Questionnaire: Are you a porn person?

Attitudes towards pornography, censorship and sexual freedom say a lot about an individual's sexual adventurousness, inhibitions and open-mindedness. Pornography was one of the major battlegrounds for the culture wars that divided the Sixties when the definition of obscenity came under attack from both the repressive right and the militant left. Today, the debate has moved on; our society is much more tolerant of pornography, partly because of its ubiquity. Is porn mainly harmless and boring? Is the internet the world's largest sex aid? What would sex therapists and sperm banks do without it? Or does a critical danger remain? Where do you draw the line? Select ONE answer to each question.

1. In May of this year police in Sydney seized photographs that were part of an exhibition by Bill Henson, and which featured naked 13-year-old girls. Do you:

a. Agree with Australian premier Kevin Rudd, who described the photos as "absolutely revolting", and believe that the police were right to investigate Henson on charges of child pornography

b. Think that while a private gallery has the right to put on such an exhibition, public money should not be spent on such distasteful/controversial shows

c. Worry about the sexualisation of children in this instance, but defend artistic freedoms in general

d. Absolutely reject the Australian authorities' narrow-minded, heavy-handed populist attempts to censor Henson and close down artistic debate

2. Your local arthouse cinema is showing Deep Throat as part of a 1970s season. Friends beg you to accompany them to a screening. Would you:

a. Agree out of curiosity/mild nostalgia/kitsch porn chic

b. Get quite excited

c. Remember that Linda Boreman (aka Lovelace) says, "Virtually every time someone watches that movie, they're watching me being raped", and decline

d. Write to the manager to object, and consider picketing the cinema

3. You come home to find your partner half-undressed accessing a compromising website on the computer. How do you respond:

a. Undress and take over

b. Laugh

c. Worry about what it says about your relationship

d. Accuse him/her of being a vile person and consider ending the relationship

4. You catch your 16-year-old daughter looking at a brochure for genital piercings and extreme tattoos. Do you:

a. Snort with amusement at a typical teenage fad, and ask her not to do anything she might later regret

b. Figure she's old enough to do what she wants with her own body

c. Scream at her for falling into odious company

d. Sit down with her to explain why you never want to see her looking at a document like that again

5. You're on a wild weekend with your lover and he/she suggests looking at the Adult Channel. Do you:

a. Enthusiastically agree

b. Agree for his/her sake

c. Point out that your sex life is already great and doesn't need any pornographic help

d. Return home

Phillip Hodson is a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy www.bacp.co.uk; www.philliphodson.co.uk

Copyright 2008 Phillip Hodson