An interesting article.

[hkellick]

I stumbled upon this article via someone's journal. The article is written by a university professor about the harm that the porn industry is doing to women. I'd like to suggest everyone read it, regardless of sex or how much porn you may watch/have watched. A warning, though, that it is very long.
I feel like this article is important, not because I feel like I've sinned (In my entire life, I've only watched two porn movies.. a really bad Hentai Cartoon and (I swear to god, this IS true), a really bad Star Trek parody porn where we fast forwarded through the sex scenes and just watched the really bad conversation.), but because, I guess, I never really knew how harmful these were.
I don't believe that Playboy and Strip Clubs are necessarily harmful to women and that there probably is no connection between reading a Playboy and raping a woman. But porn videos on the other hand... well, like I said, I had no idea. I've never seen any.
Just go read.. and feel free to discuss here, if you so choose.

Comments

Part II

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

I agree with LITE that things today are more graphic than ever before. I have watching movies thinking that the fight scenes really could have been shorter or less graphic. However, when the movie is over I don't feel like going out and slicing people's heads off or something. (This is the same point Alana made). The media gets a bad rap as well. I did a term paper a few years ago about content and the media, and about how the media is used as a scapegoat for so many things. I strongly believe that the average person knows the difference between reality and fantasy. The fact that cartoon characters may do something on television does not mean that a child is going to try to do the same. I also would like to point out that while media may have become more graphic, it has not, by any means, actually become more violent. Violence in the world has been around FAR FAR longer than we have. When my grandparents were children it was not uncommon for them to play games like cowboys and indians or GI Joe. The oldest faerytales are laden with gruesome deaths and horrible creatures. Murder is not new. Rape is not new. Both of them are still perceived as crimes (rape moreso now than in the past).

Back to the porn-- I just find that the author in this article is making too big a leap of faith to thinking that porn degrades women. He uses an example where at the end of the video the woman is vindicated when she finds a man she can trust and she sleeps with him. #1- it's a PORN video, what do you think is going to happen at the end of the video, kittens and daisys? #2- So she talked dirty and wanted anal sex? Maybe she LIKES anal sex. The author completely overlooks the fact that women may enjoy sexual behavior. He makes it seem like a leap of faith that a woman could possibly --enjoy-- being deviant in the bedroom. Note to the author- I know women who enjoy all sorts of things in bed. They may be conventional or unconventional, but as long as they're carried out by consenting adults, and noone is getting hurt, there's no reason to condemn them.

Geez.. I wrote a lot. I think that's pretty much all I can say for now! DAMN... I wrote too much.. going to have to make two entries. Don't be mad LITEY!