BAN THIS SICK FILTH: The TROUBLEfilms Guide to the UK Porn Ban by Kitty Stryker

(This was originally posted at CourtneyTrouble.com, it was written by Kitty Stryker and well it's freaking great.  Please enjoy.--HK)

The title of this article is a bit of a joke at the expense of British tabloids – for more history of British film censorship, read this. 

December 1st saw the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 introduced in the UK,a series of porn censorship guidelines that seem to want to save women and children from the evils of pornography by… banning sexual expressions that many women find pleasurable?

Yes, we’re confused too.

So called “extreme pornography”, which seems to include many more acts shown in queer porn than acts shown in mainstream porn, is considered of particular danger to children who may stumble across it. The new laws are guided by surveys of public attitudes and what is considered potentially “morally harmful” by the British Board of Film Censors. This means fisting and squirting are off the table to view or to film, though they’re legal to do at home. These censors also deem throat-fucking and vomiting to be perfectly wholesome, which seems like some arbitrary line-drawing to us!

Currently these rules seem to apply mostly to content produced in the UK. However, the regulators ATVOD apparently also want to prevent non-UK porn companies from selling content to British consumers unless they get a special license stating the site’s age verification checks were in place. That’s a decision which, if it goes through, would possibly mean sites that provide free previews of paid content, like Indie Porn Revolution and Queer Porn TV, could be blocked entirely. With 5% of our sales coming from the UK, preventing British consumers from purchasing our work is concerning to us. Never mind that without a credit card to confirm age, access to queer porn will be limited only to the privileged.

Groups like Backlash and Sex and Censorship are working in the UK to educate people about these guidelines, and a mass facesitting happened on Friday to protest the censorship. One woman, Mistress Tytania, actually took the ATVOD to court with the argument that their rules apply to television, and her porn site was artistic expression – she won the case, becoming the only UK site to operate outside of the ATVOD rules. Another person who has been very vocal about porn and censorship has been lawyer Myles Jackman, also known to our delight as @ObscenityLawyer – do follow him to hear more about these regulations and their effects.

We wanted to offer solidarity here at TROUBLEfilms, and felt inspired to give our fans a more… in depth, example-based breakdown of the kind of content being banned. So we’ve scrounged through our archives to bring you a hot porn scene for each act on the bullet list. Consider yourself informed!

Spanking

Spanking is showing up in bedrooms more and more (or maybe we’re just hearing about it more) so the idea of banning porn featuring it seems… well, rather silly to us!

Betty Blac and Kitty Stryker have some back and forth spanking as well as a lot of giggling in this piece filmed for the Feminist Porn Awarded Best Dyke Film 2014, Hard Femme.

Open hand spanks turn to punching in this switch off tussle to see who gets the… dare we say it, upper hand?

Caning

As often caning scenes end up with marks potentially considered not “trivial or transient”, it is considered to be “grievous bodily harm”. Paddling, seen here, can have similar results.

Ok, ok, we admit it- we’re woefully lacking in any caning scenes, and here in the TROUBLEfilms office we’re committed to fixing this atrocity. In the meantime, we penitently offer this incredibly hot scene between real life couple Rex and Mademoiselle, as Mademoiselle lets Rex choose the implements of his painful pleasure.

Aggressive whipping

As discussed above, the law doesn’t really clarify what is considered “aggressive whipping”, so we’ll have to assume that it would depend on a jury what would be considered “gentle” and therefore acceptable and what would be considered “aggressive” and banned.

Sara Vibes, International Ms. Leather 2011, gives Deanna a whipping in this kinky clip- I guess you’ll have to decide whether it’s gentle or aggressive! Deanna certainly seems to enjoy it, either way, and the trust here is delicious.

Penetration by any object “associated with violence”

This is yet another act on the list that requires definition and doesn’t have much. We can assume that fake guns, knives, and But we’ve seen a lot of porn, and we’re curious- are baseball bats ok? What about penises (whether flesh or silicone), which some second wave feminists consider violent by nature?

Akira Raine, meanwhile, cares not for this debate as she penetrates herself with a knife in this hot solo scene from Bordello. Sensuously slicing her clothes off her body, she slowly slides the knife against her labia lips before sliding it inside her.

What were we talking about again?

Physical or verbal abuse (regardless of if consensual)

This rule is particularly concerning, and strange. Why does it specifically underline that consent of the adult, contracted participants not matter? We might not mind if Big Brother is watching us get up to all sorts of filth, but when Big Brother starts to call the shots for us, we call that doubleplusbad.

We HAD to include this queer porn classic in our lineup. Puck Goodfellow calls Juliette March all sorts of names, slaps her face and makes her beg in this carefully negotiated abduction scene. There’s dirty talk, and then there’s this, which has us squirming in our seats as we cultivate this list. See the hardship we endure to educate our fans? You’re welcome.

Urolagnia (known as “water sports”)

Who’s afraid of watersports?

A lot of people, apparently, as it’s consistently considered worth censoring. It’s because of this reaction to piss play that squirting is so often banned, because censors can’t tell which fluid is which on camera.

Judy Minx and Tina Horn don’t seem to mind in this clip, though! These two take turns playing with their fluids in the bathroom after a hot and heavy scene.

Female ejaculation

As mentioned above, female ejaculation has been considered taboo for quite a while. For years people didn’t believe it existed, somewhat like a unicorn. Even after female ejaculate fluid has been tested for its chemical makeup and found to not be urine, there was still debate.

We can definitively confirm that yes, squirting is real. Very very real. And Courtney Trouble gets a faceful of it from Zahra Stardust in this femme facial scene that sees both femmes in the slash zone by the end.

Strangulation

Lorelei Lee quivers under Tomcat’s hands as he puts one in her cunt and one around her throat in this scene from Speakeasy. Having a hand wrapped around the throat during sex is something a lot of kinky people enjoy, even if it is dangerous. It’s worth noting that while strangulation is off limits, gagging during a blow job is still considered perfectly fine. Interesting.

It’s hard to argue with the British Board of Film Censors argument that it’s potentially life-threatening… but the next two acts are ALSO banned for being potentially life-threatening, and we think that’s absurd.

Fisting

Well. As cofounders of International Fisting Day, we obviously really, really love fisting over here. We love it so much we even made some free content featuring it! Yet fisting is often considered inherently violent (and now, apparently, life-threatening). We have to cut fisting content out of scenes in order to be distributed, or to show at many erotic film festivals. It’s considered obscene by credit card companies. We consider it intimate and erotic, ourselves.

Jacques LeFemme moans and whimpers as he gets fisted by Hayley Fingersmith in this intense and romantic houseboy/goddess scene filled with hot power dynamics and orgasms.

Facesitting

Facesitting is categorized, apparently, as a type of asphyxiation now, rather than another position for oral sex. Betti Rubble sits on Chelsea Poe’s face in an epic scene for the upcoming movie Courtney Trouble’s Trans Lesbians! These two have a scene that’s as playful as it is kinky, with Betti keeping Chelsea on a tight leash.

The fact that facesitting is considered dangerous makes us wonder if the BBFC believes vagina dentata are real (if they are, btw, contact us, we want to shoot a porn with you!)

Well, there you have it: the 10 banned acts and reasons why we love shooting them all. You can get access to all these clips by joining the Courtney Trouble Fan Club, or pick up our DVDs in our store.

We hope the British are coming… but they may want to pick up these scenes now while they still can!

(All images here appear courtesy of CourtneyTrouble.com.  Stay in touch with the world of lovely Kitty Stryker by visiting her site.)