One thing I absolutely detest is posting “scandal” pictures. Especially those who post pictures of third-party participants.
I’ve seen it in many sites. Ateneo scandal! UP scandal! Oftentimes these are pictures or videos of couples engaged in sexual acts. Sometimes it is taken inside motels. Some inside dormitories. And more often, the person who posted the content is not even a participant.
I came across an interesting article from The Sydney Morning Herald. The author, a single male in his 30s, writes:
Having used prostitutes in my 20s, it occurred to me recently that the simplicity of a cash exchange would be a more honest, and I dare say, moral alternative to bullshitting women into bed.
Political correctness tells me I should be ashamed of visiting a sex-worker but I’m not.
My foray into the world of adult entertainment began in my teens. It was an almost uncontrollable urge. Sex would enter into my mind constantly. I did it secretly. I was ashamed. During my free time I would hop into a jeep and sneak inside Maalikaya. I would blow what was at that time about a week’s allowance, and then make up the amount later by tutoring some students who were struggling at Math. Nowadays that feeling of shame is gone. Don’t get me wrong. I may not be ashamed—but neither am I proud of it. I am just indifferent about it. Now it’s no big thing for me.
I think some things have to be cleared about the act that’s cited as one of the motivating factors for the attempted closure of Boybastos.com.
First of all, it’s not Senate Bill 1375, contrary to what GMANews.tv reported. I checked the Philippine Senate website and it states that Senate Bill 1375 is “AN ACT CREATING THE PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AFFAIRS OFFICE IN EVERY PROVINCE, CITY AND MUNICIPALITY, AMENDING SECTION 40 OF REPUBLIC ACT.”
It’s actually Senate Bill 1085, described as the Anti Obscenity Act of 2007, “AN ACT PROHIBITING THE DEMONSTRATION, PERFORMANCE OR EXHIBITION IN PUBLIC CERTAIN SEXUAL ACTS, AND THE PRODUCTION, IMPORTATION, SALE OR DISTRIBUTION, OR PUBLIC SHOWING OR DISPLAY OF PORNOGRAPHIC MATERIALS, PROVIDING PENALTIES THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.” You can download the bill here. And yes, Senator Legarda authored the bill.
The bill considers it “unlawful for any person to perform, exhibit, or demonstrate in public, before an audience, or in the presence of another person who is not a participant therein, any of the following sexual acts”
By the way, if you think this is a complete list, visit this extensive list of paraphilia.
According to the news, Senator Loren Legarda has been on the assault against pornography. Her target: an Internet site called Boy Bastos.
According to GMANews.TV:
Legarda urged the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (Iacat) and the National Bureau of Investigation to shut down the site, which she called “the premier bastos portal of the Philippines.”
Legarda asked the NBI to look into the possibility of cyber-sex operators behind the website to “lure potential customers that can be directed to linked paid services.”
She said administrators of the website “have evidently also been investing large sums, entering paid porn sites abroad, downloading for a fee some of the materials, and then posting them on boybastos.com for all to see.”
Worse, she said the porn site encourages visitors to freely contribute their own videos, including so-called sex scandal videos.
The funny thing is that, in terms of raunchiness, the site is quite tame. So, what’s wrong with the site? The site defends itself, saying that it does not dabble in human trafficking or child prostitution. It does not deal with murder, nor does it sell illegal drugs. It says that it deals with something that is inherently natural in all human beings. One can easily argue that the female body is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and that erotica is an established art form. One man’s art form can be another’s obscenity.
Hence, if one finds something offensive on the Web, one can always resort to that close button at the upper left hand corner of one’s browser — which can be very useful if one finds a site distasteful.
