This webinar commences in 5 minutes! This event will be live-tweeted; please follow the #NMNTalk hashtag for updates.
Welcoming remarks are now being made by Rachel, who is the chair. She gives some background on herself and involvement with NMN. She also introduces other members of NMN and the speakers, Lilly and Esther. #NMNTalk
She gives introduction on the Nordic Model, its framework and its benefits in practice: making the state take responsibility for sex buying, helping women out of sex trade, and changing public perception of the sex trade. #NMNTalk
Lilly’s talk will demonstrate that misogyny and sexual violence, played out through porn and prostitution, is not by accident. She will be using feminist thinkers to show that this violence against women is systemic, and that their challenge has often been ignored. #NMNTalk
Lilly is now speaking. Her talk is “Prostitution & Pornography: A Historical View”. She is going to investigate the origins of patriarchy and capitalism through misogyny, using scholarly sources. #NMNTalk
“When women describe the epidemic levels of violence that we are now witnessing, they are dismissed as man-haters.” Elitist attitudes have controlled narrative & framed feminists as “man-haters”; bad women that shouldn’t be listened to. #NMNTalk
Prostitution is often touted as world’s oldest profession, propaganda designed to dismiss criticism. When examining ancient societies societies were often gynocentric and egalitarian; with mother-child bond the foundation of kinship and no interpersonal domination. #NMNTalk
Records show early settled societies maintained egalitarian structure; burials were conducted in the same way and no war recorded until 1200 BCE. Stratified society allowed men to begin dominating the new hierarchy and resources. #NMNTalk
Patriarchy is formed in sets of interlocking social structure designed to create men as an elite social class, dominating women that were once their equals, huge social shift. The Garden of Eden allegorical of this & allows shift to be blamed on women: “Eve was framed”. #NMNTalk
“The first mention of prostitution is from Sumer, where priests prostituted female captives and slaves to draw men and money into the temples.” Marilyn French, From Eve to Dawn. #NMNTalk
Why and how would prostitution exist in an egalitarian society, where men and women are equal and there is no struggle for ownership of resources? #NMNTalk
“The Code of Hammurabi marks the beginning of the institutionalisation of the patriarchal family as an aspect of state power.” - Gerda Lerner. Women now reliant on men for resources and social standing, for survival, making their sexual conduct suddenly important. #NMNTalk
“Moral” and “immoral” women now separated in society. Moral women covered their head and remained sexually chaste, immoral women did not. This divided women, enabling men to conquer. Slave women were not allowed to cover their heads. #NMNTalk
Athenian art, showing men having violent sex with women, reveals the “similarity of the positions of women and slaves.” - Eva Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus. Images like this could suggest that it was becoming inherent to ideas about being a man. #NMNTalk
In rural Western European cultures, labour was largely shared between sexes and centred around home. After the industrial revolution and increased presence of the workplace, men became wage earners out of the home and disparity between sexes grew. #NMNTalk
A mutual relationship between men and women was replaced with something harder, as women and children became dependent on the earnings of men, which they in turn exploited in horrific ways. #NMNTalk
Methods used during witch hunts were employed during colonisation, and then used to control women and children at home. “The exploitation and oppression of women are not accidental phenomena but are intrinsic parts of a system.” - Maria Mies. #NMNTalk
Dispossessing people of their own land and resources was fundamental to elitist class undermining other groups. European settlers introduced this to egalitarian native populations, giving men power over women and children in exchange for private ownership of land. #NMNTalk
Racism and sexism are the key tools used to divide the people, for the benefit of elitist class. #NMNTalk
Pornographic imagery uses real people, and often depicts sexual degradation of women. Children have often encountered this material as young as 8, and for many porn is their sex education.
“Pornography is women turned into sub-humans.” - Andrea Dworkin #NMNTalk
“Pornography is women turned into sub-humans.” - Andrea Dworkin #NMNTalk
Violent porn makes violent sex common, blurring lines that make state protection services like police and judiciary blind to the terrible consequences it has for women. #NMNTalk
Porn is a big business, larger than Hollywood movies, turning women into parts to be exploited for material gain. Along with surrogacy, this creates women’s bodies as the next new resource for corporate elites to plunder. #NMNTalk
This concludes Lilly’s excellently researches and very informative talk, thank you. The next speaker, Esther, is now being introduced. She is speaking about BDSM, policy approaches to sexualised violence and domestic abuse, global depictions of sexualised violence. #NMNTalk
Esther introduces her talk as “The Colonisation of Intimate Life.” Her first slide says “Choice, and performing to survive.” #NMNTalk
She draws link between slaves acting as entertainer for slave-traders in order to stay in favour and how these avenues are still in place today. Porn and prostitution require both men and women to perform violent/hazardous sex acts to survive. #NMNTalk
Rough sex in real life: online depictions of sexualised violence creates normalised expectations of higher pain/harm thresholds for women, often resulting in sexual assault, short/long-term injury or even death. Women scared to refute this “norm” in real life. #NMNTalk
Study carried out by British Medical Journal (2014) showed that many believed heterosexual anal sex was only done by people who like it, despite also believing that it would be painful for women. “Accidental penetration” and coercion by expectation also noted. #NMNTalk
Viewers of porn/buyers of prostitution frequently forget that women are performing for financial gain, believing instead that they have a high sex drive/enjoy acts. Enables men to demand it from women who have exited & ignore circumstances that lead them to trade. #NMNTalk
Esther talks about the glamorisation of the industry compared to the reality. Many women in porn make their money prostitution, after being visibly commodified by porn. #NMNTalk
Common for men who pay for sex to create one-sided emotional relationship with women they view/see regularly. This misconception ignores power dynamics; woman is being paid to perform. Eradication of “professional boundaries” such as established in therapy. #NMNTalk
A relationship where one party is subordinate, reliant on maintenance due to need for money, and expected to submit to escalating acts of sexual violence committed by someone willing to use emotional manipulation as a result is inherently exploitative. #NMNTalk
“Trying to compete with porn performers and others seeking to emulate a fantasy can make men and women feel inadequate.” Drives people to ever more extreme acts and conditions them to see it as normal or even pleasing. Introduction of drugs exacerbates this. #NMNTalk
BDSM tropes translated now on screen, demonstrating how language is designed to obscure the human reality of dom/sub relationship dynamics. Both get conditioned by chemical high/low of scenarios, even though they are damaging to psyche. #NMNTalk
Sexual violence can be used as a bonding activity amongst men, using standards of sexual performance demonstrated by porn to determine masculinity and standing within their peer group. #NMNTalk
Child sex abuse online is fast growing as the competitive sexuality of porn continues; young men are increasingly viewing these types of images online as we approach the final frontiers of “taboo” sexual practices. #NMNTalk
PTSD is higher amongst prostituted women than it is amongst war veterans; only men over 55 are more likely to screen positive than women. Mental health issues and substance misuse are common consequences of sexualised violence. BPD notable example of this. #NMNTalk
“Rough sex” in BDSM inverts reward and sanction. Pain and violence during sex is now reward; withholding it is punishment for poor performance. Punishment for exited women persists throughout society in form of structural inequality; BDSM conditioning makes this normal. #NMNTalk
Esther concludes her very informative and engaging talk, thank you. Now Rachel is asking viewers to take a moment, and then explore where they feel we should go from here in terms of discussing, identifying, and fighting these issues in society. #NMNTalk
She is talking about conceptualisation of pleasurable and mutually enjoyable sexual practices, and how this can be disseminated throughout society. #NMNTalk
Rachel apologises for not realising about attendee limit on webinar, but informs that a recording of the whole thing will be available on the NM website - nordicmodelnow.org - later on today. #NMNTalk
Now attendees are asking questions about presentation material. If you would like to hear these, and the answers given by hosts, please check out the recording when available.
Thank you for joining us today! Shall we live-tweet all events/webinars in future? #NMNTalk
Thank you for joining us today! Shall we live-tweet all events/webinars in future? #NMNTalk
