Posted on 04/01/2006 5:37:42 PM PST by Panerai
The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet _ there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans.
It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain.
Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that they hope will fuel lawsuits against porn magnates.
"We don't think it's a lost cause," said Harmer, a Utah-based auto executive and former politician who's been fighting porn for 40 years.
"It's the most profitable industry in the world," he said. "But I'm convinced we'll demonstrate in the not-too-distant future the actual physical harm that pornography causes and hold them financially accountable. That could be the straw that breaks their back."
The activists' adversary is a sprawling industry that, by some counts, offers more than 4 million porn sites on the Internet, that in the United States alone is estimated to be worth $12 billion a year. A tracking firm, comScore Media Metrix, says about 40 percent of Internet users in the United States visit adult sites each month.
Porn products are featured at popular sex expositions and retail chains such as Hustler Hollywood. Major hotels provide in-room porn, and adult film stars are now mainstream celebrities. Mary Carey attended a VIP Republican fundraiser in Washington in mid-March; Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star" hit the best-seller lists and she hosted a racy pre-Super Bowl party in Detroit in February.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Did not you know that FreeRepublic is comprised of 75% blind males.
People with addictions do lose control over their own lives. That's what a real addiction is. It robs a person of the ability to make rational decisions about their life. It's easy to demand that a person just overcome their addictions through willpower but if it were that easy, addiction wouldn't be a problem that follows known patterns and trajectories.
I know that I have low-level addictions. For example, I have an addiction to chocolate. If I don't have chocolate, I crave it. In the past, I've stopped eating chocolate for a period of time to show I could make that choice. The cravings are relatively mild, but I can see how they influence rational decisions. They create thoughts and feelings that try to persuade one to give in, and I could see how stronger cravings could overcome someone.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Scientists have been doing research into how people think and make moral decisions. You should read this article. I've got more scientific peer-reviewed versions of the points raised in the article if you want to demand such things.
LJ, I hate to break it to you, but after having read this entire thread, your side isn't listening any better. This doesn't seem to be an issue where common ground is going to be found. You've made it obvious how you feel, other posters have even gone on to admit that they enjoy porn as a couple. You'll just have to go on hating them, and they you.
And my point was, that's a pretty silly criterion for deciding whether something's good, bad, or indifferent. We'd ban septic tank repair if the "would you want your daughter doing it?" test were applied to the public at large.
"And my point was, that's a pretty silly criterion for deciding whether something's good, bad, or indifferent. We'd ban septic tank repair if the "would you want your daughter doing it?" test were applied to the public at large."
No - clearly you continue to miss the point.
I don't hate people who disapprove of porn. I disagree with them....
For that matter, I don't think they're necessarily missing anything, repressed, or anything else by not being interested in porn. It's just a matter of different people having different personalities and interests.
This is not Kierkegaard you're giving me here - it's fairly transparent, although if it makes you happy to think it's just way too subtle for plebs like me, have at it.
"This is not Kierkegaard you're giving me here - it's fairly transparent, although if it makes you happy to think it's just way too subtle for plebs like me, have at it."
You are reading into it what you want to read into it.
I've already explained it and still you insist that you know better than I do what my point was.
I never said anything about this being the "standard".
But, by all means, don't let this stop you from persisting!
If it were something that fit her personality and interests, I wouldn't mind. But I don't think it's a career track that suits her.
Would I watch it? No. Would I be entirely comfortable with it? No. OTOH, I'm not entirely comfortably thinking about what my daughter may go through if she's going to have children.
I think you should back up and reconsider the analogy I've presented to you. Perhaps you haven't fully considered the implications of what you've posted here.
"If it were something that fit her personality and interests, I wouldn't mind. But I don't think it's a career track that suits her."
Uh huh. Well I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that this response is not what most people have.
"Would I watch it? No. Would I be entirely comfortable with it? No. OTOH, I'm not entirely comfortably thinking about what my daughter may go through if she's going to have children."
That's nice - equating childbirth with starring in a porn movie.
Why am I not surprised?
"I think you should back up and reconsider the analogy I've presented to you. Perhaps you haven't fully considered the implications of what you've posted here."
We aren't speaking the same language.
I've already addressed your analogy. You clearly are impressed with it.
I am not.
So be it.
Okay, well, if you've made up your mind, that's that then. Keep your nose out of other people's bedrooms, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine.
Now you're missing the point, perhaps purposefully. To a certain extent, most parents are protective towards their children, even when the children are adults; even when they intellectually know that their children have to be free agents.
I don't like the idea that my daughter may be in pain, if she becomes a mother. I don't like the idea that either my son or daughter may have to be under severe stress, either physically or mentally, depending on what career they want to pursue. I'm sure my parents weren't all that happy when I worked a seven days a week work schedule for two and half years.
But I want my children to pursue lives that are meaningful and satisfying to them (without harming others). As long as I think they are doing that, then I approve -- even if the details may make me uncomfortable for their sakes.
"Okay, well, if you've made up your mind, that's that then. Keep your nose out of other people's bedrooms, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine."
I cannot think of any time where I have put my nose in "other people's bedrooms"
But this is typical cliche I suppose
"But I want my children to pursue lives that are meaningful and satisfying to them (without harming others). As long as I think they are doing that, then I approve -- even if the details may make me uncomfortable for their sakes"
So you think it is possible for a young woman to pursue a meaningful life in the porn industry?
You think this could be satisfying and wouldn't do any harm to anyone? Including herself?
I really don't see any difference between this career and that of a prostitute.
Undoubtedly.
I really don't see any difference between this career and that of a prostitute.
And I've know of prostitutes who (at least seem) to have found meaning in satisfaction in that career, as well.
Note that that does not mean that aren't porn stars and prostitutes who were not coerced or pressured into that career. But by the same standard there are people who go into med school, who can't hack it and have breakdowns and even commit suicide.... Heck, I came within whispering distance of a nervous breakdown and thought of suicide almost ten years ago, mainly because I had pursued the career my family wanted me to and not what I was suited for.
Different people are suited for different courses in life. There are people who are well-suited -- perhaps even best-suited -- for lives centered on sex without commitment.
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