7:00 pm 

Noël Kinsella Kinsella Auditorium    

Please note: The speaker has requested masking for this event.

In this lecture, Dr. Val Webber (they/them) will map the past five years of “Porn Wars” noting the arguments, controversies, and resulting policies and laws.   

When closely examining the motivations, presuppositions, and broader implications of anti-porn controversies, Dr. Webber suggests that we should be concerned about the fate of online pornography regardless of our moral convictions about pornography itself, because pornography is a test case for social control.    

“When connected with other growing movements against bodily autonomy, namely anti-abortion and anti-trans legislation, the treatment of pornography—and the underlying suspicion of sexuality as a whole—foretells a path that should be deeply concerning to anyone who values sexual and relational freedom,” they note.

From the sex trafficking legislation in the United States to the framing of porn as a public health crisis, to age verification bills and credit card clauses, the result is a winding journey linking digital surveillance, moral panics, content moderation, sexual censorship, financial service overreach, the weaponization of health discourse, and how this feeds a climate of increasing social conservatism.  

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Departments of Criminology and Criminal Justice, English Language and Literature, History, and Sociology.  

About Dr. Val Webber   

Dr. Webber holds degrees in public health, sexuality studies, and medical anthropology, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University's SHaG (Sexual Health and Gender) Research Lab. Their research looks at 'health' and 'risk' as sites of struggle, particularly for sex workers, queer communities, and other marginalized sexual communities. Their widely published research addresses occupational health in porn production, financial and social discrimination of sex workers, the consequences of anti-porn policy and rhetoric, and sex stigma in research, academia, and healthcare.