June
2007
Erection Angles: The Mull Of Kintyre Test
You learn something new everyday. I’ve discovered that in the UK the unofficial rule for deciding whether a photo of a naked man was obscene was called the “Mull of Kintyre Test.”
In Britain it was against the law to publish photos of erect penises. Of course, “erect” can encompass a whole range of turgidity and so to counter this grey area a general consensus was reached: the dick could not have an angle greater than the of the Mull of Kintyre on maps of Scotland.
According to Wikipedia writer Emily Dubberly, editor at Scarlet Magazine, pointed out that this rule was a double standard that hampered the development of feminist porn because it denied women a source of visual pleasure that was allowed to men. Apparently the rule is no longer strictly enforced.
Australia still has a rule against showing erect penises in magazines and on television. If a cock is hard, or if a woman’s inner labia can be seen, the publication officially becomes restricted and cannot be sold to people under 18.
The editors at Australian Women’s Forum famously kept a protractor handy on their desks and frequently spent time making judgements about whether “the angle of the dangle” was too steep. I’d hazard a guess that a lot of the centerfolds in AWF actually would have failed the British Mull of Kintyre test. There were some rather impressively turgid members on display there.
Now I know about the Mull of Kintyre test, how can I successfully listen to the Paul McCartney song without giggling?
