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
Well said.
To me it's all a form of pornography, the Victoria's Secret catalogue, the fashion show, Miss America, Miss Universe, and women’s beach volleyball. They're all designed to elicit prurient interest in women's bodies. While they're at it, the women's groups should protest the Victoria's Secret TV commericals. Those chicks are half naked, for goodness sake!
"Pornography appeals only to our darkest, most base appetites. There is nothing 'good' about it. It cannot be said of it that it promotes dignity, honor, trustworthiness, selfcontrol, selfrespect, decency, fidelity, commitment, or any other of the virtues."
Whatever you do -- don't post a picture of her.
Or else we'll all turn into uncontrollable criminals.
Are the Japanese reproducing themselves at replacement rates? They're not, so I rest my case.
I have no problems with self-control. I'm opposed to intrusive government control into the private activities of consenting adults.
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
I realize it may seem like nit-picking semantics, but it really isn't. Just as the choice of the "shall" or "may" in a statute makes a major difference in just what a statute says, so does the choice between the words "can" and "will."
By your claim of "everyone" you insinuated the word "will," which is actually refuted by the article.
With all of that said, I agree with the premise of the article and the documentation being used to back it up. It's one glaring fault lies in the lack of mention, other than the word "can", of the fact the vast majority of men who crack open a Playboy magazine of occassion do not become another Ted Bundy.
Many women are no more enlightened than many men--it isn't a sex-linked trait.
But face it, men lead this stuff off, they are the patrons overwhemlingly--the women involved are weak, stupid and mostly from abused situations. A special I saw recently spoke of the number of runaways and addicts in this stuff.
And if they're not already addicted, their "producers" are happey to get them strung out to get more "product" out of them. NOT a victimless crime.
Too many of these lost, damaged women want to please the 'man'--looking for 'Daddy'--and they'll sell everything for that. Human throwaways.
Very sad but all the more reason that the good men of this world need to stand up and become the best they can be and disavow this stuff.
No, we are to conclude that, like any other studies, some are fatally flawed and others less so. We don't throw out all the studies as irrelevant because some contradict others, we root out those that are bogus and keep nailing down the truth.
You can usually spot this bunch by the stalwart defense of the notion that human beings should only have sex to procreate.
No, I havn't. I'll be the first to admit a few things, I guess, though.
1. I'm human. Male, straight, and imperfect. I find the female form very attractive (in limited instances) and that is part of the natural state of things. I was made that way for a reason.
2. I don't much care for Porn, and I don't go out of my way to view it.
With that in mind, I do have a problem with people with an agenda who basically say "If you look at the Victoria's Secret catalog, you'll end up kidnapping co-eds to rape and murder them". the "logic" used to reach that conclusion is specious, and there is an obvious agenda behind it - Control. Period.
So sue me ;0)
Heathen!
Right you are, sir! I somehow forgot that Ms. Laetitia has modeled for VS, probably since she doesn't look like an emaciated junky but rather like a healthy adult babe.
Are you sure? There wasn't a pubic hair on the can?
Wow. Jump to conclusions without any facts much?
I'm not gonna waste my time with people like you, who have zero evidence of anything, so resort to personal attacks.
Piss off.
The production of pornographic imagery does not constitute a "private activity between consenting adults."
Most of these women were abused sexually as kids.... so porn in a very real sense is a product fed by this. I don't think I have ever read an interview with a PS where she didn't mention her early 'initiation' into sex.
So when I see porn, I see the end product of sexual abuse.
I shudder to think of young men today beginning their ogling rituals with the bizarre stuff that's only a mouse click away now.
It seems impossible to sort through the haystacks of sin and assign order and cause to any one category. Yet I often wonder if outrage over some extreme--in this case, porn--isn't a rabbit trail away from the more common devastations of divorce, adultery, remarriage, fornication, etc. Where is the apocalyptic outrage over these?
Clearly more people are indulging in actual sinful relationships than in the imaginary (for the viewer, not the actors) sinful relationships of pornography. I strongly believe that pornography has risen as an ersatz sexual outlet due to the contaminating effects of divorce and family disintegration.
Into that void comes all manner of false charms to soothe, especially impressionable, vagabond children.
I admit that porn has ruined my generation of men. We expect our women to be big-busted, flat-tummied, firm-assed, clean-shaven, bisexual, stilleto and fishnet wearing nymphettes.
We're the victims here.
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