Porn: A dirty little secret?
Jacqui Smith is said to be 'mortified'. But should a woman be ashamed of her husband watching porn? By Joan Smith
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
enlarge
They watch porn in Redditch, you know. Let me rephrase that: we know for certain that a man in the West Midlands has watched two porn films, and yesterday his wife was said to be "mortified" and "smiling through the pain" following the revelation. Clearly, Jacqui Smith must now go round with a fixed grin, aware that half the country is sniggering at the idea of her husband watching Lesbian Hell Sluts (or something similar) behind her back.
It's even been said that the Home Secretary's job is on the line, ostensibly because the cost of the movies appeared on her expenses – which she has promised to pay back – but really for the much more serious offence of being an overweight, middle-aged woman whose husband needs to get his rocks off elsewhere. The hypocrisy is breathtaking, but that won't help a politician who has so many previous offences to be taken into account, from showing too much cleavage at the despatch box to opposing the exploitation of women in the commercial sex industry.
If we were a bit more honest about these matters – unlikely, I know, but let's give it a try – we would start by acknowledging that Ms Smith isn't married to the only man who has ever used a subscription-only "adult" channel. Reliable statistics on pornography use are hard to come by, but it was reported in the early years of the present decade that 10,000 hardcore movies were being made every year in Los Angeles for worldwide distribution. It's estimated that people in the US spend more on porn than they do on movie tickets and the performing arts combined, and I've seen it suggested that more than three million people here in the UK access internet porn on a regular basis.
There's no evidence that Ms Smith's husband, Richard Timney, is into hardcore, but he did access the Virgin Media cable TV service on two occasions in April last year. As long as Mr Timney was watching explicit material that didn't involve violence or children, his wife might react in one of several ways; the idea that any normal woman would be embarrassed in these circumstances, as though she's her husband's keeper, is out of date. Some women would be cross, others would laugh it off, and one or two might be miffed that their partners didn't wait until they could watch together.
It's not as though Ms Smith has discovered her partner having three-in-a-bed sex, and there's no evidence that he's been "unfaithful" to her, except in Jimmy Carter's weird sense of the word. I'm sure the reaction would be very different if she were young, slender and beautiful – think Liz Hurley after Hugh Grant was arrested for paying a woman for oral sex – but she isn't.
What we're supposed to assume is that Ms Smith can't "satisfy" her man, which isn't surprising in view of her age, appearance and the fact that she's also his boss (he runs her constituency office). There's so much wrong with this assumption that it's hard to know where to start: Ms Smith would do herself a favour if she were able to laugh it off, instead of allowing words like "mortified" to become attached to her.
That's playing into the hands of her enemies, who are revelling in her embarrassment, not least because it allows them to portray her as a puritan with a shaky marriage. It should be screamingly obvious that double standards are at work, that Ms Smith is damned when she presents herself as a sexual being (those low necks) and damned again when she dares challenge the exploitation of women by traffickers and pimps. There's no contradiction there, much as her enemies pretend to have seen one.
It's generally assumed that more men enjoy porn than women – the sexologist Alfred Kinsey suggested that 54 per cent of men were aroused by sexual images, compared with 12 per cent of women – but the research has almost certainly been skewed by cultural assumptions. I'm one of the authors of In Bed With, a bestselling collection of erotic fiction, and I'm pretty sure that most of our readers are women. I don't know how Ms Smith feels about adult movies, but I do know she has nothing to be ashamed of.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
The point is that they have claimed the TV subscription on expenses. Claiming porn on expenses has added hilarity to proceedings. But even if he was claiming to watch the History Channel, it would still be utterly unacceptable.
It also adds another layer of irony that she has spent so long removing all our liberties and introducing 'transparency' that it's really come back to bite her on the arse! Maybe she'll learn to respect privacy after this? Chance'd be a fine thing...
Of all the trouble she's in with the rest of the expenses fiasco, not to mention the police state, let's hope she doesn't get off lightly by distracting us with porn.
What consenting adults do in private between themselves is their own concern. Damn Smith (and others) for their snouts in the trough over expenses but leave their sex lives alone unless they are lecturing the rest of us in their typical "do as I say not as I do" tones. In that case they are fair game.
These political models of excellence the so called best practice brigade must be made to pay for their actions and dumped face down in the quagmire of greed, which they have created. They are taking the piss out of democracy and need to know we will not tolerate this any more.
Will it happen? Of course not as the political classes are hellbent on being re-elected knowing that memories of corruption are forgotten and human failings are always used as an excuse for whatever behaviour is unethical - the human condition, as if it is predetermined by some god given essence to which we must bow down to.
There is always a small brave person somewhere collecting damming proof and unassailable evidence against such people, and when the time is right, the axe drops. JS has made enemies without knowing it and the reaper came calling for her.
This is the British way!! A sure sign that the will of the people manifests itself in strange and wonderful ways!
We in this country have a funny attitude to porn and related issues. Its liberty hall until you get caught actually DOING it at which point people point and jeer. We are all supposed to be getting plenty of sex, and to have the most amazingly cool laid back attitudes to it all - just like sixth form at school - so anyone who resorts to porn or prostitutes is a saddo.
Here in Scotland we are currently arguing the toss (oo-er Missus!!!) about "tolerance" zones for prostitution. The poor wee lambs will be able to ply their trade in safety , but, er, the johns will be instantly arrested. I am unclear how carting all the potential cuistomers away in a paddy wagon is suposed to help the hookers. We all know of course that the men who pay for prostitution are oppressive and evil, but I can't see the point of having a tolerance zone on the basis that the girls can stand around all night, in perfect safety if they feel like it, but the minute a potential customer shows up he will be instantly arrested. Perhaps they will swap knitting patterns.
Ah well, back to the video store. Now where did I put those hankies?
The whole idea that an adult or adults watching porn should even raise an eyebrow as a serious issue is nonsense.
Jacqui Smith, on the other hand, sat on her hands while her chief of the Metropoltan police looked the other way over the de Menezes fiasco. He had either to sack those demonstrably responsible, sack those responsible as supervisors, or resign for having no control over his team. He didn't do any of these and she just let it happen. That, and she's objectionably, abusively authoritarian. I'm all for forcing her out in favour of a better candidate, and who wouldn't be better ?
I kept an article from Business News and Report from years ago because it contained some amazing research. They discovered, for example, that the highest rate of porn consumption per capita in the USA was in the state of... Utah. Yes, Utah, home of the very moral Mormons. Also, that the biggest profit centre for many large hotel chains was... you guessed it, in-room porn films.
Yes, folks, the hypocrisy is rampant.
All this fuus just bexause the poor man was execising his 'Moral Compass'
Of course the taxpayer should bend over!
Jaci does not have the time!
She is saving you all from yourselves!
This government has set in motion a profound change in the relationship between the citizen and the state and put in place the aparatus for future data-mining which increased computing power will allow automatic identification of citizens of 'interest' to the state in future, where 'interest' may mean anything. At the same time, MPs are kicking up a fuss about people looking at their use of public money for personal benefit and trying to hide what happened in cabinet over an exceptional event leading up to the Iraq war. The hypocrisy is astounding. They're on their way to an Orwellian Inner Party with their Us & Them view of the country. We need to hold each and every one of them to account vigorously and as soon as possible.
Clair Lewis
Consenting Adult Action Network
Whether she can satisfy her man or not is irrelevant - the fact she is crap at her job not so. An under achieving minister with no morals lecturing people about their fitness for hi office really should first have the moral high ground.
If she was fat and ugly and good at her job and had not milked the state no would care - the fact is she is fat and ugly and has milked the state, performed badly and is generally useless - hence the laughter which she richly deserves.
There are no double standards here except in the way she has gone about her business. Her job should have been on the line for the last 18 months - based on ability alone.
Sorry Joan time to take your head out of your arse