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... orography available to adults. The courts assess that to ban or censor the material would be infringing on the public's First Amendment Right (Carol 28). Maureen O'Brien quotes critics of a congressionally terminated bill, the Pornography Victim's Compensation Act, as saying "That if it had passed, it would have had severely chilling effects on the First Amendment, allowing victims of sexual crimes to file suit against producers and distributors of any work that was proven to have had 'caused' the attack, such as graphic material in books, magazines, videos, films, and records" (7).
People in a community debating over pornography often have different views as to whether or not it should even be made available period, and some could even argue this point against the types of women used in pornography: "A far greater variety of female types are shown as desirable in pornography than mainstream films and network television have ever recognized: fat women, flat women, hairy women, aggressive women, older women, you name it" (Carol 25). If we could all decide on just exactly what pornography is and what is acceptable, there wouldn't be so much debate over the issue of censoring it. The bounds of community standards have been stretched by mainstreaming movies, opening the way even further for the legalization of more explicit fare (Jenish 53). In most contemporary communities explicit sex that is without violent or dehumanizing acts is acceptable in American society today.
These community standards have not been around very long. When movies were first brought out, they were heavily restricted and not protected by the First Amendment, because films then were looked upon only as diversionary entertainment and business. Even though sexual images were highly monitored, the movie industry was hit so hard during the Great Depression that film-makers found themselves sneaking in as much sexual content as possible, even then they saw that 'sex sells' (Clark 1029). Films were highly restricted throughout the 30 's, 40 's, and 50 's by the industry, but once independent films of the 60 's such as: "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Whose afraid of Virginia Whole?" (Clark 1029 - 30), both with explicit language, sexual innuendo, and violence started out-performing the larger 'wholesome' production companies, many of the barriers holding sex and violence back were torn down in the name of profit. Adult content was put into movies long ago, we have become more immune and can't expect it to get any better or to go away. Porn is here for good.
Pornography is a multi-million dollar international industry, ultimately run by organized crime all over the world, and is produced by the respectable mainstream publishing business companies (Itzin 21). Although the publishing companies are thought to be 'respectable', people generally stereotype buyers and users of pornographic material as 'dirty old men in trench coats', but most patrons of adult stores are well-educated people with disposable income (Jenish 52). Porno movies provide adults of both genders with activities they normally wouldn't get in everyday life, such as oral pleasures or different types of fetishes. Ultimately adult entertainment is just a quick-fix for grown-ups, as junk-food would be for small children.
Pornography's main purpose is to serve as masturbatory stimuli for males and to provide a sexual vent. Although in the beginning, society saw it as perverted and sinful, it was still considered relatively harmless. Today there is one case studie, standing out from the rest, that tends to shatter this illusion. The study done my Monica D.
Weisz and Christopher M. Earls used "eighty-seven males... that were randomly shown one of four films", by researchers William Tooke and Martin La lumiere: "Deliverance, Straw Dogs, Die Hard II, and Days of Thunder", for a study on how they would react to questions about sexual violence and offenders after watching. In the four films there is sexual aggression against a male, sexual aggression against a female, physical aggression, and neutrality-no explicit scenes of physical or sexual aggression. Out of this study the males were more acceptable of interpersonal violence and rape myths and also more attracted to sexual aggression. These same males were less sympathetic to rape victims and were noted less likely to find a defendant guilty of rape (71).
These four above mentioned movies are mainstreamed R-rated films. If a mainstream movie can cause this kind of distortion of value and morality, then it should become evident that continuous viewing / use of pornographic films depicting violent sex and aggression could lead vulnerable persons into performing or participating in sexual violence against their partners or against a stranger. Bill Marshall, psychology professor at Queen's University and director of a sexual behavior clinic in Kingston, interviewed one-hundred and twenty men, between the years 1980 and 1985, who had molested children or raped women. In his conclusion he found that pornography appeared to be a significant factor in the chain of events leading up to a deviant act in 25 % of these cases (Nicols 60).
The results of this study should prove that pornography obviously has a down side to it. According to Mark Nicols, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, Neil Malamuth, concludes quite cautiously that some messages combined with other factors, including the viewer's personality type, in pornography can lead to antisocial behavior and make individuals less sensitive to violence. Dr. Marshall also quotes men in Nicols article as saying, "that they looked at pornography with the intent to masturbate, but then became aroused, and decided to go out and assault a woman or child. " Men who are drawn into pornography and use it frequently, have also been proven to suggest more lenient prison terms for sex offenders" (60). If this previous statement is true, should we reevaluate how many men serve on juries for these trials?
Itzin gives possible support for these theories. It can be found in the case of an ex-prostitute who had her pubic hair removed with a jackknife and was forced by her pimp to be filmed reenacting what they had seen in pornographic movies; she was sexually assaulted and forced to have intercourse with animals, generally dogs. Another such case is one of a woman who reports having metal clips attached to her breasts, being tied to a chair, and being raped and beaten continuously for twelve hours (22 - 24). The dehumanizing, degradation, and reduction of a woman's body isn't just a result of viewed pornography, it is often inseminated into the production of a pornographic project. During the making of "Deep Throat", a 1970 's pornographic film, Linda Marchiano (a.
k. a. Linda Lovelace), was presented to the public as a liberated woman with an ever pres...
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Research essay sample on Sex Or Subordination Violence And Pornography
