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
Anglo-American law has never required a "fair exchange" for a contract to be valid. (The Napoleonic Code, which is the basis of European Civil Law, did, to some extent; I'm not sure if it still does.)
A contract, to be enforceable, requires "consideration," meaning each side must agree to do something, but the consideration given up by one side does not have to be equal in value to that given by the other. This was called by the English judges the "peppercorn" rule-- meaning that you could agree to sell something valuable, like your house, for something as trivial as one peppercorn, and it would be a valid contract-- and was part of the common law since before Blackstone.
Absent fraud or misrepresentation, "lopsided" deals are legal, and have been for hundreds of years.
Your "hope" is wishful thinking unfortunately.
Just the opposite phenomenon occurs for those seeking "excitement." "Accepability" of porn is busting moves left and right (figuratively and ideologically) with NO end in sight.
When you see and hear "conservatives" blinded and in denial to admit even minor cultural collateral damage is inflicted by the non-stop suggestive language, jokes, innuendo, media, and "entertainment" of porn outlets, things WILL get worse before things get better.
And one need not be a prude or saint to admit it's out of hand NOW.
Fewer teens are engaging in sexual activity than in the past, and those that do are more likely to use contraceptives, the government said Friday.
The National Center for Health Statistics said that for girls aged 15 to 17 the percentage who had ever had intercourse declined from 38 percent in 1995 to 30 percent in 2002.
For boys, the agency said, the decline was 43 percent to 31 percent. [end excerpt]
Just stop replying to me - you've yet to post anything of any substance. Every one of your posts is simply some sort of proclamation or recitation of talking points. You've continually told other posters that they are stupid or idiotic, yet your posts contain no substance whatsoever. You just repeat over and over that others don't know what they're talking about without actually offering any rebuttal.
You may not agree with other posts and that's cool. That's what makes this message board so valuable to conservatives - we can debate issues in an intelligent manner. If you do don't agree with assertions, then just ignore them or post factual rebuttals. Saying that someone is stupid is not an effective rebuttal.
Really?? I'm supposed to post a rebuttal to this little gem? OR is it an "assertion"??:
"If we really want to fight an addiction that ruins relationships and destroys young people [instead of porno], obesity would be the one to go after...."
Yeah maybe you're right...Let me check in and see what the other geniouses at DU are doing.
Thought you might be interested in getting facts straight. Didn't mean to offend you. My apology.
You don't keep up with much do you? Obesity is probably the number one health problem in our country today. Its a REAL problem with REAL statistics to back it up. It also has REAL studies that document its effects.
Do yourself a favor and google obesity in the news and see what you come up with. Do one better and search for obesity and children. It destroys both the physical and emotional well being of our children.
I'm sorry - there's no real reason for you to apologize. I hesitated before hitting the 'Post' button and should have hesitated a little longer. Freegards, and happing Freeping!
No, they are instead engaging increasingly what Clinton told them was NOT sex---oral sex. Casually and with lots of diff guys..this is a real phenomenon in the suburbs, and widely known about. There isnt a mother that had teens that does not hear and know about this sick trend...girls are worn down by the "what's the big deal, you can't get pregnant" line.
Called 'hooking up'--makes ungainly girls feel wanted/popular (as receptacles, let's get real)) and keeps the boys well contented in whipping it out for servicing, at any moment-- what a sickening trend.
See below:
Kids aren't having casual sex, they're having oral sex
By Joy Lanzendorfer
Brad, 15, has had oral sex with three different partners, only one of whom was his girlfriend. The other two girls were "just friends," he says.
It's common among his friends for girls to perform fellatio on boys they aren't dating. In fact, he says, they do it all the time--at parks, parties, and even at school.
Ashley, 14, agrees with Brad. She says that oral sex is definitely more common than intercourse among the teens she knows. She first performed fellatio when she was 11, she says, but most of her friends started later, around 12 or 13. Though she says that at her school people don't have oral sex with friends like they do at Brad's school, in most cases it's the girls doing the giving, often because they feel they have to in order to keep their boyfriends.
"Girls don't have to sleep with their boyfriends, but boys will say, 'Give me a blow job, or I'll break up with you,'" she says.
Whitney, 16, hasn't had oral sex because it's "nasty," but she says that almost everyone she knows has done the deed.
"My friends tell me that I'll like it if it ever happens to me," she says. "They tell me that giving it is not so bad."
Of the 25 teens interviewed, almost all said that the girls performed fellatio on the boys. The only time the guys reciprocated was when the girls were their girlfriends. In a few cases, as Ashley described, some girls seem to feel they have to perform oral sex to keep the guy's interest. Alcohol and drugs are sometimes part of the equation. Several teens described the girls who casually perform oral sex as "druggies."
The drawbacks for girls in this situation are obvious and typical. As well as potential infection, girls also face long-standing preconceptions about sexual availability--being "easy" if they "give it up" to a boy.
However, oral sex doesn't always fit into the same category as intercourse. In today's girl-power world, some girls view oral sex as a means to assert control over when and how they are sexual. Some may even use oral sex as a way to maintain their virginity while still pleasing their boyfriends.
A Kiss Goodnight
These North Bay teens are part of a growing segment of teenagers embracing a more casual view of oral sex. Healthcare professionals and educators alike are starting to see evidence that teens as young as middle school are viewing oral sex as a fun activity to be done among friends. Some even view it as another kind of kissing. Often, teens see oral sex as a safer alternative to vaginal sex, because they are unaware that STDs can be transmitted through oral sex.
On the May 7 episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey and her psychological sidekick Dr. Phil, who recently launched his own show, showcased a group of teens who shared this new, casual view of oral sex. Shocked parents and audience members watched as teens described having oral sex with people they weren't dating, simply because they wanted to. The teens said that parents who thought of oral sex as intimate and to be done after vaginal sex were old-fashioned. The show called oral sex the new "spin the bottle."
But Winfrey's show was not the first to tackle this issue. Back in 1997, articles appeared in major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today talking about this new trend. While the anecdotal information continues, few studies have emerged giving factual data on how serious this issue has become.
However, a 2000 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York revealed that there was a lack of information among teens on oral sex and other noncoital behaviors, such as mutual masturbation and anal sex. According to the study, "many teenagers perceive oral sex as safer and less intimate than intercourse. Teenagers seem to be especially misinformed about the STD risks of oral sex."
How serious is this issue in the North Bay? Are more local teens practicing oral sex, or is this another example of media exaggeration?
"In the past five years, we have seen an increase in oral sex among teens," said Barbara Branagan, RN, Sonoma County's Public Health Services director and head of the Sonoma County Public Health Clinic. "Teens are definitely more casual about oral sex and view it differently than other generations have. Some teens are having it at parties, in groups, and they don't see anything wrong with it."
Just how many students are doing this remains a question. Branagan is quick to point out that she does not believe the majority of teens are having oral sex, just that her clinic has seen an increase.
Branagan acknowledges the girl-power issue plays a role. "It's almost as if the girls are getting a kind of reversed power out of it," she said. "Instead of sex, which is thought of as something boys do to girls, they are doing the oral sex to the guys."
Of the 25 teens--between ages 13 and 17--interviewed for this article, the results were mixed. While plenty of teens had views like Brad and Ashley, almost an equal number have not had oral sex, and several of them called it "immoral behavior."
Among the five 13-year-olds I talked to, none of them had had oral sex. However, all but one student said that either their friends or other students at school talked in detail about having had oral sex.
"They are having it," said Shannen Farrell, matter-of-factly. Farrell is a health information specialist who presents sex education through the Sonoma County Public Health Clinic to county schools. "Many students have talked to me about this issue. And I can see it on their faces when I talk to them about oral sex. It's not all of them, but it's clear that a lot of them are. It's fair to say that the number of students having oral sex is increasing."
The clinic has heard of parties where teens have group oral sex, doing it in front of each other as past generations played kissing games. The change in attitude has shocked more than one educator.
A principal of a local middle school called the clinic about a teenage couple in the parking lot of the school caught masturbating and performing oral sex on each other. When confronted, neither teen thought it was a big deal.
"To older generations, oral sex is something that comes after sex, something that is considered quite intimate," said Farrell. "To this generation, it's more casual and seen as something that comes before sex. For some teens, it's almost a part of getting to know each other."
Presidential Precedents
Experts say the reason for the shift in attitude toward oral sex is partially due to our sex-soaked culture. The Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton scandal made oral sex seem more acceptable, and some teens have used it as an excuse for their behavior, according to Lynn Ponton, a psychiatrist at UC San Francisco. "Kids tell me over and over in my office, 'The president did it.'"
In the media, sexual images are aimed at younger audiences. MTV seems to get more sexual every year. For example, this season of the reality-based TV show The Real World, set in Las Vegas, has already featured young, attractive cast members engaging in a threesome--a far cry from the aspiring poets and police officers the show put on when it first started in 1990.
Recently, during an episode of The Real World, MTV aired a commercial encouraging the awareness that oral sex is not safe sex. The ad, with four women sitting around a cafe table, was a spoof on HBO's Sex and the City.
Pop music is being manufactured for younger teens--the new target demographic--while it is becoming more sexualized. Singers like Christina Aguilera, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez sport less and less clothing and more provocative dancing and lyrics. Britney Spears, whose fan base is grounded in junior high-aged teens and younger, presents a particularly conflicting image, talking about saving herself for marriage while prancing around half-naked and singing lyrics fraught with sexual innuendoes.
"There is a lot of talk about not doing it before you're married, like Britney Spears telling us that, and then we found out she lied," says Jennifer, 14. "It gives you a more broader view of day-to-day life. You see it happening a lot on TV or movies, which we seem to copy."
A lack of education also contributes to why some teens are adopting new attitudes about oral sex. While kids are bombarded with sexual imagery in their daily lives, they don't necessarily understand the risks involved with the sexual behavior. Forty percent of the teens interviewed for this article had not been taught about oral sex in school. In addition, many of the students didn't consider oral sex to be sex.
Some sex educators encourage this view, leaving personal definitions up to the student. Jennifer Weaver, community health director for Planned Parenthood, teaches sex education throughout the Bay Area. She tells kids that they need to decide for themselves whether they are virgins or sexually active.
"Everyone views it differently," she says. "Some people view mutual masturbation or oral sex as sex, and some don't. I just try to define terms for them and let them decide for themselves."
For the past two decades, sexual education has focused on intercourse with an emphasis on abstinence. Oral sex is sometimes ignored because sex education doesn't always break down all sexual activities, one reason why there is so little data on teens and oral sex.
Most research surveys ask whether or not a student is sexually active. To many teens, being sexually active means having sex. So even if they are engaging in other sexual activities, like oral sex, when asked if they are sexually active, they will often answer no. Thus, researchers are gathering data from a question that many students misunderstand. When the term "sexual activity" is broken down, the answers are quite different.
"You ask them, 'Are you abstinent?' and they will say, 'Oh yeah, I'm abstinent,'" said Farrell. "Then when you start to break down the different kinds of sexual activities, you hear a different story. We break abstinence down for them as absolutely no sexual activity with another partner."
A 1996 UCLA study of 2,026 teens revealed that while 47 percent said they were virgins, 35 percent of those same teens engaged in sexual activity ranging from mutual masturbation to oral sex and beyond. Another survey by Twist magazine of more than 10,000 girls revealed that though 80 percent said they were virgins, 25 percent of those virgins had had oral sex.
Because of spotty education, many students are unclear about whether STDs can be transferred through oral sex. A 2001 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation of more than 500 teens said that though 72 percent were sexually active, 93 percent didn't think they were at risk for an STD. One quarter of those teens didn't think an STD could be spread through oral sex.
Of course, STDs such as herpes I and II, gonorrhea, and syphilis are transmitted through oral sex. HIV and chlamydia can also be transferred through oral sex, though to a lesser degree. Condoms and dental dams reduce the risk of transferring STDs through oral sex.
Data on STDs in Sonoma County is not broken down into whether the diseases were transmitted via vaginal or other sexual activities. However, the 2000 Sonoma County Adolescent Health Perspective, which focused on the 13 to 19 age group, found that gonorrhea had increased 25.4 percent for males and 26.9 percent for females. Chlamydia has also increased in the last few years among teens, according to Branagan, but she says there is no evidence that the higher rate is related to oral sex.
Two-thirds of reportable STDs occur in people under 25 years old, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Part of this is because the reproductive systems of younger women are less resistant to infection, so they are more vulnerable to disease. Sonoma County is seeing higher rates of abnormal Pap smears in women under 20, and the rate is now comparable to abnormal Pap smears seen in 40-year-old women a few years ago, according to Branagan.
Educating the Educators
The first step to combatting this problem is a shift in how sex education is presented. A May 27 U.S. News and World Report story focused on how abstinence education has failed to hinder the high rates of STDs among certain groups of teens. The Sonoma County Public Health Clinic developed its sex education curriculum around how to maneuver a relationship, and the dangers of different sexual behaviors.
"We're trying to get teens past thinking sex is just sex and that it's not just hopping into bed with someone," said Farrell. "We want them to think about the consequences of their actions, to realize that sex is emotionally complex, and that potentially getting a disease or pregnant is a serious thing. We are trying to show them that it's not emotionally or physically easy to deal with something like having an abortion, for example."
The sex education program explains what constitutes a sexual behavior and the dangers of each behavior.
"I really rail on the oral sex so they are clear," adds Farrell.
Parental involvement is also deeply needed. Many parents are unaware that oral sex is a separate and complex issue from vaginal sex. Not a single student interviewed for this article had talked with his or her parents about oral sex, though many had had "the sex talk" (well, except for John, 16, whose Dad told him that it "doesn't matter if a man is good in bed, as long as he's good at oral sex").
Sex educators suggest that parents define all possible sexual behavior with their teens, including oral sex, and talk about the emotional and physical ramifications of each behavior, as well as when it should be done and with whom. Parents should be prepared for arguments like "it's not a big deal" and "everybody is doing it." Also, avoid making assumptions about what teens know or don't know regarding sex.
As a society, however, this trend speaks to a larger problem.
"We really need to ask ourselves as a society what we are teaching our children with this saturation of sexual images like we have," said Branagan. "It's not that the teens don't have a responsibility in this issue, but in a way, they are mirroring back what we are teaching them.
"We need to really look at the images we're sending out to our children."
How do know it's increasing? From your article:
While the anecdotal information continues, few studies have emerged giving factual data on how serious this issue has become.
Jeff, in your response to F16 you suggested that obesity is an 'addiction' that should be focused upon rather than porn. Obesity has its' share of harmful consequences, but some reflection would show that the destructive consequences of porn far outpace those of obesity.
Consider what happens to the bodies of porn acters/actresses.
Because anal penetration is an unnatural act since it's at crosspurposes with the design and purpose of the human body, the act results in stretching, tearing, and otherwise traumatizing that are of the body. Further consequences result: (a) the tears become infected by toxic bacteria that exist for the purpose of waste disposal, leading eventually to STDs and AIDs (b) tears can eventally become fistulas...tunnel like formations that connect two areas not meant to be connected. For instance, a fistula can connect the anal area to the penis, resulting in defecation through it (c)continual stetching of tissue not meant to be stretched in that manner leads to the breakdown of its elasticity. This leads to incontinence and the need to wear adult diapers.
Now think of this Jeff: All porn users are aiding and abetting the foregoing destruction because users are the Market. Users are culpable for the disease, death, and misery visited upon porn acters and actresses.
In response to your question concerning America's youth and STDs, consider the following, found by typing the key words: "stds teens cdc" into a search engine. The example below is but one of hundreds concerned with the epidemic of STDs in America's children.
"According to a recent report by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one out of every two sexually active young people can expect to become infected with a sexually transmitted disease by age 25. Sexually active teens ages 15 to 19 have the highest STDs of any age group of the general
population, the study found, according to The Washington Times Feb. 25.".......http://www.mcjonline.com/news/04a/20040308e.shtml
Now connect the dots: Back in the 60's and in times prior to that, STDs, if found at all, were extremely rare among school children of all ages. Today, STDs, outbreaks of throat gonnorhea, etc. are increasingly common and prevalent in America's children.
(a)All too many of America's children can't read or think for themselves but know all about putting condoms on bananas, tasting them, role-playing as homosexuals, and in some of the more extreme cases, how to engage in the homosexual S&M behavior known as 'fisting." STDs are epidemic among children and teens.......connect the dots.
(b)The fraudulent research conducted by Kinsey, a homosexual S&M pedophile, is used as the basis for all sex education in our schools. Kinsey said...."children {and babies} are sexual creatures from birth....America's children have been sexualized; the ACLU is representing NAMBLA in one case........ (connect the dots)
(c) homosexual sado-masochistic porn is everywhere to be found on the internet. Fisting, rimming, ejaculation, urination {golden showers}, & defecation onto the faces of & into the mouths of people are all examples of homosexual S&M. Children & teens have access to this depravity.......connect the dots.
(d) heterosexuals, including the parents, are users of homosexual S&M porn, and as a result,their attitudes about sex have become as warped as those of the deviants who produce and act in it. Children are diseased, being raped and otherwise sexually abused at increasing rates........connect the dots.
When are heterosexuals going to clean up their acts? And why shouldn't radical homos, including the leather people S&M's believe there are no differences between heterosexuals and themselves when heterosexuals are so very attracted to homosexual S&M porn?
Very true about anal sex.
Not a healthy practice--at the risk of getting way too specific for this forum, I had two gay friends (males) that had to have that "output" region, shall we say, er-hum, surgically tightened and reconstructed (because of too much activty) --not once, but twice, because of the severe dimnishing of necessary, utilitarian, tauntness for normal bodily function...(sorry to be so graphic).
Another anecdote: Friend of the family's son-in-law insisted his wife allow him to anally interact with her to the point of real anatomical damage and raging infection --eventually her DOCTOR had to intervene and demand the husband stop pressuring his wife for this (granted wife was mousey and passive and should have refused, but the husband is a boorish --and yes, porn addicted--steamroller-ONLY likes sex this way).
My ex had an ironic (have to admit pretty funny)comment re the the practice after hearing this-- saying, "what we all need to do, is tattoo "Exit Only" on our butt cheeks!"
The sad part is that this guy --even after the health warning from her doctor, returned to demanding this painful practice from his wife. Good news is, she eventually got smart and strong enough to leave him.
I hate that is this pracice is being marketed as normal--it has serious health implications--just as some of the other 'exotic' practices...very bad stuff.
Plus, what the heck is SEXUAL about this??
You gotta be kidding me!!!
That is one of a legion of articles and information about the increasing prevalence of this...added to my own experiecne in a very upscale suburban area where every PTA and parents organization has the issue on red alert, right at the top the list because of it's epidemic trend.
Before you go on living in denial-- try researching the topic--you'll find lots to read about this.
Sadly, many of the arguments being presented are predicated on an assumption that no such option exists.
From what you describe, it is about control and abuse.
Since this is a political forum, I'd like to ask what is your opinion of the Violence Against Women Act?
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