The Day They Came To Arrest The Book

Or at least the librarian, the bookstore owner, and their customers.

This is another post about the infamous Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, that is shortly due to receive Royal Assent, after which at some unspecified point in the future, the Secretary of State will have parliament recognise the order to make it law that possession of "extreme pornography" is illegal, with a maximum penalty of a couple of years in prison plus being added to the Sex Offenders Register.

It occurred to me that I have two books that I bought from mainstream bookstores, each store a part of a well-recognised national chain, that contain images that as far as I can see must be illegal under the proposed law. What is more, they are books of a type that many public libraries have on their shelves.

They are photographic erotic art.

The law will require that an image be both "intended primarily or solely for the purposes of sexual arousal", and "extreme" (appearing to show explicitly, acts that appear to theaten a person's life, or serious harm to genitals, anus or breasts).

Here are some descriptions of images in the books (please don't read this if you think you might find it triggering or upsetting):

"The Mammoth Book of Erotic Photography", edited by Maxim Jakubowski and Marilyn Jaye Lewis. ISBN: 1-84119-325-9

"Sex: Take a Walk on the Wild Side (Masterpieces of Erotic Fantasy Photography)" Edited by Tony Mitchell. ISBN: 1-56025-363-0

In "The Mammoth Book...", there is a photograph taken by Trevor Baker ("a Southern California-based photographer with a strong interest in fetish images") which shows a woman naked and bound with the rope coiled around her neck. She is slumped forwards onto a chair covered by a large sheet, giving the appearance that she has been strangled.

There is an image created by John Santerineross (While he is technically a photographer due to his use of photographic materials, he considers himself more of an image-maker") in which a woman appears to have had her hands pierced, or at least she is displaying stigmata in her palms. Her fingers have strange things attached to the ends. In particular as regards this law, her breasts appear to be crushed by large metal plates with spikes on the outside.

While these images, and others in the book, do not appear to me to fall foul of the law, it is also easy to see how a prosecution might make a case that they do.

The "Sex: Take a Walk on the Wild Side" book has 4 sections, and the fourth is entitled "Extreme Measures".

Images include (photographer given first, then descrition):

China Hamilton: A woman lying face down on a bench, her knickers discarded on the floor to one side. She is apparently about to be beaten on her buttocks with a bundle of sticks with thorns.

Steve Diet Goedde: A woman seated on a large pipe, entirely encased in a tight-fitting suit of some kind of shiny material. It might be nylon, it might be latex or PVC. Her face is entirely covered and she has no way to breathe. There is a metal collar around her neck.

Romain Slocombe: A face picture of a woman in a neck brace, with a sticking plaster on her cheek and a cloth gag across her mouth.

Tony Ward: A man in a gas mask is seated in front of a woman, who from behind holds a bullwhip across the front of his neck. Her hand grip implies the action of strangling him - she 'appears to threaten' his life.

In the section on "Domination and Discipline", there are the following images:

"James & James": A man in a PVC facsimile of a military uniform is bound into a chair. behind him stands a woman in a PVC facsimile of of the porn-version of an air stewardess' uniform. The stewardess is holding a cutthroat razor in her right hand. There is blood on the razor, and the man's chin on the right side of his face has already been cut, and we see the blood trickling down his neck. The man's face shows fear. The woman's face has a sinister smile.

Trevor Watson: A man is tied on his back to a gym bench. He is fully clothed except that his penis is showing. A woman in a latex or PVC catsuit is holding what looks to me like a violet wand to his genitals. The man is screaming, the woman is laughing. The violet wand, in the photograph, could be any number of things.

(For those unfamiliar with the term, a "violet wand" is a means of delivering electro-stimulation, and is named because of the brightly-coloured sparks visible in the equipment. In the photograph, I realised what it was because I could see the black electrical cable in the background)

It has also been pointed out that the (in)famous book "Sex" by Madonna, would also be affected by this law, and that hundred of thousands of people bought this book when it was first published.

To highlight the fact that these entirely legal books will shortly become illegal, there is going to be a book-burning protest in London where erotic art books that contain images that could conceivably become illegal when the law is enacted, will be burnt. No details have been finalised yet, although the date of Wednesday 7th May has been mentioned. There has been some talk of various venues, such as Parliament Square and outside the British Library. I will add more as soon as I know it for certain.

As I may have mentioned before, this is not the start of a slippery slope. We are already halfway down the slope and gathering pace. They have found a way to ban the book, all over again. What will be next?