Controversial feminist Josephine Ho (何春蕤), well-known for her forthright views on sex and society, was in the news again this week after an Internet link to a beastiality portal she placed on a university Web site sparked public outrage and a nationwide debate over the dividing line between pornograpgy and academic research.
Ho, a professor in National Central University's department of English and the director of the university's Center for the Study of Sexuality, posted an external link on the center's Web site to a "Beast Love" Web site detailing sexual intercourse between humans and animals.
In the face of mounting pressure, Ho removed the link in April. There were also calls for her to be removed from her teaching post.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
Last week, the same groups that had earlier voiced their disgust over the link decided to take matters further. These groups, including End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism and the Catholic Good Shepherd Sisters, decided to file an indecency suit against Ho.
Most mainstream women's groups, however, remained silent on the issue.
One well-known feminist activist asked to comment on Ho's actions declined the invitation.
The dean of Ho's department also rejected a request to talk about Ho.
One women's group, Awakening Foundation, said they did not want to discuss the issue in depth.
"It would be strange if National Central University fires Ho over this," said Wu Wei-ting (伍維婷), the Foundation's CEO. "We do not really object to highlighting the subject of beastiality as long as Ho intended it for academic purposes. However, it seems to us that there was no real academic purpose in this case."
Wu said the foundation also could not accept the argument of Ka Wei-po (卡維波), who is an associate professor with the National Central University's Graduate School of Philosophy, that that those who have sexual intercourse with animals are animal lovers.
"It is like saying rapists are women lovers," Wu said.
Ho's lawyer, and long-time feminist activist, Jennifer Wang (王如玄), said, "It is strange the women's groups are keeping mum about this and that we are only hearing opposing opinions. Sometimes silence also signals a kind of attitude. Maybe the women's groups are not willing to speak up for fear of conflict. But if only one side of the argument is heard, that side is likely to become the mainstream."
Wang said that she has appealed to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office to postpone court proceedings until after Ho finishes a lecture tour in Japan and returns home to Taiwan in September.
Ho's fame, or, as some would have it, notoriety, began in 1994 when she created the slogan "Climax only! No Harassment!" for an anti-harassment parade held by women's groups.
The slogan created a sensation back in the time when neither sex nor female desire was discussed publicly. Ho later claimed that she recieved large amounts of hate mail because of the slogan.
In 1995 Ho, her husband Ning Yin-bin (甯應斌) and other university instructors set up the Center for the Student of Sexuality, one of the most prominent and active research organizations on gender issues in the country. The center offers gender courses to NCU students, holds gender and sexuality seminars, including the annual 4-Sex Conference, and invites renowned international academices over for academic exchanges.
When President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), then Taipei mayor, decided to crackdown on the city's brothels in 1997, Ho joined with prostitutes to protest the policy.
The prostitutes won out and gained a prolonged grace period, although many brothels were still shut down in 2001. Ho has been promoting the legalization of the sex trade ever since.
Ho's stance on prostitution has continually set her at odds with women's groups that vehemently oppose the idea of prostitution.
"Ho is straightforward and she can hold her own," Ho's lawyer Wang said. "The funny thing is that although we have been together in the women's movement for a long time, whenever we meet it's often on official occasions. We don't really know each other in private, and this seems to me to be the norm of feminist activists that they do not really share each other's private lives."
For more information on Ho and the NCU Center for the Study of Sexuality, please visit http://sex.ncu.edu.tw/english/english.htm.
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