Do you use Groupon? If so, you may want to rethink that money-saving strategy—at least for now.
Morality In Media (MIM) on Friday announced a national boycott of Groupon because twice this year the coupon company has offered discounts on tours of torture porn studio, Kink.
“Selling coupons supporting the degradation of women is as low as a publicly traded company can go,” says MIM executive director Dawn Hawkins. “Groupon frames the tour as a historic one, comparing the opportunity to visiting the Smithsonian Institute because the building that houses Kink has a ‘historic history in San Francisco.’“
Kink advertises that they have “young sexy teens who are overwhelmed and outnumbered … who need to learn a lesson by multiple men;” women being “bound, whipped, objectified and humiliated. They are immobilized, caged and humiliated as objects;” of women “suspended and tied in rope bondage … tormented beyond all reason;” and of women “naked, tied up, bound, punished, exposed in public … who are taken to public bars for public humiliation.”
Kink, which sells porn videos and offers live online torture porn performances, also notes on its site that, “Girls are also pulled in and out of cages, their tongues clamped, their bodies pinned, and their arms and legs strapped.” They also claim to employ “contraptions used in countries such as China for torture” as well as machines, water, metal, wood, electrodes, hooks, needles and urination, all for the sexual persecution of women and “young teenage girls.”
This week, MIM asked its supporters to write Groupon urging that the company stop supporting Kink. Groupon responded by defending Kink, saying, “We thoroughly vet the businesses we feature … Fortunately, this business has proven to be a responsible member of their community.”
“Groupon should be thinking of their wider commercial audience, most of which, unlike Groupon, would not support torture and humiliation of women and girls for the sexual enjoyment of disturbed men,” said Hawkins. “But since Groupon not only seems to support Kink, but is happy to profit from the torture of women, we have called for a national boycott.”
Click here to visit the boycott page.
