Laila Dåvøy, Minister of Children and Family Affairs, Norway

Pornophication of the Public Space

Adress delivered on the 13.02.03 - Plenary session on the four main topics

Third Baltic Sea Womens Conference on WoMen and Democracy, Tallin 13. -14. February 2003

Ministers, ladies and gentlemen,

As Minister of Children and Family Affairs in Norway, my portfolio includes gender equality and also of consumer affairs. Pornophication of the public space is a challenge that affects all my areas of responsibility.

I am also affected on a personal level, as a woman and a human being.

Pornophication might be for many of us a new and unfamiliar concept, and I will try to make clear how I understand its meaning.

It clearly refers to the way pornographic images become normal everyday cultural expressions.

Earlier, pornographic expressions represented a sub-culture and did not visibly influence our everyday life. This situation has changed. Increasingly, the human body is publicly exposed and presented in ways that I associate with images and expressions that were earlier regarded and understood as pornography.

It involves unethical and degrading portrayal, especially of women and girls who are presented as sex objects. This reflects the economic and social inequality between the sexes – "It is a men´s world" as a rock poem recalled. Pornography is made by men and for men, and we should ask at what costs.

Pornography has become easily available. Sex videos are found in ordinary video-stores, sex-shops become a regular feature of our cities, pornography can be easily acquired in shops, on pay-television, it pops up on the Internet. Earlier, it required an active effort to get hold of pornography, now we have to choose actively to keep it away or to get rid of it.

Pornography is increasingly present in mass culture in music videos, movies, television-series, in magazines and in fashion. Increasingly, youngsters and even small children are the target group.

Pornography is an enemy of women’s liberation. It is a disaster when it enters the sphere of childhood. Clothes marketed to small girls may be adorned by text, such as , "I’m legal" or "Porn Star". New media, like the Internet, makes it difficult to protect the young from pornographic material. It claims little skill to find these programs, and they may pop up quite unexpectedly even when they are not intentionally sought out.

There has been little research on children and pornography. A lot of questions need to be asked and illuminated. What kind of actions are within reach to combat a development many of us see as threatening?

In the news, sexual crimes and abuse as well as reports concerning prostitution and trafficking of women and children may be staged in semi-pornographic images. Not to mention that many newspapers make big money on advertisements for sexual services.

We lack knowledge of the impact it has on the young, on self-image and perceptions of the other, how it affects the way girls and boys come to see gender roles and gender relations. How does it influence our attitudes to the other sex, use of sexual violence and sexual harassment among young people, men’s violence against women, opinions of gender equality and development of humanity and empathy.

Pornography is big industry. It involves the exploitation of large numbers of human beings, with women and children in the majority. The effect on those exploited is disastrous. Trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation involves both pornography and prostitution. We have to fight both.

The public debate tends to concentrate on who is pro and who is against liberalisation in the use of pornography. The debate has not been focused on how this affects our lives – children and grownups, in short and long terms.

Yesterday, the Norwegian Government launched an action plan against trafficking in women and children. The aim is to increase public awareness about the complexity of these problems, the exploitation and violence, the links to trans-national organised crime. We have to fight against it with all legal means. We must all join forces. Mobilising the media and the market to promote increased awareness among the ordinary citizens is a challenge in this context.

The topics that are the focus of this International Conference are closely connected and must bee seen as a whole. We need to join forces and adopt an integrated approach. Our aim is a society based on gender equality, in economic, social and cultural terms Only then can we offer our children the childhood and the future they deserve.

Finally, I want to use the opportunity to thank the Estonian government who hosts the conference, and to all those who make this event possible.