Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/550022
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 2 AUGUST 2015 15 human body and sexuality in gen- eral. And unfortunately, through technology, it is now much more accessible than ever before. This is the reality the new law is try- ing to confront. A lot of young people today – 16 years old and younger – come across porn ei- ther by chance, as I said before… and would be naturally interested to know more… or go onto the In- ternet specifically to look for it." Research shows that this is giving a distortion impression of sexual relations, she adds. "This affects both males and fe- males. It affects their expectations of a relationship. So what they see as 'normal' when watching por- nography, they interpret as what they themselves are supposed to do. We are not going into the question of whether anal sex, oral sex, or ejaculating on the face of the woman is 'OK' or not… but the thing is, in porn it is always pre- sented as something pleasurable, when most of the time this is not the case at all…" Young women, she adds, may feel pressured to do things they wouldn't want to do. And the same distorted image of sex affects men, too. "If a young man watches porn, and sees a man with a big penis, he might assume that that's the 'normal' size. It might cause em- barrassment, and he might even conclude that he's not performing well. Research shows that this af- fects a lot of men: they have pre- occupations about the size of their organ, and so on. But in reality it's not the size of a man's organ that matters. There are other aspects that go into a healthy relation- ship." Schembri argues that pornogra- phy affects not just individual re- lationships, but society as a whole. In Malta, its effects can already be felt. "Until a few years ago, if a young couple had sex, it was something that was kept secret. There was a social stigma attached. Nowadays, the situation has been reversed. Young people feel that if you don't have sex, you're not 'cool'. So sud- denly it becomes 'OK' to have multiple relationships. There are health implications, too. Unpro- tected sex, with no condoms, is 'normalised' through pornography. That's what they watch…" These have all along been the MCWO's main concerns when it comes to the porn industry, and other related issues. But she ad- mits that the Confederation is often misunderstood when airing these concerns in public. "Every time we speak out against, for instance, the decriminalisation of prostitution, and in favour of the criminalisation of clients, many people (mostly men, but some- times women too) comment that we are 'against sex'. That is totally not the case. We are not moralists; we don't go into what happens in the bedroom, or on the kitchen table, or wherever… but we are very concerned with how the State deals with issues such as violence against women, and the subjuga- tion of women. " This raises the inevitable ques- tion: how should the State deal with such issues? Is a total ban on all forms of pornography the an- swer? Schembri replies that there is no point in pushing for a total ban, because it cannot be achieved in practice. "There is no way to stop people accessing pornography over the Internet or on satellite TV… at least, not without resort- ing to State control, which would clearly be a step backwards. My view is that, to counter something which you cannot stop in practice, you must invest in education. We have to go beyond the level of sex education currently provided at schools. There is more to it than 'man plus woman equals baby'. As things stand, the sad truth is that pornography is probably the main sex educator of our children today. That's where they're getting all their information from. We have to counter this, by providing our children with the skills they will need to cope with these things later in life." Interview Pornography is distorting our image of healthy sexual relationships, argues MCWO chairperson LORRAINE SCHEMBRI. But while it can be regulated at law, the porn industry can never be eradicated have a problem… We are not moralists, but we are very concerned with how the State deals with issues such as violence against women MORALITY PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MANGION