Myles Jackman, legal adviser to Backlash, criticises the nebulous justification of ‘cultural harm’ for banning the mere possession of staged depictions of rape in an exhaustive legal article on his blog. In a key passage, he discusses the failure of prohibitionists to distinguish between fantasy rape scenarios and real acts of rape which is crucial for maintaining freedom of sexual expression and defending the privacy of intimate thoughts:
However, were the criminalisation of the possession of such fantasy material successful, defendants would be at risk of a three year custodial sentence and inclusion on the Sex Offenders’ Register as well as the potential impact of losing their jobs and contact with their families. I have to question whether criminalising the end consumer of consensual adult rape-fantasies, rather than regulating the manufacture, production and publication of such material is the most effective method of raising awareness of rape culture and the offence of rape.
Jackman has also been interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Law in Action (segment from 22 minutes in) and the Moral Maze.