Posted on 11/11/2005 7:16:29 PM PST by wagglebee
(AgapePress) - Women and children aren't the only victims of pornography. That's what one witness told a Senate hearing on Thursday (Nov. 10) that examined the impact of pornography on America and the options for dealing with it. The Senate panel also heard about the negative trends in society resulting from Internet porn.
The issue before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution was "Why the Government Should Care About Pornography." Among those testifying before the subcommittee was the author of the book Pornified and a sociologist from Utah who is an expert in the area of Internet porn.
Pamela Paul's book offers a compilation of surveys and other research as well as anecdotal evidence of the problems porn causes. Of particular concern, she points out in the book, are stories of young children and teens accessing pornography from school computers. But Paul told the Senate subcommittee that men are also victims of the scourge of pornography.
"Men told me they found themselves wasting countless hours looking at pornography on their televisions and DVDs -- and especially online," the author stated. "They looked at things they would have once considered appalling."
According to Paul, it also affected how those men viewed women in general. "They found the way they looked at women in real life warping to fit their fantasies," she said. "Their relationships soured; they had trouble relating to women as individual human beings. They worried about the way they saw their daughters and girls their daughters' age."
In addition, said the author, those men's lives were interrupted, their hobbies tossed aside, and their family lives disrupted. The result was a high price paid by families, she said. "Some men even lost jobs, wives, and children."
Ms. Paul told the subcommittee that her surveys found that 60 percent of women feel pornography dictates how men expect them to look and act in today's culture -- and that more than 11 million teens regularly view porn online. The effects, she said, are far-reaching.
"It is terrible enough that adults are suffering the consequences of a 'pornified' culture," she said, "but we must think about the kind of world we are introducing to our children. Certainly everyone -- liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans -- can agree with the statement" 'It wasn't like this when we were kids.'"
Researcher Jill Manning of Brigham Young University, who also is a fellow with the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, outlined for the senators her research showing six negative trends taking place in the U.S. as a result of exposure to Internet porn.
"Increased marital distress and risk of separation and divorce. Decreased marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Infidelity. Increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal, and unsafe practices."
She continued: "Devaluation of monogamy, marriage, and child-rearing. An increasing number of people struggling with compulsive and addictive sexual behavior."
Manning said the trends are getting worse. Both she and Ms. Paul urged Congress to take action to eliminate the exposure of pornography on the worldwide web.
"Increased marital distress and risk of separation and divorce. Decreased marital intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Infidelity. Increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal, and unsafe practices."
However, the left doesn't view any of this as a problem.
Moral absolutes ping.
A lot of Freepers don't either, but I've become convince of it.
If it were just "the left," we'd be OK. If this were not Friday night, we'd have a VAST CROWD of self-styled conservatives here explaining that their private tastes in sex are nobody's business--and, besides, shouldn't the government spend its time doing X, Y, or Z instead???
I think there are a lot of FReepers who like to look at beautiful women, but I don't know about hardcore pornography.
If you're getting an earful, you may be doing it wrong.
It's not that it's not a problem. It is, rather a problem the government is ill-suited to solving.
And women who like to look at men.
ping
I can testify about how dangerous pornography is. Some here will discredit Dr. James Dobson, but he is dead on about pornography leading to violence.
Yeah, the idiots will show up once the bars close, and post "cute pics" of themselves...
As for somebody's private sex behavior I agree, except that this does affect others.
Byteback, that's a really great graphic! Thanks for posting it.
There really is a difference. Looking at pornography is debasing and dehumanizing. Looking at beauty is the first step up the Platonic ladder toward eternal beauty.
Not, perhaps, that ALL Freepers appreciate the distinction.
For all too many self-proclaimed "conservatives," freedom = licentiousness.
These worthless Senators are talking about porn when I have a virus infection on my computer, even though I use Norton AV.
These worthless Senators are talking about porn when most of us have spam and pop-ups on the computer that make our work unproductive.
These worthless Senators are talking about porn when plasma and LCD TVs are available but the number of channles availbable is just a handful.
These worthless Senators are talking about porn when it took me three extensions and 10 months out of the 12 month year just to file my wealth transfer taxes. Why don't we have no IRS and a national sales tax?
These worthless Senators are talking about porn which proves they are totally worthless. They have no clue what really bugs people on every day Joe Six-Pack issues.
I just think that the 5% of the GOP that is the Taliban wing gets 75% of the MSM coverage and it hurts the party.
If they dealt with more fundamental issues like punitive taxation, cradle-to-grave socialism, illegal immigration, the stripping of personal responsibility and property from individuals, and an utterly broken education system, I'd wager that a lot of these minor social issues would pretty much take care of themselves. The behaviors of society reflect the basic environment society operates in, not the other way around.
Hey, I'm all for looking at pictures of beautiful women!
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