Two weeks ago Morality in Media (MIM) called public attention to Groupon’s shameless promotion of Kink, a San Francisco-based pornographer that produces films depicting sadomasochistic torture and rape, bondage, and hardcore fetish sexual acts.
Now, it appears that Groupon has doubled down on porn, supporting an event at the mansion of the world’s top sexual exploiter: Playboy.
MIM continues to urge Groupon to end its support of the sexual exploitation of women and girls, but despite a national boycott of the company that resulted in more than 10,000 of Groupon’s customers unsubscribing from the service the company has not done so. MIM thinks it knows why.
“Morality in Media searched Groupon’s online information to learn the names of the company’s female senior management executives so we could appeal to them,” says Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media. “Guess what? Groupon doesn’t have any! Perhaps that explains why the company is so insensitive to the sexual exploitation of women and girls.”
As Hawkins sees it, Playboy has done more to promote female sexual exploitation than any other entity in the world—and Kink takes such exploitation to a new, lower level.
“Kink, which offers live pornographic performances and porn videos, states on its site that, ‘Girls are … pulled in and out of cages, their tongues clamped, their bodies pinned, and their arms and legs strapped,’” Hawkins says. “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.’”
MIM reports that Groupon has defended its support of extreme, violent pornography, claiming that Kink is an “active, good member of their community.”
“Morality in Media has some advice for the all-male management of Groupon,” Hawkins said. “Porn harms women and girls. You should be ashamed instead of celebrating and profiting from this exploitation!”
