Shifting perspective from "obscenity" to "sexual human rights"
As already mentioned, some of the "production victims" have been raped, beaten, kicked, spat on, tortured, and verbally abused. Others have been tricked or threatened into appearing in pornographic videos.
In the "distribution damage" category, there are victims whose sexual abuse and sexual privacy are unilaterally made public, used for entertainment, and made into a laughing stock. In the "consumption damage" category, there are victims who are forced to watch pornography every day, or who are actually raped or sexually harassed by people influenced by pornography, and child victims who are sexually treated by adults.
In the case of "social victimization," there are victims who are shown sexist sexual photographs or pictures, their sexual dignity as women, homosexuals, or transgender people is violated, and their equal status is violated. In the case of "existential victimization," there are victims who live with fear and shame every day.
These are not merely "expressions," but concrete harms occurring to living human beings, with concrete victims. As long as such concrete harms exist, efforts to prevent them and provide relief to the victims will be necessary. To do so, we need an appropriate concept of human rights to recognize such harms as harms.
Shifting perspective to "sexual human rights"
So, what kind of specific human rights concepts, what kind of "sexual human rights" concepts are needed? We propose two new human rights concepts: "sexual personality rights" and "sexual equality rights." These human rights concepts are basic "sexual human rights" concepts that can not only deal with pornography damage, but also appropriately deal with all other sexual violence damage.
First, the "right to sexual personality" is based on the idea that sexuality is at the core of a person's personality and dignity. Is rape an unforgivable crime because it violates chastity? Or because it is unpaid sexual labor? No. It is because a person's sexual personality and dignity are deeply hurt and violated.
Rape is also an act of sexual subjugation and domination of the social group of women. What is violated is the right of the group of women to be treated as equal human beings. We call this the "right to sexual equality."
In the case of pornography, the victim also suffers from these two rights violations. First, the victim's sexual personality right as an individual is violated, and the victim's right to sexual equality as a member of the female group is violated.
From the perspective of social sexual equality and respect for the sexual individuality of all people, it is necessary to undertake comprehensive measures such as promoting education and awareness, improving laws, creating support systems for victims, and re-educating and rehabilitating perpetrators.
As already mentioned, "production damage" includes victims who have actually been raped, beaten, kicked, spat on, tortured, and verbally abused. Other victims have been deceived or threatened into appearing in pornography. As for "social damage," there are victims who have been shown sexist sexual photographs and drawings, their sexual dignity as women, homosexuals, or transgender people violated, and their equal status violated. As for "existential damage," there are victims who live with fear and shame every day.
These are not merely "expressions," but concrete harms occurring to living human beings, with concrete victims. As long as such concrete harms exist, efforts to prevent them and provide relief to the victims will be necessary. To do so, we need an appropriate concept of human rights to recognize such harms as harms.