Fiona Patten talked about her


hopes for a global movement against state interference in people’s sex lives


guise of “moral panic.” WeConsent.org is just the start, she said, where a forum and support for sex workers of all types would run next to a resource of credible material for journalists and policy makers to refer to. She wants to out the ‘bad science’ of people with vested interests, such as Gail Dines, who attacks porn for making money out of sexuality in her book Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality. She concluded by saying the industry had changed a lot in recent years to appeal to women as much as men, with films - including her own - being shot for couples, and sex shops adapting to be more woman-friendly. It showed that women weren’t just receptacles for male sexuality and had their own desires and needs which the adult industry, as well as society, was adapting to reflect.


LESSONS FROM DOWN UNDER


Last to speak was Fiona Patten, who began by saying how she’d been nodding along to the points made by the evening’s other contributors. She also thanked the UK for Mary Whitehouse, whose visit to Australia on a moral crusade - alongside Australian Fred Nile - had inspired the formation of the Eros Association (the Australian equivalent of AITA) in 1992. It was created as a way to respond to Mary Whitehouse’s attack on the country’s ‘loose morals’ and represented anyone from condom manufacturers to table dance establishments.


54


Eros lead to certain frictions with the Australian authorities, with Patten once facing trial for alleged Contempt of Parliament for threatening to ‘out’ National Party politicians who’d been spotted shopping in adult stores. With the suggestion of CCTV footage hanging, she was apparently sent letters from several senior members of Parliament saying they were just in the shop for research purposes. The letter writers included MPs who hadn’t been recognised by shop staff at the time, helping Eros’s database of ‘naughty’ politicians grow. As a flourish Patten added that the head of the Australian equivalent of the BBFC had left his job to make his own porn, and mentioned some colourful, suitably Antipodean titles. Robbie Swan, also a director of Eros, chuckled at the memory of this while the rest of the audience laughed along with the well-told story. Turning to more recent developments, Patten explained how the Australian Sex Party had come into existence around 18 months ago, “as a way to create change in a way our letters weren’t.” Eros had been pushing porn issues but it had become clear there was a wider social context to their efforts and with the growing threat of an ISP-level Australian Internet filter it was time to step up a gear. With 80% of adults saying adult content was fine for adults, Eros had been unable to get public support from MPs fearful of a vocal, perhaps job-threatening backlash from the other 20% and so, as she put it, “We decided to beat them from the inside.” She explained how the party had been


formed around the ideals of freedom and how as a liberal organisation, it was in favour of women’s right to an abortion, in a country where abortions are still illegal in some states. Just three months after forming they got 250,000 votes in the national elections and used this strong support to roll out further policies on topics as wide ranging as age-appropriate sex education and euthanasia. While the party’s name attracted a certain sort of vote - especially in a country with AV and where 18 year-olds are, along with the rest of the adult population, legally obliged to vote - she explained how they’d positioned themselves as the ‘anti nanny state’ party, supporting gay marriage and pushing for civil liberties.


Concluding, Fiona Patten talked about her hopes for a global movement against state interference in people’s sex lives, echoing Jerry Barnett’s earlier comments on how strange it seems now that homosexuality was illegal in a cosmopolitan and supposedly tolerant country like Britain until relatively recently. Patten also spoke about a ‘giant orgasm’ that Australia enjoys every year when all the coral of the Great Barrier Reef spawns at the same time. Seed fills the ocean, where currents take it around the world. A nice metaphor for the Australian Sex Party’s liberal ideals and Patten’s dream of exporting them to an international stage.


Receiving the same warm applause the other speakers had enjoyed, Patten sat and Barnett once again went into host mode, thanking everyone and throwing the meeting open to questions and comments. There was a sense of ‘preaching to the converted’ from the group, but it had certainly been an entertaining and educational event. The event was recorded and a link will be added to erotictradeonly.com when the audio is available.


Erotic Trade Only June 2011


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