‘Ban baton sex video’
Sunday Star-Times
11 March 2007, A4
A COMMUNITY standards lobby group is asking for a porn video featuring police batons used as “sex toys” to be banned in light of public outrage over historic allegations against police officers.
The Society for Promotion of Community Standards has applied for leave from the chief censor to have the classification of Big Boob Lesbian Cops II reconsidered.
This film – which features group sex and “humorous” role-plays involving police officers using batons as penetrative sex toys on women – was cleared for R18 release with no cuts in 1994.
After Prime Minister Helen Clark’s public condemnation of the sexual exploits of Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former policemen Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum from 20 years ago, and the “public outrage and disgust” at allegations women had been sexually degraded using police batons, the society wants the video banned, its secretary David Lane wrote in an open letter to the chief censor.
The three men were acquitted this month on kidnap and indecent assault charges relating to a teenage girl in the 1980s, having already been found not guilty last year of similar charges against Rotorua woman Louise Nicholas.
Shipton and Schollum were already in prison for raping a Mt Maunganui woman 18 years ago.
Under section 42 of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act (1993), a publication can be reclassified if there were “special circumstances” justifying reconsideration.
Chief censor Bill Hastings said anyone was entitled to ask for a classification to be reconsidered and the society’s request would be processed “in due course”. But he suggested the society’s move may backfire by giving the video free publicity.
[See Below for Copy of Society’s Letter to Chief Censor seeking leave]
The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc.
P.O. Box 13-683 Johnsonville
Press Release 9 March 2007
Society Wants Sex-Videos Mocking Police Banned
The Society wants the Chief Censor to overturn his decision that cleared sexually explicit videos for adult viewing that mock police and sexually degrade women. It has submitted an application to the Chief Censor Bill Hastings under s. 42(3)(b) of the Classification Act requesting that his Office reclassify videos that include degrading scenes in which police officers use police batons as penetrative ‘sex toys’ on women. Set out below is the open letter sent to Mr Hastings and copied to NZ Commissioner of Police, The Minister of Police, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of Internal Affairs and the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Open Letter to Mr Bill Hastings
Chief Censor of Film and Literature
Office of Film and Literature Classification, Wellington
9 March 2007
Application for Leave from Chief Censor: Reconsideration of publication “Big Boob Lesbian Cops #2” by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) under s. 42 (3)(b) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act (1993)
Dear Mr Bill Hastings
The Society seeks the leave of the Chief Censor under s. 42(3)(b) of the Act to have the classification of the video entitled “Big Boob Lesbian Cops #2” reconsidered. The OFLC Publication Ref. No. for this publication is 401313 and it was classified R18 with the descriptive note “Contains explicit sex scenes”. The OFLC decision was registered on 3 September 2004 and no excisions were recommended. The Society contends that the video should be banned or excisions made because of its degrading sexual content including the use of police batons as penetrative ‘sex toys’ on women, by aggressive police officers.
Reasons for seeking reclassification.
Background: Ss 3(3) and 3(4) of the Act. In determining for the purposes of the Act, whether or not any publication (other than one to which subsection (2) applies) is objectionable, particular weight is required to be given to the extent and degree to which and the manner in which the publication describes, depicts or otherwise deals with “sexual or physical conduct of a degrading or dehumanising or demeaning nature” [s. 3(3)(a)(iii)] and “degrades or demeans any person” [s. 3(3)(b)]. In addition, when determining whether a publication should be classified objectionable under s. 3(3), the censors are required to take into consideration “the dominant effect of the publication as a whole”.
The OFLC report recognised that the extensive “degrading effect” of the publication Lesbian Cops: it degraded and dehumanised its participants (women). As stated its classification as R18 was “based on the publication’s treatment of matters of sex”.
“Consideration has been given to the extent and degree to which the publication degrades and dehumanises its participants. This effect created through the extensive use of sustained close-up genital focus, and also the use of derogatory comment to refer to the female participants.” [Emphasis added]
However, the report goes on to contend that that the “occasional use of fuller body shots” of the women being degraded, the “inclusion of faces” of the women being degraded and “the humorous pretence of role-playing the policeman [who degraded the women using police batons etc] at the beginning of the scenes”, “mitigated” against the “degrading effect” of the publication. The Society is shocked at these findings. It contends that the reasoning used by your Office to provide justification for retention of this degrading material in an adult video is perverse and erroneous. However, it does understand why your censors, who appear to have become desensitised to such degrading sexual material, might find such depictions humorous.
Sexually explicit videos featuring aggressive police officers (in role-play) using police batons as penetrative sex toys on women have been cleared by you as Chief Censor and your deputy Ms Nicola McCully. The Society says “Big Boob Lesbian Cops #2” is a title typical of a genre of toxic and obscene garbage that your Office regularly clears for adult viewing “for the purpose of sexual arousal”. Hundreds of obscene sexually explicit DVDs and videos with titles like “The F### Factory” and “Anal Crackmaster”, that degrade, demean and dehumanise women have been passed under your watch as Chief Censor, without any cuts.
[Note: We remind you that a few years ago you viewed and cleared the French rape film “Baise-Moi” (translated “F###-Me”) for public screening in the now defunct Incredible Film Festival, without requiring any cuts; a film banned by Australian censors and cut in the UK. The film which the Society sought unsuccessfully to have cut or banned by the Review Board, is full of graphic sexual violence including a four-and-a-half minute explicit voyeuristic close-up of actual rape of a woman, showing vaginal and anal penetration accompanied by ‘arousal music’ typically used in sex scenes from hard-core porn films. The husband of the former Governor-General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, Peter Cartwright, still a member of the Review Board, was one who approved the film uncut for a general R18 release into mainstream New Zealand cinemas].
The Classification Office’s decision on the video “Lesbian Cops…” notes: “The feature mostly has an easy and relaxed tone, except the role-plays are simulating the stereotypical attitude of the ‘tough cop’.” The “rather humorous role-play … often puts the police character in a position of dominance” [Emphasis added]. The camera gives “much time to close-up and extreme close-up footage of the [sexual] activity… The genital area and associated activity are explicit and take up most of the screen”. The degrading nature of the content is highlighted including … “The use of a police baton as a dildo (‘sex toy’) is degrading too, as it presents an object usually seen as an authoritative weapon, as a penetrative sex toy… a variety of wooden and plastic dildos are used throughout the sex scenes.” The video includes numerous trailers depicting sexual activities “including double penetration (simultaneous vaginal and anal intercourse by two men on one woman), and ejaculation onto women’s faces. Scenes such as women kneeling with her face raised for the ejaculate of two men, and vigorous, double penetration depictions, give the trailers a harder edge than the feature”.
S. 42(3)(b) Special Circumstances justifying reconsideration of the decision.
In the wake of the Prime Minister Helen Clark’s public condemnation of the group sex engaged in by suspended Assistant Police Superintendent Clint Richard and his two senior police colleagues (both now convicted rapists), over 20 years ago (she called his activities “unethical”); and the public outrage and disgust at the allegations made by rape victims of these men sexually degrading them using police batons; the Society contends that this video should be banned. It features role plays involving police officers using police batons as penetrative sex toys on women, group sex trailers involving double penetration etc. and gratuitous and graphic depictions of vaginal and anal penetrative sex acts. Under the law such publications that have the effect of sexually degrading, demeaning and dehumanising women should be banned.
We await your response to our request to grant the Society leave under s. 42(3) to have the classification decision issued by your Office on “Big Boob Lesbian Cops #2” reconsidered, as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely
David Lane
Secretary
Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc.
On Behalf of Society Executive
cc. Hon. Annette King, Minister of Police
Rt Hon. Helen Clark, Prime Minister.
Hon. Rick Barker, Minister of Internal Affairs
Secretary of Internal Affairs, Mr Christopher Blake.
NZ Police Commissioner Howard Broad.
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