Protecting Pornography
Introduction
During the 1950's there was a social movement against the pornography industry in Canada. Religious and Feminist groups were concerned about the harmful effects regarding the danger and degradation of women. The opposition to this movement was that pornography was a freedom of expression and sexual orientation. This brought about many political debates and controversies about what is ethically right and what is a personal freedom. This created many problems for the Canadian government on how to legislate pornography and up hold the Common Rights of Canada.
First Legislation on Obscenity and Criminal Law
In 1959 the Canadian government passed the first law regarding obscenity after a social movement by feminist groups. The Canadian law stated "For the purpose of the Act, any publication of a dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence shall be deemed obscene." The addition of this law did not settle the conflict between Liberals and Conservatives over the value of pornography and sex itself. Everything was based around one question: Were representations of sex socially and morally dangerous or sexually liberating?
Feminist Movement
During the 1980's another Feminist movement began because they felt the current law didn't do anything to protect women and it didn't criminalize pornography in any way. Feminist groups argued that pornography oppressed women and it would influence men to believe that this degrading behavior portrayed in adult entertainment is acceptable and something must be done to change it. However, not all Feminist believed in this movement. This particular group went under the name Feminist Against Censorship. This special group was opposed to censoring pornography because it would give power to the men in the Canadian government power to control women's rights: it's the epitome...
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