As a male, my opinion is that pornography's effects are far reaching. A man's sexuality can be greatly altered by the images portrayed by porn, and can affect the way he views all women....in my opinion! Agree or disagree?
2007-08-14 05:17:27 · 12 answers · asked by Graham 5 in Social Science ➔ Gender Studies
I often wonder why more women don't seem troubled by why men are so attracted to pornography, or why more women aren't troubled by the way their gender is portrayed in Rap videos. I was once witness to a conversation among a group of men, and a question was posed..."if you KNEW you could get away with it, would you rape a woman?" I was amazed at how many of the men in that group agreed that they would! Any medium that further objectifies females any more than they already are is dangerous. Pornography doesn't empower, it enslaves.
2007-08-14 07:59:58 · update #1
To Teelelee (hope i spelled that right)...all I'll say here is that i agree with you that violent images are also desensitizing and are also dangerous, if not equally dangerous to porn.
2007-08-14 08:57:16 · update #2
Excellent question. I think anything that objectifies women or men (pornography objectifies men too) is detrimental to the mental health of those who choose to watch such material. On a positive note, more women are taking control over the porn industry and are making what is termed "erotica" for male and female consumption. Not that this is a wonderful thing, but at least it's better than some of the stuff produced by the hard-core pornographers.
That being said, I am not anti-porn and the reason for that is simple: it's been around forever and it's not going to go away any time soon. Pornography has always been the driving force behind technology, and the desire for visual images of sex is one that we humans seem to have. In fact, there are so many new and unique sexual devices out there, it's difficult to keep track. Are they all sexist? Well, I suppose they are, but people have a choice to consume/not consume them. If one feels s/he no longer has a choice, that individual is addicted and has a major problem. When a man close to my neighbourhood abducted and killed a little girl, minutes before, he'd been watching pornography, and said it was the reason he did it. Most serial killers admit to an addiction to pornography--so clearly, it is a destructive and insidious problem that causes a lot of pain to a lot of people. These people are hard-core addicts who, if they only had cave paintings of nude women to rely upon, would probably also become addicted to that, as they have twisted, sick minds to begin with. I don't believe that porn causes mental illness--I think sick people are attracted to porn.
Another issue is the definition of pornography. I find the constant barrage of murders and dead bodies being cut open on shows such as CSI pornographic. I find many commercials and TV shows focusing on female abuse pornographic--I'm not seeing anyone complaining about mainstream nudity in our media, and that, to me, is more of a problem because you only have to turn the TV on and be barraged with these images instead of going to a porn shop to buy/rent the material desired (or download it, whatever). That ties in to what you're saying about rap videos. I never watch music, but the bits I have seen are disgusting. My Black friends will not let their kids watch BET because of that, and I agree. It's further specularization of women, and it gives all women a poor sense of self-esteem--as I'm sure it does for men who don't have the bodies they're supposed to have, according to this garbage. I know I sound confusing in that I'm not anti-porn--but I just don't think anyone can fight the machine on this one since people have always sought these images. But as time goes on, they're only getting worse--and isn't that what our paid censors are supposed to be ensuring doesn't happen? Or have the limits expanded regarding what's tolerable and what's not? Nice question, thanks.
2007-08-14 08:25:36 · answer #1 · answered by teeleecee 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
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2016-07-19 15:40:15 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think that this has anything to do with how women are viewed in society. It has always existed from the earliest peep shows to modern day streaming video. The difference between then and now is that there is no clear cut line. In 1807 it was understood that the women involved in those activities, while serving an important function, belonged to a certain demographic and their actions were no reflection on average women. In the age of "girls gone wild" not so much. I was watching a morning show recently and they were discussing the modesty movement. It really surprised me that the male anchor was all for it but the female anchor repeatedly stressed that the 15 year old wearing shorts with a 3 inch inseam (if that) and the tank top looked "cute" while kind of taking the "modest" woman to task for being judgmental and implying that her modesty was a result of low self-esteem. Mind you, the modest woman wasn't covered in 3/4 of cloth, she was wearing a tasteful wrap dress. In short, I think that (sorry to break rank girls) women are more of the problem than men at this point. The problem wasn't with the pictures or the shows of old and it's not with the professional actors now. The problem arose when average women decided that they were going to let it all hang out and not just in the media but in the streets as well. When average women decided to post shameful images on myspace and have their own streaming videos live and direct from their very own bedrooms. This, more than anything, has shifted the perception of women in this country.
2007-08-14 06:17:19 · answer #3 · answered by I'm back...and this still sucks. 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Agreed
2007-08-14 05:21:28 · answer #4 · answered by Rana 7 · 5⤊ 1⤋
I agree. I think it deals less with the image of being a plastic than that of being portrayed as an object and a piece of prop.
2007-08-14 05:33:56 · answer #5 · answered by samurai_fairy 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I absolutely agree. Unfortunately, this is definately a minority opinion.
Pornography is harmful to everyone - whether you view it or not. It cultivates unhealthy attitudes. Very sad.
2007-08-14 05:56:20 · answer #6 · answered by Sarah 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I whole-heartedly agree.
For men, it puts in their mind an image of what girls should look like, and what they should do.
For women, it gives us the idea that men only want women who look like that and are willing to act like that.
2007-08-14 06:41:16 · answer #7 · answered by Katelyn 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Women and girls are depicted as sex objects used and abused. porn is disgusting and should be outlawed but since it isnt woman are used by the man to pleasure him and satisfy his needs not her own and then he moves onto to someone else...
2007-08-14 07:55:33 · answer #8 · answered by THE UK WILDCAT FAMILY 10 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
i agree. it gets consuming, i've seen it happen. the type of porn gets more & more extreme & normal human sexuality just gets discarded & is not longer stimulating as the person becomes desensitized.
2007-08-14 05:48:09 · answer #9 · answered by Ember Halo 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
In my opinion it really has a negative affect of how we are viewed. We're all expected to be skinny enough so that people can count our ribs, 'beautiful' [honestly, models make me gag, they all look the same], and if we're not considered 'beautiful' by society.. We're considered useless.
2007-08-14 05:22:42 · answer #10 · answered by ? 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋