasonable, mokie. What's so wrong with that?"
Well, mokie, as The Guardian's Symon Hill points out (thank you, Wikipedia!):
Get off on taking pictures of yourself as a sexy corpse? The courts don't care - that shit looks creepy, and you gotta stop it.
Get off on cheesecake horror comparable to 'a 1970s Hammer film'? The courts will begrudgingly admit that nobody would ever mistake that for real and so the law as written can't stop you from waxing your goblin to it - but you'll still go on trial first, you pervy such and such.
And it's an extra-special observance this year, as just a month ago legislators slapped some new restrictions on the porn industry that seem to target BDSM and women specifically - including a ban on depictions of female ejaculation, which has somehow been deemed 'potentially life-threatening'. (The protests have been suitably awesome.)
It's always sad when someone tries to prevent grown-ass adults from getting their consensual kicks, but we Merkins know if the UK can defeat Hitler and the Spice Girls, they can overcome this, too.
"But that sounds reasonable, mokie. What's so wrong with that?"
Well, mokie, as The Guardian's Symon Hill points out (thank you, Wikipedia!):
"Rather than targeting the exploitative, abusive and bullying elements of the pornography industry, the law is aimed at sadomasochistic images regardless of the context. So low is the barrier that if taken literally it could lead to a couple who take a photo of their consensual (and legal) sexual activity being arrested for possession of that photo." (Friday 16 January 2009)You and your honey like a bit of totally consensual fisting? The courts don't care - that shit looks painful, and you gotta stop it.
Get off on taking pictures of yourself as a sexy corpse? The courts don't care - that shit looks creepy, and you gotta stop it.
Get off on cheesecake horror comparable to 'a 1970s Hammer film'? The courts will begrudgingly admit that nobody would ever mistake that for real and so the law as written can't stop you from waxing your goblin to it - but you'll still go on trial first, you pervy such and such.
And it's an extra-special observance this year, as just a month ago legislators slapped some new restrictions on the porn industry that seem to target BDSM and women specifically - including a ban on depictions of female ejaculation, which has somehow been deemed 'potentially life-threatening'. (The protests have been suitably awesome.)
It's always sad when someone tries to prevent grown-ass adults from getting their consensual kicks, but we Merkins know if the UK can defeat Hitler and the Spice Girls, they can overcome this, too.