I have absolutely no idea what to make of this study reported at Slate.
They say that there is a connection between internet access and the number of rapes commited. ie that the higher the connection rate the fewer the rapes - in particular those committed by 15 to 19 year olds.
The assumption being the greater access to porn you have the less likely you are to commit a rape. Either because a. you can't rape someone and look at the internet at the same time or b. you are less likely to want to rape someone after a deep, meaningful porn experience.
I wanna believe it. I also wanna believe their statement that when extra violent films come out violent offences go down. That would be true if all the things in my gut instinct were right, but I kinda assume they aren't.
It's not all good news though. Apparently "male subjects, immediately after watching pornography, are more likely to express misogynistic attitudes." Well, duh.
Shrugs. You make up you're own mind.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Porn is good for society?
Labels: Sex
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5 comments:
"male subjects, immediately after watching pornography, are more likely to express misogynistic attitudes."
Then we need non-patriarchal, non-sectarian feminist porn!
Well there are two ways of looking at that suggestion.
i. ethical porn is better than unethical porn - which I'd agree with and why I support unionisation of sex workers, decriminalisation of many acts associated with prostitution and also a general liberalisation of our attitude towards sex.
and
ii. "we need... [right-on] porn" which is much more problematic I'd say - although I'm not necessarily disagreeing.
Porn, by definition takes sexual relations out of relationships, objectifies it and parcels it into usable units for users. By definition it is an alienated and distorted representation of sexuality - no matter how great working conditions are or whether the 'actors' have dreadlocks and use organic toothpaste.
We need to find expression for our sexual desires - but does it follow that we need porn per se?
It's just a question for debate.
how odd! Don't those researchers have something more important to study? lol
In an ideal world, perhaps porn could be a healthy thing. But we don't live in that ideal world. And, of course, in that ideal world rape already would not exist.
well, it seems obvious to me - after looking at porn for a while, in Tom Waits delicate phrase, you end up taking advantage of yourself, turn over and go to sleep, rather than going out into the cold and raping someone. In fact it's easier to get to sleep because no-one is trying to discuss what shade the wallpaper should be
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