Posted on 10/20/2005 4:56:55 PM PDT by wagglebee
A contributor to Time magazine says contemporary society has been misled into believing pornography is harmless entertainment. According to Pamela Paul, author of Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families (Times Books, 2005), what was once hidden in dark alleys and seedy theaters is now being glorified and mainstreamed by today's "pornified" culture.
"There's an idea that pornography is cool and that it's perfectly normal for men to look at pornography -- that they are biologically programmed to want to look at pornography," Paul says.
And, she notes, women have been "a serious target of this message in that they are told pornography is a guy thing, and that it's not their right to complain."
In fact, Paul says, the mainstreaming of pornography has taught a generation of women to believe that porn is for the independent and liberated. But that idea could not be more wrong, she asserts, because in reality porn victimizes women, poisons men, and causes children to grow up too fast.
In her book, Pornified, Paul assembles a compilation of surveys and other research as well as anecdotal evidence of the problems porn causes. Of particular concern, she points out, are stories of young children and teens accessing pornography from school computers.
The Time magazine feature writer says it is "very disturbing" that researchers are not exactly sure how exposure to porn is going to affect children down the road. "But it's clear that kids develop sexually during adolescence," she adds, "and they learn what their sexual cues are -- what's exciting, what's appealing" to them.
"If kids are looking at hardcore pornography online and learning that this is what's normal and that this is what is supposed to be exciting and this is what they're supposed to aspire to, they're learning a very scary lesson," Paul says. And her own research indicates that the damage caused by youngsters' exposure to porn could be both extensive and long term.
In a survey the author conducted herself, the overwhelming majority of respondents cited a long list of negative effects from pornography use, including poor relationship skills and serious trust and loyalty issues. Responses also indicated that porn can lead to negative body image issues in women and can distract men from their partners, detract from their sexual skills, and damage their relationships.
Paul contends that pornography is obviously a poison and that it has unfortunately seeped into many people's everyday lives. She hopes her book will help dispel contemporary society's misconceptions that pornography is in any way normal, hip or harmless.
After writing this, it wouldn't surprise me if she was fired from Time magazine.
Moral absolutes ping.
Interesting. Two problems, though:
1. Minors aren't supposed to be accessing porn, are they?
Enforce the law = end of problem.
2. Last I knew, Japanese men consumed way more porn than Americans, including a lot of violent porn and porn featuring "schoolgirls." (Sailor Moon, anyone?)
One would thus expect Japan to be a moral sewer where women aren't safe on the streets. Not the case.
If you don't like porn, don't buy it.
Computers, TV sets and radios come with off switches and channel selectors, too.
Nice modest top there, Pammy.
If they're worried about porn served to kids, then they need look no further than MTV, the pioneer in both the mainstreaming of pornography and the introduction thereof to children.
Porn is harmful to those who have obsessive personalities to begin with. Even most of those people are usually nonviolent.
Don't get me started on "men of the cloth" who are forbidden to own pornography, but can't seem to keep their hands off of each other or the teens they associate with.
What exactly is wrong with her shirt? No part of her breast is exposed; the only skin showing is above bone. She doesn't have huge knockers that would be sexy in a close-fitting shirt. Her nipples don't show through the fabric. Her arms and shoulders are covered. Should she wear a burqa?
So ya like it huh?
"Author Hopes Book Will Dispel 'Harmless Fun' Myths About Porn"
Yes, it turns out porn is actually harmless work!
"Before the porn hounds get here, please allow me to post this"
You already posted that in another thread.
So you like it?
What, are you serious?? That's practically Amish compared to what I see young women wearing at school!
"The Time magazine feature writer says it is "very disturbing" that researchers are not exactly sure how exposure to porn is going to affect children down the road."
"In a survey the author conducted herself, the overwhelming majority of respondents cited a long list of negative effects from pornography use, including poor relationship skills and serious trust and loyalty issues."
So she's upset that actually researchers don't find the negative effects from porn she wants them to, so she conducts "research" where she asks people what the effects of porn are? Genius!
I don't and you're attempting to rationalize it by making it appear to be a personal freedom issue instead of what it actually is, and that's a sordid medium which degrades and abases a most beautiful act, the physical expression of love between a man and a woman.
Sorry, but porn, and prostitution, are not victimless when they both overfill into and sully our culture. Not to mention the other 'benefits' like depressed neighborhoods, drug use, theft and a proliferation of sexually transmitted diseases, which are undeniably linked and intensified to the presence or production of pornography.
So you see, it's not merely a matter of me turning the channel or switching it off. Regardless of doing this I and millions of others must take precautions against your victimless hobby.
What about the benefit of the sexual gratification of the viewer?
Of course without porn you run into the problem Chris Rock talks about when your mom finds your stash. "Your looking around for something anything with a woman in revealing clothing, finally as a last resort your in the pantry holding a bottle of Aunt Jemima."
Let's not forget that MTV's motto must be "To destroy all new and original music, and to ensure that everything everyone hears sounds exactly like something they heard before."
Maybe so. Porn should not be illegal. But I think there is something in every person's conscience that tells them that it wrong to watch porn or participate the creation of porn. For example, would you want your daughter, mother or sister to be a porn star? Would you watch porn with your mother, father or sister in the room? NOOOOO! Why not? Because you know there is something intrinsically wrong with watching strangers fornicate for money. And you would hit the ceiling if you had a daughter and you found out she was a porn queen. Porn is DEGRADING for the watchers and the watched and it is NOT good for anyone.
Porn is insidious. It carries a message of an all welcoming invitation by a woman on a picture to have the watcher enjoy as a welcome and wonderful guest. This is why the Japanese and Europeans are not, so far, too damaged by porn, because they have strict guesthood practices which make people mature enough to deal with it without the perversions.
But porn is an unwanted arrogant guest in the house, and its effects on children are similar to pedophilia, and on adults to acceptance of homosexuality. So called homophobe men actualy liking men is a gross misinterpretation of consciousless crude psychologists. Fact of the matter is macho men who like to watch porn have simultaneously their own psychological boundary making abilities destroyed and are not macho anymore. It has nothing to do with homosexuality, but about "opening a door in the heart" to the world.
Only when opening the door to Christ as a guest in one's heart and house through consciousness of Him can the honored Guest have a truly positive effect at chasing away what offends Him and His patient. Psychologists raise consciousness in others as gods without a consciousness themselves of their own sins and how it affects their judgments on people. Counseling is part of an arrogant dark church of false prophets.
WE HAVE TO BE VERY WARY of what Time Mag people are coming from, because women and their privacy is in fact the main tool of promoting women's perversions and beating down on men with yet another unwanted guest in their house, namely a prosecutor/satan. Many people who have boundary problems let the state/satan get into their lives to get things "fixed". This leads to micromanagement and abuses against free speech. Women uncovering themselves make themselves offending and unwanted guests. If banning those books, then why don't women start covering themselves up?Hypocrisy?Feminists are proponents of meat & perversion in RoevWade Privacy, accusing their audiences,taking their publicized home over for their own private perversions.
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