Anna Arrowsmith has been causing quite a stir with her decision to enter political life. The prospective Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham, Kent, is a former director of porn films, including Where’s The Rent, Boys?, Hoxton Honey and Be My Toy Boy, which she made under the pseudonym Anna Span.
She promotes her films as ‘female-friendly’ and describes herself as a keen campaigner for women’s rights. But isn’t she just another woman trying to pass off objectification as empowerment?
It would seem not. I recently interviewed Dr Clarissa Smith, senior lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Sunderland, and author of One For The Girls! The Pleasures And Practices Of Reading Women’s Porn.
‘During my research I spoke to a married woman in her thirties who loved Anna Span’s films,’ says Smith. ‘She particularly appreciated the real engagement between the men and women in the films. In one particular scene, she said the male character kept looking at the woman, as if asking ‘Are you enjoying it?’ I suppose that’s quite different from some of the very commercial porn.’
With the Home Office commissioning clinical psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulus to write a report on the sexualisation of children and teenagers and with David Cameron’s promise to protect children against ‘inappropriate sexualisation’, the Lib Dems’ decision to have a porn director join their ranks is far from off message. Having a female politician with a unique insight into this male-dominated industry that is pervading our society may be no bad thing.
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