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ABSTRACT
This article explores the engagement of feminists in Sri Lanka with the question of pornography. The article looks at some of the ways in which feminist scholars in Sri Lanka have written about sexuality, sex work and freedom of expression, as a way of engaging with the gaps and nuances in Lankan feminist discourse and debate, if any, about pornography. The article explores how state prohibition and social stigma about sexuality inform the conditions within which expressions of sexuality and the production and dissemination of erotic material takes place in Sri Lanka, and how, at times, feminist and/or women’s rights interventions themselves support or impede the process.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks all who sat down for a conversation in the writing of this article: Paba Deshapriya, Sachini Perera, Zainab Ibrahim, Jayanthi Kuru Utumpala and Sanjana Hattotuwa. Gratitude also goes to Sinn Sage for the time spent talking across time zones. The author owes a debt of gratitude to all feminist academics and activists, both those named in this article and those not, who are working hard for sexuality to be understood as a critical feminist issue, who are advocating for the rights of sex workers, and for freedom of expression, including sexual expression, online and on the ground. Huge thanks to Darshana Sreedhar Mini and Anirban Baishya for making sure the author stayed the course and for their patient and thoughtful edits. Deep gratitude to Kimaya de Silva, who supported the development of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 When I use the term ‘Lankan feminist’ I do not do this to assert national identity, but simply to add context. I refer here to a broader body of work which may include work which has studied varying Sri Lankan contexts through a feminist lens, and/or has been collaborations between researchers from other contexts and feminist researchers in Sri Lanka (who may or may not be ‘Sri Lankan’).
2 Interview with Paba Deshapriya, 3 November 2020.
3 Interview with Thishya Weragoda, 13 January 2021.
4 ‘DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST SHAKTHIKA SATHKUMARA’, Amnesty International, 24 August 2020, https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/65823/action/1?locale=en-US.
5 Interview with Sanjana Hattotuwa, 11 November 2020.
6 An online, tri-lingual resource platform on sexuality, violence, and sexual health: http://www.bakamoono.lk.
7 ‘A queer porn movie can have various porn scenes that include people who might be trans, femme, boi, fag, cisgender, queer and more. The range of diverse representations is a lot greater than in mainstream productions; in queer works, you’ll find performers of all sizes, a higher percentage of people of colour, and different displays of gender expression. There’s too much to categorize. Boxes fly out the window’ (Lee Citation2013, 277).
8 See https://www.winsl.net.
9 Available on both Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Women and Media Collective sites: https://womenandmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Disrupting-the-Binary-Code-_-for-web.pdf.
10 The Social Scientists’ Association published a collection of Cat’s Eye articles in a book edited by Malathi de Alwis in Citation2000.
12 See https://deletenothing.org/.
13 Interview with Sachini Perera, Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Zainab Ibrahim, 13 November 2020.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Interview with Paba Deshapriya, 3 November 2020.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 ‘Google searches for sex; SL tops list again’, Daily Mirror, 8 December 2016, http://www.dailymirror.lk/120457/Google-searches-for-sex-SL-tops-list-again.
22 Ibid.