It’s really hard to write anything this morning that isn’t just ‘DREAMS OF SPANKING’, because I am struggling to contain my excitement and delight: Dreams of Spanking is BACK. Pandora Blake, after a long and arduous fight against UK porn censorship, has now won the battle, and her incredible site – Dreams of Spanking – will soon be back online.
Dreams of Spanking and UK porn censorship
Imagine you’d put all your time, creative energy, love, and a hell of a lot of money into one amazing project. People told you that project was amazing, so you put more time and energy into it. It gets bigger. And better. And more awesome. Until it’s taken over not just your life but other people’s – people who work with you on it, support it, love it, share it with their friends…
Then you get an email that says you have to stop.
That’s what happened to Pandora Blake – feminist pornographer and owner of Dreams of Spanking. Last year, thanks to ATVOD (the Association for TV On Demand – an organisation that has since been shut down) that’s exactly what happened to Pandora.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know the back story – the way the UK government has taken steps to censor porn with a seemingly arbitrary and bizarrely patriarchal list of ‘things it’s not OK to do.’ Facesitting, for instance, or squirting or fisting. Throatfucking is fine, as is taking two cocks in your arse, but spanking, whipping, and anything which leaves more than ‘transient and trifling’ marks is not.
It’s shit, and ridiculous. But even more shit and ridiculous is the fact that ATVOD, in interpreting these rules, chose to pursue a disproportionate number of niche filmmakers and female filmmakers like Pandora. They looked at sites like Dreams of Spanking – a fairtrade, ethical website made by and for people who have spanking kinks – and decided that they were the ones to crush. Projects like Pandora’s, which were made with love, by people who enjoyed spanking, in a safe and consensual environment.
Pandora fought, and fought hard – with the help of others including the incredible Myles Jackman. And it was not an easy fight – as I mentioned above, Dreams of Spanking was a website which had taken a huge amount of time and energy to create. I’d been lucky enough to work with Pandora on the site for about a year and a half before ATVOD ordered it offline, and I cannot explain fully just how much passion, energy and love went into it behind the scenes, and how hard Pandora had worked to create something unique. To have that ripped from you must feel like the end of the world – I cannot imagine how devastated I would feel if someone took my blog away.
Dreams of Spanking – the good news
Well today Ofcom announced that it has upheld Pandora’s appeal, and her site can go back online. Just as words can’t express how gutted I was when it was taken down, so it’s hard to tell you just how delighted I am that Pandora can get the site back up again. Not just for all the people who loved it, or for the performers who worked on the most imaginative, beautiful spanking scenes. Not even as a simple ‘fuck you’ to a government that seems to be unable to understand concepts like ‘consent’ when it comes to porn.
No: I’m mostly delighted for those who found Pandora’s corner of the internet and breathed a sigh of relief, realising that they were not alone. The people who will now stumble across Dreams of Spanking and realise their spanking kink doesn’t make them freakish or weird – in fact it makes them part of a vibrant, warm community of fellow kinksters.
If you missed all this action, you can get an overview of the story at Pandora’s blog. And if you love spanking, you should follow @DreamofSpanking on Twitter so you can be among the first to sign up again when the site goes live soon. Oh, and if you think that fighting this battle and actually winning is a bloody tricky and impressive thing to do, then please go and congratulate @pandorablake on Twitter, and support her work campaigning for sexual freedom over on Patreon.
I’ll hand over to Pandora now:
“The point of Dreams of Spanking was to make ethical porn based on my own fantasies. I’m not ashamed of being kinky and there’s no harm in adults sharing consensual BDSM films. The AVMS regulations effectively criminalised my sexuality. I was singled out because I criticised the new laws. ATVOD tried to shut me up, but they failed.”
“Now I’ve won my appeal I feel vindicated. It proves that it’s worth standing up to bullies. The war against intrusive and oppressive state censorship isn’t over, but this decision is a landmark victory for feminist porn, diversity and freedom of expression.”
Do you want to help, or join in the celebrations? Please go to Dreams of Spanking and share the website link with anyone who might like it – the site will be open for new memberships later in the week. Support Pandora and other ethical pornographers by buying their work and shouting about it from the rooftops.
Pandora has kindly let me use a couple of pics to illustrate this blog, so I’ll end on a still from one of my favourite Dreams of Spanking films: the award-winning “Houseboy” – starring Pandora, gorgeous Tai Crimson, and lovely Eliza Grey (pictured below, wearing the expression I imagine ex-ATVOD staff will be making today, having learned that they’ve been thoroughly beaten).
Eliza Grey in ‘Houseboy’, videography by Matt Christie.
8 Comments
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This is fantastic news – for the site itself, for the legal principle it instils, & because it shines a light once more on the execrable politics wrapped up in the original bill & the dismal operations of the wretched ATVOD.
Consent is a fundamental principle of democracy as much as it is of sexual partnership – in the spheres of both political & sexual common life, we must retain the right to say “no” to that to which we do not give consent.
Great news. Christ, ATVOD were a bunch of… hmm, what’s a good derogatory word that doesn’t stigmatise a perfectly healthy body part? Anyway, hopefully this is a sign that Ofcom will show more sense than their late unlamented predecessor.
Spanking isn’t actually my cup of tea, but I’m happy for those who are into it, and can once again enjoy watching these films and being part of ‘a vibrant, warm community of fellow kinksters’ as you put it. I’ll go throw some money at Pandora’s Patreon instead.
Fantastic news ! I’ve followed Pandora’s blog over several years, and the entry where she told the world that she had been shut down was the second saddest thing I ever read on the net (first saddest was the sudden end of the lovely Poppy St Vincent’s blog).
Great news that she is back in business, and a real triumph – she just tackled the thing head on, and against the odds, won ! Apart from anything else, DoS was a small but significant bastion against the flood of US produced porn, where bigger, faster, harder, more, more, more seems to drive the production values !
Bend over take your punishment like a good girl
No.
What D said. Also, conveniently, a friend of mine wrote something about this very recently which you should definitely read gordon: http://carasutra.co.uk/2016/05/dont-call-baby-sexy-roleplay-complete-turn-off/
I am surprised that there are not more comments! This is great news. Now, what about a few other perfectly normal things being brought back? Dreams of squirting, anyone, or maybe dreams of facesitting?