BC MP says sexually explicit television "not healthy"

Conservative MP Mark Warawa, who represents a constituency from BC's Bible belt in the Fraser Valley, wants Parliament to investigate prisoner access to cable television shows that feature nudity and sexuality.

"I have concerns that they have access to material I don't watch. Its really not healthy for me to watch these shows and maybe shouldn't be watched by them," he told The Tattler.

Many prison inmates have television sets in their cells and can subscribe to cable television. Channels like Showcase feature sexually explicit dramas, such as the (filmed in Vancouver) hit The L Word.

MP Warawa said that female prison guards at Mountain Institution found the programming viewed by the inmates "embarrassing and disgusting". The MP said the female guards observed the inmates "do disgusting things" in their cells after the shows aired. Restricting prisoner access to sexy television was "the number one issue' to improve working conditions for the guards, he said.

Prisoners masturbating while locked up in their cells is the number one problem in our jails?

In the Tattler's view, there is a problem here, and a serious one, but it is found not in the jail cells, but rather the minds of the MP and the guards who find sex offensive.

MP Warawa clearly does not like sexual media, even the coy sexuality that passes the cable broadcasters' standards. He is entitled to his personal aversions. But he leaps from that subjective feeling to an objective claim: such material is "unhealthy", especially to prisoners. He offers no evidence in support, and none exists.

The response of the guards (at least his version of it) is even more nakedly emotional. "Disgust" is the hallmark of gut-level reaction. The sight of hard penises is clearly deeply discomforting to some female guards. But that is their problem.

Yet both the MP and the corrections officers see their own emotionalism as a legitimate basis to curb the freedom of others. This is a classic example of the reactionary mind at work: a deeply personal reaction prompts an intolerant intrusion into the privacy of the weak.

Fewer citizens are more vulnerable than prisoners. Their private sexual world offers rare refuge against the necessary harshness of life behind bars. And yet a politician and some guards seek to control even that meager freedom. Shame on them.