The Sex(y) Boy and Treasure Island Media

The controversial TIM poster

If you consider yourself the most controversial bareback porn company in the world, how to stay in the news?  How do you remain 'controversial'?  In practical terms this arguably means being ever more outrageous, more shocking and more scandalous.  A remorseless engine of filth and depravity.  Yet, rather like Jaws: The Revenge, there comes a point when things just don't work anymore.  It's a sequel too far.

I'm not sure we're there with Treasure Island Media (TIM) yet - they are a loved brand which continues to operate in the counter-cultural space of bareback sex - but the pressure is undoubtedly there to keep being controversial.

Yet, any such pressure could be ephemeral or indeed, misguided.  As long as legislators and judges keep seeking to use law as a tool to limit, and potentially criminalise bareback sex, TIM will be able to claim the role as counter-cultural icons.  Given the widespread practising of bareback sex within same-sex encounters, they are also able to be 'popular' counter-cultural icons.  A double win.

Moreover, simply being there and being the celebrated stuff of masturbatory sessions across the globe is not, and has never been enough for TIM (NSFW).  I was therefore fascinated to see them seek to associate themselves with another taboo act in recent weeks.  The taboo of taboos.  The big daddy of controversy.  Yes, inter-generation sex.

Legally defined typically as paedophilia when involving children, inter-generational sex remains the social horror of our time.  To label someone as a paedophile is to pronounce them socially and potentially physically dead.  They are transformed into the ultimate evil within society.  Our understanding of paedophilia is increasingly nebulous, encompassing someone who accidentally downloads a paedophile image alongside another who rapes a child.  Whilst we can accept that someone might want to watch The Sopranos and not seek to become a mob boss, Weeds and become a (fairly useless) drug dealer with cute kids or Hung and seek to become a wooden (in every sense) male escort, or indeed, even if we aspire to any of these things, we won't actually do it; we can not contemplate even curiosity around the image of someone under 18 years old.  This is is despite English law finding is acceptable to sleep with someone aged above 16 (shag 'em, just don't take a picture).  It is indeed a curious socio-legal landscape.

The original Edelfelt painting

Yet, despite this, I've been struck by the way in which social media - notable Twitter most recently - has enabled those aged below 18 and indeed, below 16 to express their sexual desires, arrange hook-ups and document their sexual encounters.  Similarly, uncertainty and fears are sometimes expressed.  In short, human beings and their complex sexual awakenings are laid bare.

Into this fascinating cultural maelstrom enters TIM, apparently deliberately seeking to play with the issue of age.

At the start of the month, TIM uploaded a poster on their social media sites promoting a new film release entitled Return to Meat Rack (it's a sequel but hopefully better than Jaws IV).  It depicted two boys playing with boats on a lake or by the sea.  The young boys and the composition evokes innocence, a deliberate counter-point to the function of the poster - promoting a film about men fucking.  To date, the postings on Facebook have resulted in 76 comments from TIM followers and fans with a mix of reactions but many are negative, suggesting that TIM have gone 'too far'.

It's through these comments however that we learn (thanks to one culture vulture fan) that the picture is in fact from Albert Edelfelt and a quick Googling reveals the picture to be dated from around 1885, an oil on canvas production and entitled 'Boys playing on the beach' (Leikkiviä poikia rannalla).  Interestingly, there is a third boy in the original picture (see above) who is edited out of the TIM composition.

An earlier TIM poster depicting a 'child'

None of this is entirely new however. TIM previously published rejected posters from years gone by including one allegedly of a young (rather affluent looking) Paul Morris, aged 8 on a scooter (pictured right).  The slogan - which apparently deliberately evokes inter-generational behaviour - states 'A Better World One Boy at a Time'.  Boy is one of those words that can be taken to mean a male child but which is also used extensively - especially in 'gay' circles - to denote a young male - typically twinkish looking which is to say slim, smooth, well errr, boyish.  A twinkly boy is OK to lust after, whilst a real one isn't.

All of which are broad points I've made before but it is TIM utilising the idea of age and hidden desire as a marketing tool which is fascinating and new.

They apparently believe - and I think they are right - that just as homosexuality, then bareback sex were desires which have had complex social and legal relationships, so too is inter-generational sex.  Put simply, they think that gay men probably quite like boys more than we'd care to admit.  Such is the history of claims that homosexuals were out to 'take your children' that once again a silence is imposed for social and political reasons within the gay community - and the point I accept at the start of this paragraph will be toxic for many.

Jackson Taylor

Yet, leaving that aside, there is the less radical, but perhaps no less controversial idea that children can be sexual beings.  This is the revelation that social media already offers to anyone willing to see it, and raising difficult social and legal questions about consent and contemporary domesticity.

Morris has a Flickr page (NSFW) where he uploads some wonderful images freely available to all those who pass through an age barrier.  What always makes these photos so engaging - at least for me - is the use of captioning.  This allow the viewer to be located in the moment and somehow lends greater power to the image.  Much as when we look at a photo we have taken or were present for, we add an inward dimension to the image - context and emotion  - so too, do these captions add something.  His latest model obsession  -and potentially hit - for the studio is a twenty year old man/boy called Jackson Taylor (pictured left).  Morris has uploaded several pictures of Jackson and he comments under one image: 'I said "I'm thinking of signing you on. What do you think?" He responded "If you get me fucked all the time, I'll sign the contract in blood." If you saw him at the next table in a restaurant you'd think he was the picture of innocence and naivete. But this boy is one of the most voracious sexual predators I've ever met. We signed the contract before he'd even put his clothes back on.'

In this and a number of other comments, Jackson is anchored as a sexual being of today. Seeing Jackson getting fucked in Manfuck Manifesto (see more here, possibly NSFW) viewers of TIM pornography are left in no doubt about that sexual status.  Yet, we also have Morris posting on his photos (under the Jackson image reproduced above) the following fascinating text: 'I asked "How old were you when you started fucking?" He said "I was four. I seduced the 12-year-old twins who lived next door." I responded "Precocious--if it's true." He looked at me like this and said "Believe it or not, but it's true." He's 19 and has an understanding of sex that's truly rare.'

So now Jackson is a sexual being since four, and moreover, a sexual predator since four.  There is no question that he is the abused, or the 'victim'.  Defining him as the predator, and Jackson using the term predator - to denote an encounter with older boys - locate him as the individual with power.

This photo on Morris' Flickr page was uploaded on February 12th but it wouldn't have been a total surprise to TIM fans who might have noticed this post (NSFW) on TIM's Island website (this evolved out of their blog) which appeared on February 8th.  It introduces us to Jackson and his story.  It states:

Born in rural Sicily a scant 19 years ago, JACKSON TAYLOR (born Giuseppe Bontade) began his career as a primo fuckisto at the tender age of four. “I knew what I wanted to do from very early on,” says Mr. TAYLOR. “Our neighbors in Sicily had a pair of twins—they were 12. They gave me my first experience, my prima apertura, my grand opening. The affair lasted nearly a year.” Forced to flee their native village by irate clergy and outraged villagers, Mr. TAYLOR’s family took their precocious son to America, land of the free and willing. “Once we reached the Land of Opportunity, it’s pretty much been a straight-up path to Treasure Island Media for me. Of course it’s been my lifelong dream.” When Mr. TAYLOR approached T.I.M., the welcome was warm. “I know genius when I fuck it,” quipped porn legend PAUL MORRIS. “This boy may be slight of stature, but his bunghole can take anything we give it.” When asked about future dreams, Mr. TAYLOR wrinkled his boyish nose, shrugged coquettishly and said, “I dunno… Donkeys and dogs, maybe! And I like cheerleading.” JACKSON seems to be on a mission to take every load in America. We’re not wasting any time helping him! Watch him getting plowed by Ethan Wolfe in his TIM premiere, MANFUCK MANIFESTO.

So, here we have the 12 year old twins again (yes, incest is subtly hinted at too) and then we move into a blurb that seems to have been written by someone who has spent too long watching bad daytime soaps.  It's hard not to raise an eyebrow or a chuckle at the 'forced to flee' section.  This does of course also serve to cast doubt over the whole story but true or otherwise, TIM are making use of it and as with so many things that TIM do, truth as a fixed permanent concept must be abandoned in favour of a postmodern framework.  In the final section of the Jackson blurb we move into the positioning of Jackson as boyish, with innocence deployed to denote youth.  A sex(y) boy clearly and, his media persona suggests, a slutty one at that.

TIM started 2011 with a determination to push HIV positive porn and that - to my surprise - didn't work out.  This year, they are not stating they re trying to push a new area of controversy but there can be little doubt that like the boys in the Edelfelt picture, they are dipping their toes in the water.  This is one to watch with implications well beyond the world of bareback porn.

A BoyLover's Glossary

One of the interesting aspects of my law and sexuality class (there are of course, many) is the use of language.  Every new cohort is a reminder of the importance of language around sexuality and the specialist terms and subtleties of use associated with words.  Take the 'twink'; the smooth slim youthful sugary gay male or alternatively the 'bear'; the hairy, large build, 'masculine' gay identity.  Cottaging, dogging, BDSM, kink, frottage, rimming, and so on are examples of the terms that every year need some degree of explanation.  The growth of the Internet has meant that we have a whole level of new 'words' and terms, and boy love - intergenerational male for male sex is no exception.

Sometimes defined as paedophilia (although an imprecise term) this site - A BoyLover's Glossary - documents the language that is used within this network - and is clearly intended for self-identified boy lovers.  So we get the familiar LOL but we also see TBL for teen boy lover or  PVF for plain vanilla faggot (someone who is not a boy lover - a 'plain' gay).   You can view the site in full here.

It is essentially a net speak glossary of boy love and links to a couple of 'pro boy love sites' so it's fairly clear to see the angle the site designer is coming from.  There's nothing explicit or shocking on the site although I'm sure the terms will seem uncomfortable for some.  Nonetheless, in an area that concerns so many, but for which the light is rarely shone, this site is an important information resource.

Rebekah Brooks and Fitness to Lead

The phone hacking story is gathering momentum and events will no doubt have moved on in the brief time I sit and write this post. What's curious from the point of view of this blog is the way that Rebekah Brooks has sought to defend herself today. She's been silent (thus far) on the airwaves but did release a written statement which you can read in full here.

About three-quarters of the way through her statement, she seeks to define her tenure at News of the World in the following terms:

'I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.

I am proud of the many successful newspaper campaigns at the Sun and the News of the World under my editorship.

In particular, the 10-year fight for Sarah's Law is especially personal to me.

The battle for better protection of children from paedophiles and better rights for the families and the victims of these crimes defined my editorships.'

I heard this with disbelief. During the period that Wade refers to, News of the World shamelessly fuelled a moral panic around paedophilia and inter-generational sex in the name of profits. Together with other tabloid papers (notably fellow Murdoch paper, The Sun - and which she also went on to edit) it sought to dominate the media with endless scare-mongering. It has been widely accepted to have linked to one incident in which vigilantes attacked the home of a hospital paediatrician after apparently confusing her professional title with the word 'paedophile'. Remind yourself of that story here.

That moral panic has continued to frame the debate around paedophilia, limiting policy development and hampering intellectual and academic exploration of the complex issues in this area. Few academics are brave to talk about this issue, and fewer still are willing to challenge accepted wisdom in the field thanks to campaigns such as the one run by Brooks and the News of the World. Such was the extreme nature of these fear feeding frenzies that Brass Eye satirised the media's treatment of this issue in 2001 - see that here.

That doesn't sound like something I'd want to highlight as my finest hour, or to define me as the sort of person I am. In fact, it seems to suggest someone who would exploit vulnerable people for their own profitable cause. Whether that applies explicitly to Brooks is for others to decide but her defence today, I would suggest, raises fresh questions about the ethics of media leaders.

What is clear however, is that it is a shameless mischaracterisation of history to now define that period of journalism as anything other than the shameless fuelling of a moral panic for commercial gain.

Sexting Youths

The New York Times carried a fascinating piece at the weekend exploring the challenge that 'sexting' is increasingly posing for US states. Sexting, is where a nude (pornographic) picture of oneself might be sent to someone else over a mobile network. Accoridng to the NY Times, some states have amended their statutes on child pornography, obscenity or Internet crimes. Many allow juvenile offenders to be charged with a misdemeanor or a lesser offense, so they can qualify for diversion programs and have their records expunged. A few states have tried to define a sexting offense. The NY Times also did some interviews with teenagers which you can read here.

It's a nightmare for English lawmakers too, challenging our simplistic notions of who is and who isn't a paedophile. It's perfectly legal for a 16 year old to consent to sexual activity under English law, but if they take a pornographic photograph of themselves, that amounts to child pornography - and such images can easily be circulated beyond their originally intended audience.

Although this story focuses upon 'sexting', it's worth also bearing in mind the growing role that Twitter can potentially have for the distribution of these images - encouraging as it does rapidly evolving networks. I don't have the solution but I do know it means the legal notion of what a paedophile is, and what wider society understands by that term, is increasingly disconnected.

Operation Rescue and the Boy Lover Bust

Thanks to @LawFag for making me aware of this story a few moments ago. The BBC are reporting that Police from around the world say they have broken up the largest Internet paedophile ring yet discovered. According to the report, detectives say 170 people have so far been arrested - and 121 of them were in the UK. Clearly, more arrests are to follow. Some 60 children have been 'protected' in the UK. Interestingly, the report indicates that the whole operation has been based on infiltrating one online site/network. The members of the network apparently went into a private channel, boylover.net, and then used its secret systems to share films and images. The Police were present within these networks and posed as paedophiles to gather intelligence.

The vast spread of ages amongst paedophiles is once again demonstrated with the revelation that in the UK, the 240 suspects are aged between 17 and 82 years old. They include police officers, youth leaders and teachers. No indication is given of gender, but it would be reasonable to assume the majority will be men.

I remarked on Twitter that I know a number of academics who want to question the current policy and policing approach but daren't for fear of being labelled as themselves possessing some 'abnormal' tendencies. I've always steered clear of this area of research but I do find it worthy of comment to observe that the police were active in the network. It will be interesting to see the extent to which the police actively encouraged the sharing of information and photography over this network. Did the Police themselves engage in acts of image distribution and reproduction in order to entice the suspects into exchanging information and images? This is a real sticky wicket for law but such nuances are lost on the public and the media. Consequently, such arguments are unlikely to get very far in a court-room.

Censored transcripts have been published in the US of some investigations. It would be interesting to see similar transcripts of this investigation. Similarly, I'm struck by the high-number of children that seem to have been, in the language of the police 'rescued'. This suggests a far closer linkage between image sharing and 'real-world' criminal activity than is ordinarily assumed. A final aspect that shines out, is the use of 'boylover'. In America thanks to the long-established North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), the term 'boy lover' is much more established in the public consciousness and associated with paedophilia. This is (I think) the first time the term has been used in such a high profile way within the British media. it will be interesting to see the long-standing effect that has.

Clearly, more detail has yet to come out, but I think there's going to be a lot more discussion in the media as we move from investigation into prosecution. The Police will be hoping that the mere news of these arrests and the way the operation has been conducted will scare the hell out of many paedophiles, and those interested (in whatever way) with inter-generational sex. I suspect many boylover sites will see a short-term drop in access but it's foolish to think that people who have a sexual orientation towards children will be 'scared' out of that orientation in a long-term way. This remains a difficult and complex area that lawmakers and the police are barely scratching the surface of.

Tom Daley, Twitter and the Paedophile Paradigm

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days - you know I have these 'patches' from time to time. Before I do get on with those blog posts, a thought has been pre-occupying me today. This morning I picked up my Guardian from the doormat in the usual way and noticed the front of the Weekend Magazine had a picture of the diver Tom Daley. "Gosh he's a sexy young man" I thought before thinking "behave Chris he's sixteen!". I was left feeling quite guilty but then put it out of my mind. Later, I took a look at Twitter to find my feed was full of posts about Tom Daley. People were going out and buying the Guardian just to look. Others were swooning through their tweets. My own reaction was apparently shared to one degree or another by many others.

Tom Daley - even prior to turning sixteen was the boy gay men could legitimately "fancy". Why is this so? Why is acceptable (with mild teasing) to publicly say "wow, he's fit" in a way we can not about other 16/15 year olds? Later on I read the interview. Take a look at it yourself (and see the cover picture of Daley) here and see what you make of it. I was struck by just how childish Daley sounds in the post. He sounds like a kid. It's an interesting juxtaposition of photograph and textual narrative. I'd be interested in hearing other thoughts.

Inside a Vagina with Gaspar Noé

Rather engaging interview with the filmmaker, Gaspar Noé in the Guardian today. He discusses his latest film Enter the Void which apparently does include at one point a shot from inside a vagina of someone having sex. He goes on to discuss the distinction/blurring of pornography and film. The film also seems to play around with the taboo of incest. I've posted the trailer below (not suitable for epileptics) and the whole piece can be read here.

The Further Advance of Sarah's Law *UPDATED*

Sarah's Law, English law's answer to the US Megan's Law is being further rolled out across England. The London Evening Standard reports that from tomorrow, the scheme will be rolled out to eight other force areas - West Mercia, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Thames Valley, West Midlands, Essex and Suffolk.

It is intended that Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Sussex, Leicestershire, Wiltshire, Cheshire, Durham, Northumbria, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire will all join the scheme in the Autumn.

Put simply, 'Sarah's Law' gives a parent the right to check with police if anyone with regular unsupervised access to their children has a criminal conviction for child sex offences.

I was opposed to the introduction of Sarah's Law. It remains in my view a poor solution to a misdiagnosed problem. It's a tribute to how a moral panic can result in bad law. I continue to fear that this scheme lures parents into a false security about new partners and allows us off the hook as a society in truly resolving our issues around consent in sexual relationships.

Despite this, my worst fears about the law do not appear to have been realised. Current trials in Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Hampshire and Warwickshire have not resulted in lynch mobs on our streets although equally, it's unclear how effective the measures have been in protecting children from abuse.

*UPDATE* The media this morning have obviously been briefed on this story by the Home Office since the Evening Standard piece was produced. Both the BBC and Sky are reporting that 60 children had been protected from abuse during the pilot scheme.

The BBC goes on to state that nearly 600 inquiries to the four forces involved in the pilot led to 315 applications for information and 21 disclosures about registered child sex offenders.

A further 43 cases led to other actions, including referrals to children's social care, and 11 general disclosures were made regarding protection issues linked to violent offending, the Home Office has apparently said.

It also interesting to see from the Sky piece that the NSPCC continue to share my concerns about the scheme. However, I don't see the tide being turned back on this. I hope that the Home Office will at least have the decency to publish the information it has released to the media on its website so that academics and the public can examine the trial data. At the time of this update, it is irritatingly absent from the Home office website.

The BBC also includes an excellent piece exploring Sarah's Law and 'five scenarios'. Well worth a look.

Inter-generational Sex: Brooke Shields and Roman Polanski

Two stories have been peculating away during the last week that both explore the issue of inter-generational sex and our apparently confused response to this controversial subject. The Tate Modern has started a new show called Pop Life but the police turned up ("yet again" I hear you say) and following their appearance one of the exhibits was removed. The exhibit in question was a picture of Brooke Shields taken in 1983 (the top part is pictured right). The Telegraph art critic, Richard Dorment described the picture as: 'it takes the form of a ready-made or found object – a publicity photograph showing the prepubescent actress Brooke Shields naked, her body wet from the bath. What's more, her hair has been elaborately done and she is wearing so much lipstick, mascara and eye shadow that it looks as though the head of a 25-year-old Playmate had been spliced on the body of a child. The original photo was commissioned with the approval of the child's mother who, as her manager, allowed it to be published in the soft porn magazine Sugar n' Spice as a tactic to get her daughter noticed and so further her career'. Read the full review here.

It takes literally seconds to find the full picture online and you are left wondering why the Police felt the need to take this action, whilst recognising that the picture does have a powerful affect. The idea that hoards of paedophiles are going to gather at the Tate Modern for a quick wank is absurd (although that does sound like an intriguing piece of performance art). Given this is also a piece of art that was made in 1983 and has hung quite happily without incident in New York's Guggenheim for years, creates even greater confusion. Are law officials more cultured in New York? Are they more immoral? It's bonkers.

At the same time, the film-maker Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland. Something even the Nazis managed to avoid. The offence, having un-lawful sex with a 13 year old back in 1977. Whoopi-Goldberg's quote "it wasn't rape rape" has been seen as totemic of a Hollywood that rapidly came to his defence but as Paul Harris notes in The Observer today, opinion now seems to be shifting against him, even in Hollywood. Had Roman Polanski been a cleaner or an office worker, you wonder if it would have taken over 30years to catch up with him? He wasn't exactly hiding away.

Both stories, stretching over the decades, reveal shifting attitudes and shifting truths. For Postmodernists, these provide excellent examples of the flawed nature of 'truth' and the difficulties in debating, analysing and resolving issues such as inter-generation sex. Maureen Freely write an excellent thoughtful piece in The Guardian yesterday in which she wrote '[Children's essential rights to express themselves sexually] is an argument I recall hearing from the more radical sectors in pre-AIDS San Francisco in the late 70s. Why should children be left out of the fun? Why was it always left to their uptight parents to set the rules? Couldn't the age of consent be brought down to reflect the actual state of play?'. For me, Freely's most interesting observation was:

'For the past 20 years, we have had child abuse scandals every day for breakfast. That is why the Polanski story looks so much different now. That is why the photograph of Shields nude aged 10 can cause such discomfort, 34 years after the fact. When we look back, what we see first is what we didn't know then.'

The full article can be read here.

'Porn addicts, sex offenders, rapists, paedophiles': The Story of Forensic Psychotherapy

The Observer carries a very interesting and informative article today relating to 'forensic psychotherapy' and the Portman Clinic in London. It's an extensive piece and examines a number of cases.

Intergenerational Sex

A second story in the NOTW is a story about a relationship between 45year old Glyn Trowbridge and a 16 year old Lisa Wright. I can't imagine why, but they seem to have done an interview with the paper in which they talk about the number of times they have sex. Not that the NOTW would ever use that against them - oh no. lol. In principle I don't have an objection to inter-generational sex between consenting adults but I do wonder when the relationship began - given the girl is now 16 and regardless of her age, what are the power differentials? That said, in an age when British young people are increasingly street wise and are engaging in sexual acts at ever earlier ages they do appear to be able to consent. Even if it is to bugger up their lives.

Read the story at: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2505_trowbridge.shtml