Women Against Pornography - Similar Groups

Similar Groups

A number of feminist anti-pornography groups sprang up throughout the United States, as well as internationally, particularly during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some histories of the anti-pornography movement mistakenly refer to the activities of these groups as those of "Women Against Pornography", which was by far the best-known of these groups.

Among the first such groups was Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), which was founded in Los Angeles in 1976 and was led by Marcia Womongold. This group was best known for holding a demonstration in 1977 in response to a BDSM-themed billboard for the Rolling Stones album Black and Blue, which showed a bound and bruised woman with the caption "I'm 'Black and Blue' from the Rolling Stones — and I love it!". The billboard was removed in response to the WAVAW's protests. WAVAW went on to start a number of chapters in several cities throughout North America and the United Kingdom, with a particularly active chapter in Boston. (A New York City chapter headed by Dorchen Leidholdt also existed prior to the founding of WAP.) The group was active until 1984.

Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media (WAVPM) was a San Francisco group that played a very important role in the founding of WAP. According to Alice Echols, "the two groups share the same analysis." WAVPM pioneered many of WAP's tactics (such as slide shows, porn shop tours, and mass demonstrations in red light districts). It was active from 1976–1983 and led by Lynn Campbell (who went on to become first head of WAP) and Laura Lederer.

Feminists Fighting Pornography, led by Page Mellish, did organizing in New York City.

Feminists Against Pornography was a different group, active in Washington, D.C. during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Pornography Resource Center, a Minneapolis group, was founded in 1984 to support Catharine MacKinnon's campaign to pass the Antipornography Civil Rights Ordinance in Minneapolis. The group changed its name to Organizing Against Pornography in 1985 and was active until 1990.

In the United Kingdom, the feminist Campaign Against Pornography (CAP) was launched by British MP Clare Short in 1986 and was best known for its "Off the Shelf" campaign against "Page Three girls" in British tabloids. A breakaway group, Campaign Against Pornography and Censorship (CPC), started by Catherine Itzin in 1989, adhered more closely to the civil rights anti-pornography approach favored by Women Against Pornography. CPC was active in Ireland as well as the UK. Both groups were active until the mid-1990s.

In New Zealand, a group calling itself "Women Against Pornography" was active during the eighties and early nineties (1983–1995), though it had no formal connection to the American group. They are best known for their 1984 attempt to force the resignation of New Zealand Chief Censor Arthur Everard after he allowed the horror film I Spit on Your Grave to be shown in that country. In this national context, the Society for Promotion of Community Standards had tried to prevent the criminalisation of spousal rape in 1982, so there were tensions between the Christian Right and feminist anti-pornography activists, as well as a strengthened movement for LGBT rights in New Zealand that also benefited from prevalent social liberalism, pointing out that gay pornography did not operate according to the same psychological and sociological parameters as its heterosexual equivalent. When it dissolved in 1995, Women Against Pornography had not adopted a strategy that converged with the New Zealand Christian Right, unlike many of its national counterparts abroad. Much of this was due to the weakness of the New Zealand Society for Promotion of Community Standards after co-belligerency against the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986.

The group Scottish Women Against Pornography (SWAP) was started in 1999 and was still active as of 2008. It also has no formal connection with the American group and was started well after its demise.

In 2002, anti-pornography feminist Diana Russell and several cohorts informally used the name "Women Against Pornography" for a demonstration against the opening of the Hustler Club, a San Francisco strip club.