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<TITLE>RE: [AusNOG] conroy reaffirms commitment to filter</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Isn't restricting access to pornography and discouraging its creation a condemnation of the rights of women in the first place? Women should be free to do as men do IMHO.<BR>
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-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: ausnog-bounces@lists.ausnog.net on behalf of Grahame Lynch<BR>
Sent: Thu 7/1/2010 10:25 AM<BR>
To: Andrew Oskam<BR>
Cc: ausnog@lists.ausnog.net<BR>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] conroy reaffirms commitment to filter<BR>
<BR>
I just want to make a point as an observer and someone who<BR>
edits/processes/publishes copy about this issue and talks about it with<BR>
people in the government.<BR>
<BR>
The policy is often described as a sop to the "right" or to the "religious".<BR>
My experience is that it is not. The intellectual grandfather of the<BR>
justifications for the filter policy in Australia is a left-wing<BR>
pro-feminist academic Clive Hamilton. I went to university and was a<BR>
political combatant with his protege Michael Flood (who published a men's<BR>
feminist magazine amongst other things) and I can can assure everyone that<BR>
the train of thought behind this policy is not about winning the church<BR>
vote, it is derived more from the intellectual construct that sees things<BR>
like an unfiltered Internet as reinforcing the patriarchy and the<BR>
exploitation of women (or kids). It is the same impulse that wants to<BR>
regulate the objectification of women via sexual imagery in media<BR>
advertising for example.<BR>
<BR>
I've spoken with people in government who defend the policy from a feminist<BR>
POV, not a religious one.<BR>
<BR>
It is really important to "know your enemy" if you want to fight something<BR>
and I don't see much evidence that in this case the enemy has been correctly<BR>
identified.<BR>
<BR>
Oh and by the way I'm by no means anti-feminist or anti-religious. But I<BR>
don't particularly like the filter!<BR>
<BR>
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