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
Religious zealots and busybodies guarantee that abortion will abortion will always remain legal.
True dat. But the question you raised was "does God play dice". He either risked my succuming to lust when He created me as a free moral agent or I'm not free.
On a cosmic scale, when lucifer rebelled did he become a real enemy or a marionette - or was he just a marionette that appears to have rebelled? In humanity did God create a race of beings who can resist His will or does it just look that way?
There aren't any dice involved, God is God, he can handle the action.
Then why does the article consider Victoria Secret to be porn? There is no nudity and doesn't meet any of your other criteria either.
I have to ask: free from what? I believe that we are "free moral agents" such that we have no excuses like: "the devil made me do it" or "the porn made me do it" However, I can say: "My lust made me do it" because sin is a part of me and is the cause of my bad choices. I think Lucifer is a wanna-be rebel who could sift us like wheat if we are given, by God, to him.
I'll do research to counter yours, but let's get right to the central point...
Pornography is anti-empathetic, it is about using a human being as a disposable object for a shallow and cold gratification, it is about treating humanity as a commodity, and worse, it seeks to strip every molecule of dignity away in the process.
Modern day porn is not content with explicit views of coitus...it is consumed with the dark intent of shredding any ounce of dignity of the subject.
You think that's just fine? You think that has no ripple effect, no ambient impact on the world in which we live?
And while it is destroying the 'best' of what we can be, enslaving those that salivate to it's vile allure, think also of those fractured, screwed up people out there that are sitting ducks to be used in this money making evil by savvy porn business types....it is pure evil from every facet.
Pedophilia, SM, beastiality, humiliation, pain, take your pick..whatever takes the greatest toll on the humanity of those depicted is all the rage these days.
Cannot imagine how any civilzed, intelligent, self-proclaimed 'humane' man would ever defend this poison..Shows the power of it's insidious addiction.
I never addressed the Victoria's Secret thing.
Spoke of the larger context of porn and its ubiquity.
Albeit they are an increasingly sleazy organization I will admit. Not my cup of tea, but would not call it porn.
For goodness sakes, man, buy a new one instead.
You can obtain them free on P2P.
(At least that's what I hear)
I was in a hurry.
No. Just thought they were interesting.
Point me to this thread please.
We're so not on the same page. When you say porn, you're thinking of things that must be truly weird. When I think of porn, I'm not even thinking of explicity views of coitus, but comely centerfolds.
I doubt you will find credible sex crime figures that counter the USDOJ, but knock yourself out.
That quack you cited misstated the facts when he said:
"The rise in sexual crimes, sexual dysfunction and family breakdown may be linked to the increased availability and use of pornography."
Will your social scientist now say:
The fall in sexual crimes and family breakdown may be linked to the increased availability and use of pornography.
The physical state of the universe at any given time. The stars, the constellations.
Yeah, I'm talking about the stuff that leads to anti-social behavior and even violence at times.
I'm not so naive to believe that "girlie magazines" will ever go away. But as far as I can tell, unless you're talking something like Esquire (which is a good mag mostly), most men's magazines and sites seems to favor less appreciation for nude female beauty and more gynecological exposure...no respect and dignity there.
But that is mild compared to the web.
I imagine it was probably inevitable that "comely centerfolds" would eventually become common food for those that spent too much time with them and the tittilation meter had to be racheted up--now completely off the scale.
Some even believe this is a recipe for socialist takeover btw...soften up the masses with additive tittilation which characteristically carries increasing levels of apathy, lethargy, disassociation from community, breakdown of solid family units and relationships.
The really hateful, degrading stuff is becoming so commonplace--even posted in the French Quarter and Times Square for all eyes to see. Very worrisome, I hate to see it defended here.
We better watch ourselves and wake up.
For example, it used to be in the US that standard business law of long derivation required no only agreement but FAIR EXCHANGE of value, of some real, or commonly understood value. Nowdays, as I understand, some US Judges have allowed one-sided agreements where in some silly moment a person AGREES to something that's a completely lopsided deal. Still would meet your criterion, but not mine, nor history's.
Death contracts should be illegal, in my view. That's where the beneficiary receives payment on someone's death. We call such contracts "Life Insurance". Well, I'mm all for burial coverage, and some few limited years of income in recourse -- say three to seven. But more? It's a motive for murder or suicide or giving up when one is very sick.
Gambling contracts are illegal, mostly. And they should be. Why? Because we all pay for the courts. And I don't like to pay for the bad business of wastrels and no-accounts. Most people don't like to. You probably don't.
But when you allow silly contracts -- contracts that by the very thing they contract for create contention and strife -- why we all pay those dispute bills. Asessted court costs do not, especially when the disputes turn criminal -- which they do.
That, I can not believe. How do they measure it? Pornography makes a guy fay, I suspect, maybe it's a lot of fay guys posing as women.
I'd like to see those crime figures plotted quarterly versus total internet bandwidth in that quarter. I think the crime reporting periods are quarterly.
The atmosphere of self gratification has brought us less marriages generally and escalating rates of single women having children, regardless of the fact that fewer teens are having babies, the older women are doing it increasingly without men. You see, all this mysoginy is taking a toll in many interesting ways.
But the teens...the research is massive--no, not as many having babies--they are getting abortions almost drive-thru style. And they are alternatively supplying oral sex learned from the videos you love, the guys talk them into it, the girls want to be popular.
You and your ilk have taken away their defense in having an argument against degrading themselves to participate. To demand that boys show some respect and civil treatment to these girls instead of scarring them emotionally during their most tender years.
The girls are pressured not to be 'uptight', the girls want to be cool, they are impressionable as the young people they are.
Culturally more and more, the boys see a steady diet of females portrayed as degraded objects to serve male needs in the videos and adult sites they frequent --or sites their dad, or older brother visits that they co-opt.
The girls are suffering an onslaught of peer influence from boys that hear men like you say there is nothing wrong with it. The culture teaches them to dress like porn stars too, this is their worth.
So these little girls serve up their favors to be "popular"--on the bus, in the classroom, with multiple guys--it's an epidemic now. Oral cancer among non-smoking females under 20 is skyrocketing in the UK due to the STD HPV (Papilloma in the mouth) and thought to be transmitted via oral sex practices (will supply link if interested).
All of this is breaking down these kid's world and mine and yours.
Yeah, they got the message about not having babies, alright, but just not on wrecking their lives--check the stats on teen suicide these days.
So why marry when you are focused on shallow pursuits with available virtual sex and have decided the family is an overrated, too 'sacrificing of yourself', concept? It is all part and parcel of the decay brought on by an overly permissive culture.
See article below
More in America Putting Off Marriage
December 01, 2004 7:18 AM PST
WASHINGTON - It used to be common for men and women to get a marriage certificate not too long after collecting their high school diploma. Not anymore. Census Bureau figures for 2003 show one-third of men and nearly one-quarter of women between the ages of 30 and 34 have never been married, nearly four times the rates in 1970.
In 1970, only 6 percent of women 30 to 34 had never been married; the figure was 23 percent in 2003. The rate for never-married men in the same age group rose from 9 percent to 33 percent.
Among younger women, some 36 percent of those 20 to 24 had never been married in 1970; last year it was 75 percent. Among men in that age group, the change was nearly as dramatic: 55 percent in 1970 to 86 percent last year.
Meanwhile, societal pressures to marry before having children have decreased, said Thomas Coleman, executive director for the Glendale, Calif.-based Unmarried America, which also promotes equality for unmarried people. Among the group's concerns are tax policies which it contends are stacked against single people.
In 2003, nearly 35 percent of all births were to unmarried women, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That's up from 11 percent in 1970, though the rate of increase has slowed since 1995, when 32 percent of births were out-of-wedlock. Births to unmarried teens have declined since the mid-1990s.
Meaghan Lamarre, 24, a research assistant in Providence, R.I., said she and her boyfriend of 10 months "are not in a big hurry to marry."
"There's no time frame of when to get married.... It's not a goal," said Lamarre, an Alternatives to Marriage Project member. "I'm not opposed to it, but I think I could live happily ever after without being married."
That kind of talk disturbs David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, a New York-based pro-marriage organization.
Compared with 1970, Blankenhorn said, "There is a sense that marriage has a less dominant role in our society and is less influential as a social institution."
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