SOHO, Manhattan — Does pornography promote sexual violence?
That’s what a group of women’s rights advocates are claiming outside of the PornHub pop-up store in Soho.
“Why are you selling handcuffs what do hand cuffs have to do with free will and equality why are you selling handcuffs?”
Feminist author and leader Gloria Steinem was leading the charge of a group of women’s rights advocates and sex trade survivors who are protesting this porn hub pop up store in Soho.
“Pornhub sells sexual violence,” the group chanted from inside the store.
The women’s rights advocates conducted an impromptu tour of pornhub’s inventory… highlighting the items they found extremely offensive for sale.
“This device is used for forced oral rape,” Sonia Ossorio, President of the National Organization fir Women, told PIX11. “It is also a new theme in porn, women choking and vomiting,” she added.
“You can buy a jacket with PornHub on back that advertises violent porn, mainstreaming it, “ Dr. Gail Dines, author of Pornland and one one of the protestors, told PIX11. “It promotes fetishized and the rape of women by many men.”
Earlier, the group demonstrated outside the store, calling on Mayor de Blasio to halt porn hub’s plans to open more pop ups throughout the city in the future.
For some demonstrators, this store is personally offensive
Melanie Thoompson is a survivor of sex trafficking when she was just 12 years old.
“Nothing in there is promoting healthy sex,” Thompson told PIX11. “All I see are things that are very traumatic to me. Past memories of toys that were used on me. Nothing in there is promoting healthy sex or equality”
From PornHub’s Vice President Corey Price:
“Pornhub has a zero tolerance policy with respect to non-consensual content on our site. Such material directly violates our TOS and will never be permitted on our platform under any circumstance whatsoever. To further ensure the safety of all our fans, we officially took a hard stance against revenge porn, which we believe is a form of sexual assault, and introduced a submission form for the easy removal of non consensual content. Those who are on Pornhub and identify any material that is distributed without the consent of the individuals involved can now visit http://www.pornhub.com/content-removaland fill out the form found there to request the removal of nonconsensual material.”
The PornHub popup will close Dec. 20.
