There is no doubt about how the internet has altered the way in which relationships are formed and how we interact with each other, yet it seems that the general consensus is that the mass distribution of internet porn is purely bad for you. Negative terms like ‘addiction’ and ‘epidemic’ are frequently used to describe the attitude towards internet pornography. Dr. Phil’s free online relationship advice says that users of internet pornography reflect behavior that is “perverse and ridiculous intrusion…it is an insult, it is disloyal and it is cheating”, which is very much the typical conservative view that is regularly reinforced in popular media. Aside from the raging conservatives who claim pornography is ruining adult relationships, the major concerns are related to the vast accessibility and distribution of child pornography as well as the readily available explicit material to anyone at any age material that many critics argue to be corrupting society’s morale. It is easy to blame the internet when increasingly younger digital natives are exposed to such content that feminists against often argue perpetuate the objectification of women and create unrealistic expectations and standards of beauty.
Pornographic materials are merely illusions; fantasies that temporarily fulfill human sexual urges by the repeated act of downloading, watching and fornication. How is this any different from women or men fantasizing about other women or men during sexual intercourse with their partners? Perhaps for some, oblivion is bliss. Despite the allegations against pornography, there are couples who watch porn together to maintain a healthy sexual relationship and marriages that have been saved by allowing mutual playful experimentation. Recent findings by Milton Diamond regarding the correlation between the use of pornography and the reduction in sex-related crimes have also sparked many enthusiasts. Through research on jailed rapists and non-rapists, Diamond discusses relationship between the widespread of pornography and decrease in sex crimes that suggests that recreational users of pornography in its entirety allows for harmless diversion; no STDs, no infidelity and no ‘morning after’ scares. The studies found that many high sex offenders were the ones who had a strict and repressive religious up-bringing, whereby the surveyed rapists and child molesters were found to have consumed significantly less porn than the control group of normal males. Maybe easy access to porn isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Good link - thanks. Some critics will be troubled by the word "pornography" in that even if you separate out child pornography, the term covers such a wide range of imagery and, according to critics, conveys so many different kinds of 'message' about sex(uality) that it's not possible to be certain we're all talking about the same thing when we use the word. (That's not a criticism of your post - we are pretty much all using the blanket term in this way).
ReplyDeleteAre you seriously trying to tell us that sex offenders had never seen pornography before they offended? Plenty of them are making porn of their crimes actually.These poor innocent rapists who just needed to be fed some healthy porn so they wouldn't have to rape anyone!Whatever.Bogus, outrageous skewered statistics;most rapes go unreported,even nz police keep records of how many don't go through with pressing charges even with a strong case.Rape crimes have risen in the last 3 decades in the developed world actually, the estimates are typically 1 in four women in her lifetime will be raped. Your post also conveniently leaves out the women who participate in porn consentually or not.Is it good for them to be screwed like an animal for all the male worlds entertainment? Good enough for your daughter? Good enough for you? If prostitution is a harmless way to make money I suspect men would flood the market, strangely, they don't want to take it you know where for a few pennies.
ReplyDeleteNo that's not at all what I'm saying, or the link for that matter. If you read a good deal of the information provided in the link doesn't deny that sex offenders have "never" seen or used porn, but is more to do with their strict social and external factors in the individual's up-bringing which I mention briefly towards the end. The reported rapists and molesters surveyed were found to have been strictly taught that expressing sexuality or masturbation and pornography is wrong.
ReplyDelete“…Screwed like an animal for all the male worlds entertainment”? The way you put it, women gain no satisfaction from watching porn at all, and I completely disagree. Like I mentioned in the post, women enjoy porn too. The latest figures of Nelsen/Net where they report 9.4 million women in the US alone have accessed online pornography in September 2003; today it would be even more. Also, have you not heard of male prostitution/escorts? It's huge in Japan (and not restricted to), and there are even magazines dedicated to male prostitutes/hosts as well as women. It is a personal choice, whether or not it is against your own ethics and morals.
What I was more focused on is some of the conservative views and negative hype and portrayals of porn and sex in the mainstream media. There is certain material out there like child porn, bestiality and actual rape footage that I don’t agree with and are issues in itself. But this is also to say that such extreme fetishes existed way before the internet arrived. One of the main differences is the relatively easy access and distribution of such content. But the general recreational use of soft-core/hard-core porn as a means of diversion isn’t as bad as the media makes it out to be. It’s the same treatment with the hype surrounding questionably ‘violent’ video-gaming to a large extent, where the media sensationalizes and attempts to assert some form influence/control by playing on our fears of anomie and the erosion of ‘our’ moral values.
It’s more than that though, but this is turning out to be a blog post essay, so I’ll leave it at that.
Your post is all about your feelings and not much about facts. You want to portray wanking over images of strangers having mundane sex for cash as excellent and beneficial because you are in a fantasy land.If I offered to film you taking it like a man in a public forum I'm pretty sure you wouldn't show up, even if it made an open minded girl very happy.
ReplyDeleteThe point I made that you are avoiding is that Milton says porn helps "contain " offenders, yet it didn't prevent them from offending:
"Green (1992) has reported that sex offenders requesting treatment commonly disclose that pornography helps them contain their abnormal sexuality within imagination as a fantasy instead of their aggressively acting out in real life (page 123). " (milton)
when no-one denies the likeliehood of them seeing some porn prior to offending - ONE CONDITION CONTRADICTS THE OTHER.
As for women “accessing porn”, was this an interpersonal survey of live subjects or a log of hits by computers registered to women ,made by anyone in the household? Big difference, isn’t there.Women are participating more in their boyfriends porn fantasies to appease them as the book “porn in the bedroom “ discusses , but whether this is an independent groundswell is not proven. Projecting your own fantasies onto women without consultation is something sex offenders do,and you don’t want to make a habit of it.
"Surprisingly few studies have linked the availability of porn in any society with actual associated antisocial behaviors or sex crimes in particular."
One or two studies would be significant enough, Milton ignores them.What a scientific stance.
"Overall review of the research available at that time, prepared for the Meese Commission found no causal link between sexual material and antisocial conduct. "
I might see an anti social link in the guy abducting a kid to make a porno.Mightn't you? It's not like it never happens.
Strict upbringing creates sex offenders? What a load.Firstly, surveying a rapist who needs parole or an excuse is not a clinical study, it is hearsay.Paedophiles have the highest rates of reoffending and it increases with counselling and early parole; they tell counsellors what they want to hear.
Has there been a high profile sex offender in New Zealand from a strictly conservative background? Extremely rarely.They nearly always come from sexually abusive backgrounds, following your absurd logic to its conclusion, this should have relieved all their inhibitions so that they need never offend, right? Please.
Just to verify, New Zealand has a particularly bad record of sex offending but , and is not a religiously conservative country (regular church attendance at 15% according to wikipedia, compared to 25% victimisation according to rape crisis.)- the correlation between offending strict upbringing that Milton was trying to make doesn't show any relationship.
I am female and I watch porn and it is not to please my partner. A blog is for opinions and alternative ideas. Secondly, seeing that you are the same user that commented here, http://technoculture314-2010.blogspot.com/2010/08/might-as-well-face-it-youre-addicted-to.html -I don't want to waste any more time with an angry second year student who is going to be narrow minded about everything. Oh, and sourcing your statistics from Wikipedia, is something 'you don’t want to make a habit of'.
ReplyDeletexx it does seem like these types of topics and blogs really seem to bother you. So why read them at all? Again it is one thing to post an opinion, but you really seem more focused on attacking the blogger in question for what you seem to view as immoral opinions.
ReplyDeletePerhaps steering clear of these types of blogs is whats best?