PARIS, France—Over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, but one section of the speech, and a tweet that Macron posted afterwards, made French-born adult actor Manuel Ferrara see red.
In the speech, Macron claimed that pornography makes women in general into "an object of humiliation," promoted the idea that France's broadcasting overseer CSA be given the power to censor and in other ways restrict adult films, and that the agency develop a plan to educate secondary-school students about pornography. Moreover, on Saturday, he tweeted, "Pornography has passed the door of schools. We cannot ignore the kind that makes women an object of humiliation."
Ferrara, who's been in the adult industry since 1997, took Macron's statement as a condemnation of all porn, and responded on Twitter, "I am in this business that you are trying to demonize by making this kind of remark. I am ready to sit down with you and discuss a topic that you do not know. I'm waiting for your call!"
It's an issue that concerns Ferrara on two fronts, both as an adult actor and as a father.
"I'm not against what he's trying to do, but I am concerned who he's trying to aim at to fix the problem, and where he's aiming," Ferrara told AVN. "He's attacking the wrong problem. He's worried about pornography entering schools, but we in the adult industry don't make the content we produce available to everyone, and as a father, I control everything my kids do on their computer, telephone or tablet; I make sure they don't have access to pornography. Every parent should do the same. Of course, I'm all for protecting the youth and also women, because another subject he's addressing is the idea that porn is degrading and humiliating women. Clearly, he doesn't know what he's talking about because yes, there is a niche of pornography that shows male dominance of women, but there's also a niche that shows female domination of men—and also pornography that doesn't show any dominance on one side or another. It's too easy to aim at one niche in our industry when there are so many other niches that don't show any domination."
Ferrara stressed that before Macron and others in his government attempt to make new rules regarding adult content, he should talk to people with actual knowledge of the subject.
"Why not talk to some of the ladies in our industry so they can explain to him how the industry treats them?" Ferrara suggested. "I'm not saying we are in a perfect industry and everyone has a great experience, but the majority of them do, so it's a little too simple to attack our industry and point the finger at us and say, 'It's awful that women are being degraded or humiliated, and that's an example that we shouldn't show,' when clearly he's also mixing up educational movies with pornography. We aren't making movies to show kids how to make love to a woman; we're just entertainment. As I said in an interview with a French magazine, these are the same people that say that if a young man grabs a gun and shoots up people at a school or a concert, it's probably because of the video games they were playing, like Call of Duty. They use this as an excuse and a reason why, when really, the problem is elsewhere."
And what about Macron's suggestion that pre-high-school children be taught about porn?
"Well, again, I can't help but think they'll be trying to demonize an industry that is just entertainment," he responded. "I'm all for sexual education in school. I'm all for explaining—which is their job, not our job—how it works; not how it's done, because you can't really teach how it's done to teenagers, but how it works and how it can affect other people. I was a teenager once, and I also was consuming a lot of porn when I was younger—I was a big porn fan before I started in porn—but me watching porn never had any effect on my sexual life. I never did something because I saw it in porn. I always did it because it was the way I felt. It's too easy to generalize about porn when we're in an industry that has so many different niches and in the world, there are so many ways to engage your sexuality. For a president saying that women don't have the right to enjoy being dominated, we all know there are a lot of women who like the sexual game of submission and domination, but it's a game; it doesn't make them inferior to men outside of the sex. It works the same way with men: If a man likes to be dominated by women, it doesn't make him a lesser man; it just makes him a guy who enjoys being dominated."
Much of Macron's speech was inspired by the recent scandals in the U.S. regarding sexual predators in Hollywood and in government, and the fact that in 2016, 123 women were killed by their current partners or exes. He also noted that with the worldwide attention now being drawn to sexual predators, more women in his country have been posting stories of their own abuse on social media, often carrying the hashtags #metoo and #BalanceTonPorc ("Expose Your Pig").
Macron also proposed new legislation which he said he would introduce to Parliament early in the new year. That legislation would, according to a story in The New York Times, "include fines for aggressive catcalling or lecherous behavior toward women in public; an extension from 20 years to 30 years of the statute of limitations in cases of sexual assault of minors; and the creation of a new age threshold under which minors cannot legally consent to a sexual relationship. Mr. Macron said he favored 15 as the threshold but would let lawmakers decide. In France, it is illegal for an adult to have sex with someone younger than 15, but it is not punishable as rape if consent is considered to have been given, even, in a recent case, where the girl was as young as 11."
Also in the works: A 24-hour hotline where victims of violence, harassment or discrimination can speak with trained policemen and women about incidents of sexual violence and harassment and get assistance in how to report them.
