There and Back Again

Yes I know I’m mis-using the word sublime, and I’m not going to imply that anything around the porn protests of the last week has actually featured terrifying and imposing landscapes but the title was too good not to use.

Along with hundreds of other people I went to Westminster last friday in order to take part in the mass demonstration in protest of the new ATVOD regulations. This not being my first rodeo I was prepped for more or less anything (water, check; food, check; thermal long-johns, check). But this was perhaps a little overly cautious as a very civilised time was had and it was all over in about an hour and a half (again not entirely surprising, as I say, not my first rodeo).

The highlights, aside from seeing lovely people I hadn’t caught up with in months (you know who you are 😉 ), for me at least was the speeches, which did a brilliant job. They were articulate, to the point and really brought home how damaging the new regulations are.

The seriousness of this was somewhat undermined by a dutch woman who shouted something about “Freedom of porn; whoo!” before exposing her breasts to the crowd. I’m not saying I object to that per-se, but it was an uncomfortable contrast to the concerns raised by the speakers. Things kind of got a bit worse than with the much hyped (and derided) mass face-sitting. It was at this point that the dozens of press (who up to then had been flocking like vultures around anyone who looked even vaguely like they were about to squat down) finally got the money shots they’d been waiting for.

I know that the media is a double-edged sword, and that by having something that people could ‘point-to’ the protest inevitably got more media coverage than it would have otherwise, but it was an uncomfortable shift of tone, a serious issue regarding state censorship and lack of democratic process and freedom of speech transformed into a guffawing gimic worthy of Eurotrash.

I was feeling a bit despondent. Until I watched Channel 4 News and saw the inimitable Pandora Blake being interviewed, not just a talking head at the protest, but full on adversarial discussion, in the studio. It was a delight to watch as suddenly the actual issues and actual intelligent discussion had a national platform.

So yes, sublime to ridiculous, and back again.