Labour councillor Anna Wright speaking at last night’s meeting

A WORLDWIDE glut of easy-to-access pornography is helping to fuel violence against women and girls (VAWG), a Labour councillor warned last night (Monday) – but she said nobody wants to talk about it.

Labour cabinet councillor Anna Wright was taking part in Camden’s VAWG summit held to find ways to stop further attacks.

“Pornography is not entertainment, promoting sexual liberation, free choice and free expression,” she said. “It’s a global campaign for the promotion of male power over women. misogyny, and inequality.

“We hear from our young men here in Camden – students at our Camden schools – so damaged by pornography that they can’t achieve sexual satisfaction without simulating strangulation of their girlfriends during sex.

“And our girls, by the same token, again to pornography to learn what’s expected of them sexually. We have all been groomed whether we know it or not by exposure to pornography. But we don’t even say it. We don’t name it.”

Cllr Wright told the all member session that Camden’s own report and the New Journal‘s special edition on VAWG had only made one reference to pornography once in the run-up to the meeting – this was Green councillor Sian Berry’s reference in the CNJ last week to police officers using it to “bully female colleagues”.

“Again and again, we find out that violent porn has been a factor in violent crimes against women. Thirty-five per cent of internet downloads are estimated to be porn,” she said.

“That’s more than Amazon, and pretty much anything else I can think of combined. And 90 per cent of the most commonly viewed heterosexual pornography includes aggression and violence towards women.”

Cllr Wright asked the council to “acknowledge the role of the pornography industry in promoting and normalising violence against women.”