I suppose this is yet another instance where the United Kingdom prioritizes the wrong thing.
England and Wales is set to ban certain types of porn, according to reporting from last week. Beginning in early November, it will be illegal to possess or publish pornography that includes strangulation, suffocation, role-playing as a minor, and sexual activity between related persons or actors pretending to be related. The justice minister, Alex Davies-Jones said, “This isn’t about criminalising harmless sexual preferences. But porn can shape what people think a healthy relationship looks like, especially young people. Content that normalises, or even glorifies, violence against women is dangerous and can blur the line with what is acceptable in real life.” The new policy comes after a review from 2025, which concluded in part that choking in porn can have “devastating” real-life consequences.
I have to ask: Is porn with choking practices or devious role-playing qualitatively worse than all other porn? The government is conceding that porn has damaging societal effects, and that it can be regulated. It is incredibly difficult to argue that porn depicting strangulation helps “normalize” harm, but somehow, porn broadly — even that without violence — doesn’t poison views about sexuality and corrupt interpersonal dynamics. We should just try our best to get rid of the whole lot.
But there’s something else that is confusing to me. Why is the United Kingdom more upset about scripted incest in porn storylines than the actual practice of incest? Last year, an arm of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service published an article titled, “Should the UK government ban first-cousin marriage?” To the shock of many Westerners, the article’s answer was essentially “no.” The authors suggested that we shouldn’t judge first-cousin marriages too harshly because doing so “stigmatises certain communities, undermines trust in medical services and causes couples to disengage from clinical support.” In fact, the article actually suggests that the practice has “benefits,” such as “stronger extended family support systems and economic advantages (resources, property and inheritance can be consolidated rather than diluted across households).” Consanguineous marriages are happening in the United Kingdom; a somewhat recent study found that a majority — 55 percent — of British Pakistanis are married to a first cousin.
Similarly, there seems to be more government support for banning violent porn, or that which includes role-playing as a minor, than there is for pursuing the grooming gangsters who actually committed violent sexual acts against minors. As is the case with banning cousin marriage, prosecuting the gangsters to the fullest extent possible would reveal disturbing discrepancies along ethnic and religious lines.
I suppose this is yet another instance where the United Kingdom prioritizes the wrong thing.