YNOT – Officials in the Land Down Under evidently have a problem with little people having sex, at least on film.
According to Eros Association, Australia’s national adult entertainment trade organization, in September Australian Customs Service representatives in Brisbane confiscated two recently released American porn DVDs featuring “vertically challenged people.” Despite protestations from the importers, the films — Midget Mania Volume 7 and Midget Mania Volume 8 — remain in custody more than 28 days later. To date, no explanation has been offered.
Customs is not required to justify seizure of goods; however Eros Association Chief Executive Officer Fiona Patten said her organization and other watchdog groups believe Australia’s increasingly censorship-happy film board views dwarf porn as an “offensive fetish,” much as it views depictions of female ejaculation. Offensive material is refused classification in Australia and may not be imported or sold.
Patten indicated such a ruling could be considered discriminatory to short-statured people and may violate the Federal Discrimination Act.
“One of the main hallmarks of adult films has been the fact that everyone and anyone can get a go,” she said. “Black or white, fat or thin, short or tall, unlike Hollywood, everyone [in adult] is celebrated for their own unique talents and styles.
“It appears that Customs are trying to insinuate that when a large male adult actor has sex with a female dwarf or midget, there is an element of coercion involved because of the size difference,” she continued. “If they have other reasons [for confiscating the material], they should let the industry know instead of shrouding these decisions in secrecy.”
She also said perhaps Customs officers are in need of biology lessons and a reality check on the dwarf issue.
“Large numbers of dwarfs and midgets are happily married to persons of normal height around the world,” Patten said. “They even have children together.”
Of more impact that potential human rights issues, she said, is the increasing evidence Customs officials are overstepping their federally mandated bounds.
“Customs has become the new arbiters and enforcers of the Classification Act and are now stopping all imported adult films from overseas that they consider could possibly be refused classification if submitted,” she noted. “This denies Australian distributors the chance to edit a film to meet Australian standards. When applied to magazines, it denies distributors the right to post-print modify in order to get a classification. This is often the same material that is quite legal to possess in Australia and legal to be delivered by Telstra onto your computer.”
She added that Customs officials routinely “red-line” all shipments of adult material and spend many hours watching porn and looking at adult magazines under magnifying glasses.
“This represents a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” she opined. “Customs officers are there to stop drugs, weapons and exotic organisms at our borders, not to try and set the moral tone of the nation.
“We call on the [government] to put in place a moratorium on seizures of adult material — unless child pornography is suspected — while the Australian Law Reform Commission review of the Classification Act is being completed,” she added. “The convergence of media has meant that Customs are now prosecuting people for importing material via a boat or a plane, [when it is] is perfectly legal to import [the same material] on a telephone line.”
