Bravo, Michael Plaxton, for writing this very enlightened commentary!

“The effectiveness of revenge porn as a form of, well, revenge, depends entirely on the perception that a person who engages in consensual sexual activity has done something shameful. Destroy that perception and one kicks the legs out from under the impetus to distribute revenge porn in the first place. Yet no one suggests that the government should take steps to transform the widely-held (if often implicit) attitude that people, particularly young women, who engage in sexual conduct have somehow degraded or diminished themselves and are therefore suitable subjects for mockery or humiliation. It is much easier to craft criminal legislation that addresses one effect of a slut-shaming culture.

To a point, that is fair enough. It is no small matter to change social norms, and we do not want to leave women exposed to public ridicule while we engage in the long and arduous process of education. In 1992, when the rape shield provisions were debated in Parliament, it was frequently argued that changes to the Criminal Code alone would not transform social attitudes treating women as passive sexual objects. Education was needed to change the culture at its core, and not only at its criminal edges.”

Read the full commentary here:

Canadian women deserve more than a ‘revenge porn’ law – The Globe and Mail.