World Sex Sells News

Strip club owner Dragan Bratic, due to open up a club near the hugely popular Swedish ski resort Are in the north, is suing the local politician who said his new club would attract criminal elements for libel and defamation.

Why should I be forced to take this kind of shit lying down, Bratic told local paper Ostersundsposten.

As The Local reported in December, miserable politicians in the area have been up in arms about the plans since they became public, but as long as Bratic doesn't do anything illegal on the premises there is very little they can do to stop him.

It is not illegal, but it is inappropriate, claimed Eva Hellstrand of the Centre Party:

The villagers were divided on the issue. Many pointed out that it was perhaps not the best location for a strip joint, situated in an old country inn, between the church and the cemetery in the sleepy little village of Morsil, home to many families with children.

Hellstrand claimed without substantiation that a venture such as Bratic's could draw unwanted elements and criminal activity to the area and said she hoped the police would keep a keen eye on it. Hellstrand also told Ostersundsposten that they can't stop the strip club from opening but that they can try to sway public opinion against it. Without customers the club would have to close.

Soon after, Bratic reported Eva Hellstrand to the police for libel. He thinks it was wrong of her to talk about his business this way. He feels that he has been insulted: She doesn't even know who I am

The comment about criminal activity was what made Bratic see red.

I have a family and it isn't so nice that they are forced to read this kind of stuff about me in the press.

Porn is bad. There you go, I just saved you the trouble of reading most commentary and opinion on the subject. Porn Is Bad is the start, middle and end of just about anything you read or hear.

Gail Dines gave a series of hysterical screeches when she visited Australia last year, the best of which was her appearance on Q&A. Not that she brought anything rational to the discussion, peppered as her pronouncements were with epithets such as Oh, yes, I've dealt with men like you before, but she did manage to burn gag on my cock dot com into my memory for, it seems, all time.

Melinda Tankard-Reist sees pornification in everything from actual porn to K-mart catalogues, making it difficult to determine if she's actually motivated by concern for women or is simply enacting the Madonna/whore obsession of her Taliban/Catholic religious beliefs.

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Auckland 'researchers' have been awarded almost $800,000 to study pornography.

The $790,000 study by University of Auckland staff will look at the relationship between pornographic movies and people's real lives, examine our views on it, how it reflects and impacts society, and will include studies on young men and women, an art exhibition, an interactive website and a public symposium.

When the grants were publicly announced, the pornographic study wasn't among those highlighted and on a full-list of grants it is innocuously described as a project examining public engagement towards a more inclusive and equitable society. Marsden Fund Council Chairman Professor Peter Hunter said no attempt was made to disguise the study, but admitted the project's working title was changed.

Writing about the project in the The University of Auckland News, Associate Professor of Psychology, Nicola Gavey, said after years of researching the cultural norms underpinning rape and with an ongoing interest in sexual violence prevention it has become clear to me that we collectively need to think a lot more carefully about the issue of pornography.

Gavey wrote despite widespread use, pornography occupies an awkward position when discussed publicly. But Gavey's position is more clearly signposted by her books eg Just Sex?: The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape.

Gavey is conducting her research along with psychology colleagues, Ginny Braun and Octavia Calder-Dawe, and Linda Tyler from the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery.

It rather seems that the 'results' of the 'research' have already been decided, the description of the work is hardly what one could call open minded:

• Calder-Dawe will work with groups of young men and women, to explore the ethical dilemmas posed by exploitative and aggressive forms of pornography.
   
• And in a wider collaboration, the group, along with artists and activists, will host an exhibition of artworks that call into question the prejudicial gaze of mainstream pornography.
   
• Dr Kim McGregor, Director of Rape Prevention Education, said it was fabulous an academic of Gavey's pedigree would research such a complex topic. She says given the known links between pornography and sexual violence Gavey's work was very important.