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
Gimme a break.
Food sustains life you twit.
Food has intrinsic value--yes it can be abused (overeating etc), but it has inherent value and is necessary for us to survive.
Porn does not..it destroys, addicts and tears apart depth of connection between humans and that most essential component--empathy. Instead, breeding mysoginy and the opposite of connection--expoitation. And a perfect platform for a coarse, cynical world. It's ripping us apart now, right now.
Go back to your seedy appetite--aren't you missing some porn time?
Now all we need is to find a story about an African tribe that worships Salma Hayek's breasts...
"Local obscenity laws banned porn in most of the country 30 years ago but I don't recall it being any police state."
Those laws ATTEMPTED to ban porn. They never banned a darned thing. No, it wasn't a police state. The cops were watching those flickering 8mm porn movies at their weekly smokers, right alongside the fraternal orders and other gatherings of adult males.
Porn has been with us as long as we have been on this planet. It's not going anywhere.
isnt there a rule about porn threads requiring pics? maybe I'm confused.
poing
You people never stop do you? Now it's a whacko theory that Victoria's Secret was the impetus that led to the death of a coed at the hands of a repeat sex offender. Blame anyone but the criminal I guess.
You oppose self-control and, therefore, you will be controlled.
The DOJ still prosecutes even 'simple' obscenity (consensual adult porn that is well outside of the porn mainstream)
The major grouse I hear from women about porn is it sets unrealistic expectations, perpetuates ridiculous myths and adds even more to sexual discontent between the genders.
IOW, a man hooked on porn will often be extremely disappointed in most, if not all of the RL females he encounters/marrys. And will usually take it out on her for being at fault (difficult, demanding, slow, imperfect), and then return to porn for satisfaction with the 'perfect, no fuss, no effort' woman.
Knowaddamean Vern?
Have you been eating the BAD cookies again?!
Our Founding Fathers did protect our rights to use drugs and other sinful items though. Beer isn't outlawed and only recently was pot. I don't see porn to be much different. A few people chose to use them to get through their lives.
As long as it doesn't get in the way of everyone else's lives, I think that's exactly what our Founding Fathers provided us with. A Constitution that protects our rights to be human. We can drink under it and cary a gun, we can surely enjoy a few pictures of naked people every once in a while.
Actually, its radical feminism that breed my misogyny. Its only nekkid women that swing me back to neutral on the issue.
Yes, attractive women are evil. Victoria's Secret is evil. You should never see your spouse in anything remotely alluring. The horrors.
I want to see more science behind this, and less cries of 'turpitude'.
The Song of Solomon made it into the Bible somehow, and though I think it falls short of a fisting video, I think there has been little hard science on pornography.
In criminal science, a prediliction for porn fits a profile for certain types of offenders. So does a tendancy toward injuring or killing small animals does.
In these profiles, pornography is an indicator of a problem, and not a cause.
Addiction to porn is well-documented, as is addiction to gambling, internet gaming, video gaming, pursuit of a profession, or any other thing that appeals to core aspects of our self-image and our ego. People become addicted to work, to the detriment of marriages and children's upbringing, but we haven't banned that yet.
I agree that the 1st amendment shouldn't abridge God from textbooks in our schools, and I also believe the answer to porn is don't consume it. Children shouldn't be involved in it, but beyond that, the state should stay out of it.
Say the name, post a pic. Rules. ;-)
And boring too.
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