🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <ADNAN.92Aug5081635@redstart.icd.ab.com> adnan@redstart.icd.ab.com
 (Adnan C. Yaqub) writes:
>I think that you are mistaken here.  There is plenty of evidence that
>pornography has a harmful effect on people and society.

Please provide references to all these *fascinating* claims.  I've
heard them before, and usually they seem to be the result of shoddy
research.

>1) Studies show that a diet of pornography desensitizes people to rape
>and other sex crimes.  (The effect was more pronounced in men than in
>women.)

A "diet of pornography"?!?  What, like watching reruns of "Charlie's
Angels" every night?  Is subscribing to Playboy enough, or doesn't it
have enough calories?

  Seriously, I'm aware of studies that show some correlation between
_violent_ "pornography" and the effect you claim, but clearly it's the
violence that makes the viewer more accepting of violent acts.  If
true, "First Blood" is much more dangerous than "Christy Canyon and
the All-Star Tit Queens".

>2) A high percentage of all sex crimes (rape, child abuse, etc.) have
>pornography involved, during and/or immediately before.

References, please?  Even if it's true, my response must be a loud "so
what?".  How many people read "Penthouse Variations" and then *not*
commit rape?  Sales figures for the huge number of books and magazines
labelled "pornography" should give you some clue about the effect, or
lack thereof, of "porn".  It's likely that you're simply confusing
cause with effect (is it "I read Playboy, so I'll go out and rape
cheerleaders", or "I like raping cheerleaders, so I read Playboy"?).

>For example, Ted Bundy indicating in an interview before his death
>that pornography played a extremely important role in the rapes and
>murders he committed.

Was this before or after he said the devil made him do it?  Shouting
"it's not my fault" on the way to the gallows doesn't convince me.

>3) Studies also indicate that the use of pornography tends to reduce a
>persons satisfaction with their current sex experience.

What, you mean they might want to try something new?  Heaven forbid
someone might get bored with twenty minutes of once-a-week man-on-top
whuffa-whuffa.

>4) Child pornography, in particular, is very damaging to the children
>abused during the making of the material.

Kiddie porn is also extremely rare; the biggest producer of the stuff
in the US is the Customs Office (for their sting operations).

>5) Studies indicate that pornography is addicting, with subjects
>tiring of the "old" and wanting "newer, harder" pornography.

Yeah, I started smoking National Geographic once a month, but now I
can't get through the day without shooting up a copy of Bizarre
Fetishes.


			Pornography, n: Any form of literature that
			someone wishes to suppress.
-- 
J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)