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STUDENT AFFAIRS 21<br />
No Porn in the<br />
Library!<br />
DANO<br />
BY RUBEE<br />
It’s simply about consideration for those<br />
around you – you don’t know who is watching<br />
and what they’ve been through.<br />
Like all things entirely cringe worthy, this tale begins with<br />
Stalkerspace. An image was recently posted of a librarian<br />
watching porn, and now we’re watching further action unfold<br />
after the Women’s Department issued a series of complaints.<br />
This is where you probably say something about feminists<br />
and how they ruin everything, like your God-given right to<br />
watch porn in the library, but hey, let’s think about part of<br />
that phrase; in the library. I don’t really think there’s anything<br />
wrong with porn, assuming you’re in an appropriate setting<br />
to be watching it (namely, in private). I know that some<br />
feminists will say that porn is exploitative and reinforces<br />
patriarchal ideas and such, but honestly I don’t believe in<br />
limiting anybody sexually, so if a woman wants to be in a<br />
porno – and while there are some that don’t want to, there<br />
are plenty that do – then fucking good on her, okay? This<br />
shouldn’t be about the fact that it’s porn; it should be about<br />
the fact that it was in the library, where the man should have<br />
been working, and that’s pretty inappropriate.<br />
Now before we jump to conclusions, for all we know, he<br />
could have been sent a link, clicked it, and totally been<br />
trolled by some hilarious individual (I know, unlikely, but<br />
still, we have to remember something about innocent until<br />
proven guilty). We shouldn’t go on a witch-hunt for this guy<br />
before what actually happened is determined by the Monash<br />
administration, which is currently handling this. ‘They also<br />
wanted to me to let everyone know that they regard the<br />
behaviour as very serious and are treating it as such,’ said<br />
one of the Women’s officers on the Women’s Department<br />
Facebook page.<br />
The same Women’s officer later issued another statement:<br />
‘I received a phone call informing me that an individual is<br />
currently under investigation for the incident at Caulfield<br />
library. The IT department are also making changes to ensure<br />
people can no longer access pornography at the library. That<br />
is the last update they will give me as any more info would be<br />
a breach of privacy and process.’ This, to me at least, seems<br />
like a step in the right direction. No, you shouldn’t be able to<br />
watch porn in the library, because it can make other people<br />
feel uncomfortable. Moreover, if you were to do that while<br />
you were working in the library, it gets into some pretty grey<br />
workplace harassment areas.<br />
As for the IT department’s attempts at blocking porn, this<br />
might not work so well. Considering China can’t manage<br />
to totally block everything they want from their internet,<br />
Monash might struggle. There’s always a way around blocks,<br />
though it does make it more difficult. This in itself could<br />
serve as deterrence because as it might cause people to<br />
reconsider whether they should be attempting to access<br />
blocked websites in a public space.<br />
The Women’s Department does not want to ruin everyone’s<br />
fun; the complaints do point out a serious breach of<br />
workplace conduct in multiple areas. Firstly, if you’re at work,<br />
you should be doing your job. You shouldn’t be watching<br />
Netflix at work, even if it’s the most G-rated show that you<br />
could possibly stream. Secondly, watching pornography<br />
in the workplace is in violation of sexual harassment<br />
laws, and the general consensus is that you shouldn’t be<br />
watching it. It could potentially make other people feel<br />
unsafe or uncomfortable, and while this is where words<br />
like ‘oversensitive’ and ‘politically correct’ could be thrown<br />
around, in all seriousness you can’t know whether the<br />
stranger sitting beside you in the library will be down with<br />
you watching porn. According to the Bureau of Statistics<br />
(2006), one in five women over fifteen have experienced<br />
sexual violence and seeing pornographic images in a public<br />
place could potentially be upsetting for these people. It’s<br />
simply about consideration for those around you – you don’t<br />
know who is watching and what they’ve been through.<br />
No matter what you think about the actions taken by<br />
the Women’s Department’s, pornography in general, or the<br />
librarian in question, the main issue here is twofold. When<br />
you’re at work, being paid to work (by us, by the university),<br />
you should be doing your job. Secondly, watching porn in a<br />
public place might make someone feel uncomfortable, hence<br />
it is unacceptable, whether you’re working or not. This isn’t<br />
the kind of situation to get into an argument about political<br />
correctness or feminism going too far, it’s simply about<br />
considering other people.
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