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
" In a free society, people are free to do things you find disgusting, so long as they do not harm others."
What about harming the poor pig?
That is one ridiculous article.
Whether true or not, that statement does nothing to rebut any argument.
There are THREE contentions being debating on this thread.
a) The "freedom" to watch porn.
b) The degree of detriment of its effect on society
c) The degree of regulation and enforcement of content
The issues which cannot be refuted by anyone is the monumentus tidal wave of content with the advent of the internet, the "acceptability" of higher degrees of vulgarity within the media, and the libertarian-minded indifference to "collateral damage" inflicted.
If maintained at the present accelerated rate of content, ubiquitiousness and uber-hardcore-ness, porn will eventually evolve as front-page "news" and "mainstream entertainment."
So at the point where little Johnny and Janey are sitting in their high-chairs getting spoon fed porn along with their Gerbers, tell those of us NOT wearing blinders that it won't affect us at all.
Ok, one more time... I know this is hard for you to grasp.
It ISN'T PRIVATE these days--it is EVERYWHERE--it is being mainstreamed. What makes you giddy with your increasing ubiquitous 24x7 access, is casting a pall across the quality of life for many more of us and our loved ones.
It is shaping the attitudes that we are having to live with, it is wrecking connections/relationships (lots of studies on this --go ahead, challenge away--just more smoke from you)
It is coarsening our world and it is strpping children of the joys of innocence. It is sexaulizing EVERYTHING.
Your idiotic mantra, "that is a crime, prosecute them" panacea is bogus and unrealistic, and of course you know that.
This is far outpacing any ability to monitor it, it is practically in our water and on our front porches as F16 guy says. You won't admit that cause you like it and you want it close and ever available.
What you DON'T like, I suspect, is women.
No empathy. Not a real man.
So, I guess you're not going to post any pics..............
You keep saying this over and over but that doesn't mean that its true. You are posting on one of the most conservative websites on the net, yet even here many few that you have an unhealthy obsession for porn. Just imagine how this plays in less conservative circles.
Sure, addictions can ruin a person's life, but porn shouldn't be singled out. People get addicted to Ebay, video games, message boards and even church - people can spend over 8 or 10 hours a day with these addictions. All of these can have a negative impact on a person's life, but its still boils down to personal responsibility.
If we really want to fight an addiction that ruins relationships and destroys young people, obesity would be the one to go after. Before it kills, it subjects the person to emotional sufferring and embarrassment for years. It often leads to isolation as well. God even enumerated gluttony as a sin.
Many consider allowing a child to become overweight as a form of abuse - it subjects the child to physical and emotional damage that may never end. It is the cause of countless relationship failures and prevents countless more from even occurring.
Churches don't crusade against obesity however, since that would drive away many of the members. I've heard my pastor mention in passing that we should take care of our bodies, but has never seriously attacked it or devoted a series of sermons to it.
And your answer is, as yet, unknown, since you ducked the queston.
Yes, my answer is to draw no line at all, to allow freely consenting adults to do whatever they freely choose. Say it with me now: freedom. I, you see, choose to stand on principle and I do not believe that I have the right to prevent someone from viewing pornography, smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, eating a Triple Quarter Pounder With Extra Cholesterol, or for that matter guzzling DranoTM if he wants to. It's his body, his life, not mine, and definitely not the government's.
The strong survive; to hell with the rest.
Yes, those who are not "strong" enough to resist subsisting solely on DoritosTM may not survive. And I'm not willing to ban DoritosTM to save them. And to hell with anyone who thinks he has that right.
I'm just glad I'm not in your family.
Likewise.
What's sexahol? =^)
LOL
"Unhealthy obsession??
Good God, because I sense the urgency of this and see it shaping our culture, my concern is 'unhealthy'?
Well, Doctor, please tell me what level of concern is healthy for me?
Yes there are many addictions out there--but none as far reaching in it's abilty to color attitudes and perceptions about 50% of the human race.
"Whore" "bitch" ...the "c word" are all gaining acceptible status in popular culture thanks to the integration of porn culture.
High school girls of 13, 14 , 15 live with everyday.
You that's positive?? You users are positively SELFISH in the extreme with your lack of empathy.
And stunningly dim about seeing the RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE danger of this.
The mark of the addict.
All I can say is "ouch"
He's gonna feel that in the morning.
"Nothin' more maddening for a RL woman to find herself with a 'porn raised' male mind. They are miffed with you from the get go and you wanna slap them silly for being so gullible. ACK!"
Good grief! Stop dating (or marrying, whatever) such losers. Get a better self-image so that you don't develop relationships with such selfish men. You can do better.
"Only Helen Thomas can be safely viewed."
Sez you. We can't take any chances -- she has to wear a burka, too.
I can't remember the last time I was exposed to porn on the street, in the subway, at the mall or even on TV. I'm really not sure where you live that porn is jumping out at you in Starbucks.
It is shaping the attitudes that we are having to live with, it is wrecking connections/relationships
An inanimate object does not shape attitudes or wreck relationships any more than guns kill people.
Your idiotic mantra, "that is a crime, prosecute them" panacea is bogus and unrealistic, and of course you know that.
It's idiotic to prosecute people for violating the law? Okay....
This is far outpacing any ability to monitor it, it is practically in our water and on our front porches as F16 guy says. You won't admit that cause you like it and you want it close and ever available.
Other than the example of popups and spam on the internet, nobody has shown how porn is becoming more available. Like I said, I have no idea where you live, but I live in the EEEEvvviiillll blue area of Metropolitan DC and I can't think of the last time I saw porn in a public place.
"'Whore' 'bitch' ...the 'c word' are all gaining acceptible status in popular culture thanks to the integration of porn culture.
High school girls of 13, 14 , 15 live with everyday."
They also live with our movies and TV shows portraying almost always a male assailent or criminal. The woman is almost always a victim. Shouldn't this teach these young women that men are evil and should be avoided? If their was any validity in the "demoralization" aspect, these girls would either; EXPECT to get raped, abductetec, etc.... or teach themselves to fight men at every turn.
Given the low number of feminists these days, and that girls these days are hardly helpless victims, I would venture to say this theory applies to a small minority at best.
Interesting question.
And I have thought about it.
It isn't going away, that is for sure... and it will be about choice-- since we will not ever censor this trash.
So pragmatically, I think there should be legislation that porn must be under a dot.porn extension on the web--REALLY hard to access--that it should not be out in the open in mainstream retail outlets--it should be hard to access--that physical market locations (strip joints, sex shows, adult shops)--should be zoned into a 'red light' area--you have to make the conscious decision to go there and decend into the cesspool--hard to access-- and OUT OF OUR MAINSTREAM world.
So 'hard to access' is key for me...keep it out my world.
No such proof is necessary.
And please do not call me pro porn.
"If maintained at the present accelerated rate of content, ubiquitiousness and uber-hardcore-ness, porn will eventually evolve as front-page "news" and "mainstream entertainment.""
Actually it's about to reach the saturation point, due to its ubiquity and availability. And then it will cease to be so enticing and exciting because most things like this become a victim of their own success. At least I hope that's right. It will fade away on its own as society changes its ideals once again, that's my prediction.
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