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
It's private in that it cannot legally be shown in public. A billboard for McDonald's is public: you can't avoid it and it is displayed to anyone who walks by. A porn film shot on private property and only displayed on private property is not a public activity.
I'll never give another human that amount of power over me again.
In New Mexico, a man has no rights in a marriage. I won't subject myself to those unGodly laws again....
The Bible also says that we can kill the adulterous man and woman for this sin...according to your theory, you had better load up on bullets...
It's amazing what passes for "conservative" thought these days. Et tu...?
That's actually a very good idea. How dare you approach this topic with reason?
wow!
So, like......... you can't seem to look at a lady in a bikini.....and NOT have "pornographic" thoughts?
That's a darned shame.
You know?
I can look at a shapely lady walking by me at the beach and not think a "bad" thought. Sometimes I thank God I have the gift of sight....to see the beauty of a woman strolling by. I REALLY learned to appreciate the physical beauty of women when I started to paint them (murals). To this day...
I think I am lucky that my customers sometimes come in and ask me to paint their wives and GF's. My job would be a lot less enjoyable if I did not have the oppurtunity to paint women...and have them model for painting. Most of the women I have had the good fortune of replicating on someones gas tank of a bike or the hood of a car or where ever would be considered "ordinary" by most peoples standards...
but without exception, there is always SOME facet of a particular womans body that captivates me, be it such a simple thing as the curve of her chin on downwards to her neck....or the finely sculpted shoulders of a lady who hits the gym now and again.
I kinda feel sorry for you.
Call Pornography a vice, or addiction , call it anything you like, It isnt like alcoholism, which is killing people everyday on the nations highways, it isnt like drug addiction which has youths robbing and stealing to support their habit, If we did away with pornography tomorrow would rapes stop? I doubt it. Would it stop mean people from beating their spouse? I doubt it. Would it stop High school girls from getting pregnant? I doubt it. Would it stop married men from straying with other mens wives? I doubt. Is pornography good? probably not. Is doing away with it high on my priority list? < Nope.
It's amazing all the new posters that have signed up in the past 6 months and think they can dictate who is a conservative and who is not.
The funny thing is that's a pretty fair description of my wife, too. It's just the icing on the cake....
You call 14 yr old runaways addicted to dope by scumbag porn merchants consenting adults? 95% of the time, those are the tarted up girls you see blowing the dudes (excuse the description, but this calls for clarity) in your blue flicks.
Nice rationalizing. Enjoy your porn.
The production may be a 'private activity,' but once the video/pictures are made available to the public, it is no longer a 'private activity'.
Stats? Links? Source?
The Supreme Court has ruled that, in of itself, filmed sex between consenting adults is not legally obscene.
If an activity is legal, it is illogical that it would be illegal to pay others to engage in it. Prostitution is, AFAIK, the only activity that is illegal solely because it involves money.
"Probably" not???
OMG
With convictions like these...who needs vices.
Typical character attack. Did you actually read the article? Victoria's Secret was slammed, and Rodger and Hammerstien musicals are used as supporting evidence that porn is bad. You can't really expect any of us to take this seriously? Sigh...but you probably do, and in your twisted little world, everyone who disagrees with you is a pervert. Typical.
You raised the issue, it is up to you show the stats.
Besides, I thought teen pregnancy and out of wedlock births were declining as well.
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