Posted on 12/09/2004 1:16:14 PM PST by Lindykim
Pornography is Anything But a 'Victimless Crime' 12/8/2004 By Cheri Pierson Yecke How many more expert studies do we need to convince ourselves of this fact?
Jud Fry -- one of the characters in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! lives in a shack that is papered with pornographic images. He is a loner, lacks social skills, and is feared by his neighbors. He is clearly capable of murder. This insight into the character of a porn addict hit the Broadway stage in 1943.
Fast forward to 2004. A sexual assault and several attempted abductions of girls in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area are allegedly the work of 19-year-old Ryan Mely, who has been charged (for starters) with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He apparently was a loner who was feared by his neighbors. Jud Fry is a fictitious character who bought his porn from an itinerant peddler. How did Ryan Mely get his start? Apparently, pornography was a family pastime. While some dads bond with their kids by fishing or playing hockey together, it appears that Mely and his father (a convicted sex offender) shared an interest in pornography. It was reported that sexually explicit material was found at the family home and on their computer.
Is anyone really surprised that pornography is involved here? It has been 60 years since a Broadway musical portrayed what social scientists and criminal analysis have now found to be true -- addiction to pornography can lead to violent sexual behavior. Dr. Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist and expert on sexual addictions, has identified four stages of progression among his patients.
The first stage is addiction, where the attraction to porn is overpowering and the viewer keeps craving more. The next stage is an escalation to more shocking and deviant images, as the earlier ones have lost their power to stimulate. Third is desensitization, where anything earlier seen as disturbing and repulsive becomes viewed as commonplace. Finally, satisfaction cannot be reached unless the perpetrator begins acting out the activities witnessed in the pornography. In effect, fantasy must become reality.
The events in which Mely was allegedly involved appear to follow this pattern. Perhaps the same is true for Alfonso Rodriguez, the man who allegedly abducted and murdered Dru Sjodin. Rodriguez apparently had an infatuation with Dru, who worked at Victoria's Secret, an upscale lingerie shop. On several occasions he allegedly called the store where she worked, asking for her by name.
Victoria's Secret is well known for its racy, soft-porn "fashion show" where voluptuous young models strut the runways in revealing lingerie. The liberal National Organization for Women called it "exploitative" and the conservative Concerned Women for America condemned it as a "high-tech striptease." Regularly protested by both sides of the political spectrum, the company announced in April that it will no longer air this event
The last Victoria's Secret "fashion show" aired on network television November 19, 2003. Dru was abducted three days later. Could it be that Alfonso Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, watched the show and was propelled into Dr. Cline's fourth stage of sexual deviance? This is a question his judge and jury may consider.
In an interview the night before his 1989 execution, serial killer Ted Bundy revealed the influence of pornography on his life.
A case study for Cline's four stages of addiction, Bundy started his descent into sexual deviance and murder with magazines he found in the neighbor's trash. His addiction escalated until he felt compelled to act out his desires in more than 30 murders that were accompanied with violent sexual acts.
He warned Americans: "There are those loose in [your] towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media, in its various forms -- particularly sexualized violence ... . There are lots of other kids playing in the streets around the country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, because other young people are reading and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today."
Abundant evidence has demonstrated the tragic impact of pornography. How many more expert studies do we need to convince ourselves of this fact? The elections of 2004 have sent politicians the message that morals matter, so now is the time to focus on the impact of pornography -- the so-called "victimless crime."
Cheri Pierson Yecke is a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education and Social Policy at the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minneapolis. She is a former Minnesota commissioner of education and is author of The War Against Excellence. This article first appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Used with permission.
Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 E-mail: mail@cwfa.org
That has to be the most over-used fallacy in political debate. "You can't legislate morality!" What hogwash! Legislation is the codified morality of the people! Why is killing illegal? Because the people have deemed that it is morally reprehensible. Why is theft illegal? Because the people find it morally wrong.
Even the idea that everything is OK if you don't harm somebody else is based on the moral foundation that harming someone else is wrong!
What people really mean is: I'm uncomfortable with that level of morality, so leave me out of it.
?!?
......hmmmm, obviously you've never seen Tyra Banks pose in a VS catalog.
Tyra Banks = Voluptuous.
Sure it does: the porn is made in private and it is made by consenting adults. Everyone involved in the making of the porn is there willingly.
Just because a group of people are involved does not make an activity "public." After all, Augusta is a private club, even though it has hundreds of members.
Not feathers,
chickens silly (and don't tell Lazamataz)>:>
I had a similar addiction to yours.
If you wish to sustain that addiction, avoid marriage.
Well, I don't want the bi-sexuality part, but the rest sounds fine to me....
You make me snide.
I advanced my "real" argument--porn is destructive--how many ways do you have to hear it?? Which of the multitudes of studies that proves it would you like to denigrate next??
Hard for for a fan of porn like you to hear that though....you chose a nonsensical, deliberately simplified response.
You are way off.
Its sooo evil that you had to check it out, eh?
I've heard that repeated time and time again but never a shred of evidence. As someone who's viewed porn, and someone who's had real sex, let me be the first to state for the record that there is no comparison at all.
Well, then that means you've looked at porn far more than I have.
Got anymore stones you'd like to throw, hypocrite?
Saying that viewing porn causes people to commit sex crimes is akin to saying owning a gun causes people to commit gun crimes.
If you want to ban something, start with the violent images that Hollywood bombards us with in movies and TV
Banning Pornography would be choosing between the worst of two evils.
I'm a healthy straight white male. I belong to the only non-victim group in America. I feel left out of victim culture.
When it's photographed or videotaped, sold, and then mass-distributed, there's nothing "private" about it.
According to the Bible and the God of the Universe everyone is supposed to choose one person and look at them only. It is a sin and you break one of God's Ten commandments by desiring someones else's wife or soon to be wife. It is not only adultery being committed by looking at another woman but stealing from the man who does or will have her. It has consequences and will be punished. Regardless of whether a society has laws or not about this, God does and He will hold us accountable according to what He has told us in His Word, whether we believe it or not.
Sexual Assaults Down by Half Over Last Decade
Overall Decline from 1993 through 2002:
Rape down by 60% (from 1.0 per 1000 persons age 12 and older to 0.4 per 1000)
Attempted rape down by 57.1% (from 0.7 per 1000 to 0.3 per 1000)
Sexual assault down by 62.5% (from 0.8 per 1000 to 0.3 per 1000)
-- Sexual Assaults Down by Half Over Last Decade
There is a correlation (not necessarily causality) between porn and a lower rate of sex crimes.
That's a good part of it, but it's also the attitude of modern Japanese.
Damn straight.
I have two young sons. Their lives, happiness and solid development mean everything to me.
Eyes are open here, pal.
You porn lovers would really rather we did not expose your dark world, eh?
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