Latest Stats and Facts on Punography

[SeattleUte]

Funny because I was just realizing she(?) had 13 posts on pornography and one in a thread on a teacher sex abuse case and was going to suggest she start branching out while people were still formulating opinions. Guess I was alone on that thought.

I hadn't noticed that. I do think her statement that women are big porn consumers may be a troll. But my naivete about porn is a matter of record. What do the ladies think of that statement? I'm curious.

[Rosebud]

The Victims of Pornography

I think that, to be fair, it is important to evaluate who ALL of the victims of pornography are. I pointed out previously that the women and children who are physically or psychologically coerced to work as models in the porn industry are victims. Only jerks would refute that statement.

However, I think we need to take it a step further and consider that people who encounter pornography and develop life-altering addictions are also victims. Wuapimon's posts (some of the best in this thread, IMO) about his personal addiction demonstrate one example of this. Several other examples have already been referred to in this thread.

What about these kids? http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6146253 IMO, they are not only victims of pornography but victims of American Fork "hysteria" (as I think the word is used in this thread ) concerning it.

And, as I agree with Babs that pornography CAN cause it's viewers to forcibly subject others to sexual acts, I believe we need to include these victims in our count.

This list could continue....

[Rosebud]

Funny because I was just realizing she(?) had 13 posts on pornography and one in a thread on a teacher sex abuse case and was going to suggest she start branching out while people were still formulating opinions. Guess I was alone on that thought.

Sheesh! Give me some time... I'll get there. I'm not on here all day!

[Rosebud]

RB, you are an acquired taste but I am starting to appreciate you.

Thanks Seattle... I appreciate you, too.

[MartyFunkhouser]

This is a dodge. "The research is everywhere." It isn't. It isn't easy to find.

I remember watching the film "Killing Us Softly" by Jean Kilbourne, way back in the mid nineties. Her thesis is about the effects of advertising on women's self-image, and I find her arguments very compelling. I think the images of women in most advertising are atrocious, and it fuels our culture's obsession with thinness, plastic surgery, the hyper-sexualization of young girls and boys, etc. The insidiousness of advertising is its pervasiveness. I don't support censorship here, but I find portrayals of women in popular media and advertising to be far more damaging than pornography (my personal opinion).

There was a long stretch where the women in pornography were basically extra-inflated and more plastic versions of the women in advertising. But the contemporary trend is away from this. Indeed, the contemporary trend in pornography is home-made and free. Amateur porn is ruining (good riddance!) the porn industry, and the result is that there is mountains of porn depicting normal looking people having normal looking sex for free. Citing soft-studies from the early and mid 90's just isn't going to carry much weight.

But how do you judge the intelligence of the woman in these videos, I know that you aren't concerned about looks at all, only intelligence.

[RobinFinderson]

I'd revise your anti-male statements to read:

Good work RoseBud. You've taken Babs' summary of the best points, scrubbed them of gender bias, unhitched them from flimflam science, and turned them into genuinely true statements. Pornography CAN cause problems.

Pornography CAN create a disconnect between the user and his or her partner.

Indeed it can. But it doesn't for everyone, so what is the difference? I have a guess. Did pornography cause the same disconnects between people back in Pompeii where it was socially acceptable and everywhere? I think the disconnect has more to do with a cultural context rather than porn itself.

Pornography CAN create sexual dysfunction, by exposing people to more and more extreme types of sex, until typical sex with a real partner is not enough to inspire interest.

This CAN be true, but it probably isn't a significant problem (my guess). At the end of the day we are still comparing self-help to the real thing. I would guess most people would choose mediocre sex over self-help.

Pornography CAN put users at risk of committing rape, as they learn from porn that forced sex is acceptable and erotic.

What little science I have been able to find suggests that access to pornography, on the whole, tends to accompany decreases in violent sex crimes.

**** Of course these are things that CAN happen -- not things that necessarily happen. ****
Is it possible to discuss the negative affects of porn without being sexist? And don't go getting an idea that I'm not both a woman and a feminist just because I defend men!!

It is possible to discuss porn without being sexist, and I appreciate how you've bleached the sexism out of Babs' original summary of best points. Also, feminism means more than advocacy of women's equality. It is also a critical lens through which we may examine all issues dealing with sex, gender, gender identity and their relationship with power. For example, if we identify cultural trends that impose false gender roles on men, and advocate for change, we may do so under the umbrella of feminism.

[wuapinmon]

Did pornography cause the same disconnects between people back in Pompeii where it was socially acceptable and everywhere?

Didn't God correct that behavior in a way that we all could see forever?

[Babs]

What little science I have been able to find suggests that access to pornography, on the whole, tends to accompany decreases in violent sex crimes.

source?

[RobinFinderson]

source?

Clemson professor of economics Todd Kendall, publishing the results of his research in 2006. Here is the full document in .pdf form, and here is an excerpt of Dr. Kendall's introduction:

First, I use a simple differences-in-differences approach to show that states that adopted the internet quickly saw larger declines in rape incidence than other states (while no similar effect is evident for homicide). Second, I show that this effect is most concentrated among states with a high ratio of male to female population, suggesting that men are substituting pornography for rape most when potential mates are in low supply. Thirdly, I use regression analysis with fixed state and year effects to show a negative
correlation between internet access and rape, even controlling for a wide variety of other factors. Fourth, I show that a similar analysis evidences neither a statistical nor economically significant effect of internet usage on any other violent or property crime for which reliable state-level data is available. Fifth, using data on arrests, I am able to separate the effects of internet access on rape across different age groups. I find a significant negative effect of internet access on rape arrest rates among men ages 15-19 –a group for whom pornography was most restricted before the internet, while the estimated effects on arrest rates for other age groups are statistically insignificant and smaller in magnitude. Again, by contrast, I show that no similar pattern exists for homicide arrests. Finally, I also provide evidence on the correlations between internet adoption and several other measures of sexuality, including teen birth rates, prostitution
arrests, marriage and divorce rates, and HIV transmission. The results generally imply that internet usage has had significant effects on sexual behavior more generally, and thus they lend credibility to the claim that the internet may impact sexual assault to the degree claimed.

[Fiyero]

I'm dying to know if Nancy Grace has an opinion on this subject.

[Babs]

Clemson professor of economics Todd Kendall, publishing the results of his research in 2006. Here is the full document in .pdf form, and here is an excerpt of Dr. Kendall's introduction:

RF, did you even read the article? First, it's not even published, let alone subject to any peer review. Second, it's a thesis on the correlation of internet access and violent crime. He threw pornography into the title just for show, I guess, but pornography itself appears nowhere in any of his research.

[Fiyero]

RF, who spent years on the sidelines watching his longtime buddy MW troll with the people, long desired acceptance into that community to see if he could out-troll his master.

This thread has been like an 18-day orgasm.

[Babs]

This article reviews the extant literature regarding pornography's influence on antisocial attitudes, sexual arousal, and sexually aggressive behavior in both noncriminal and criminal samples. The article concludes that when examined in the context of multiple, interacting factors, the findings are highly consistent across experimental and nonexperimental studies and across differing populations in showing that pornography use is a risk factor for sexually aggressive outcomes

J Sex Res. 2009 Mar-Jun;46(2-3):216-32.

Even after controlling for the contributions of risk factors associated with general antisocial behavior and those used in Confluence Model research as specific predictors of sexual aggression, we found that high pornography consumption added significantly to the prediction of sexual aggression.

Aggress Behav. 2007 Mar-Apr;33(2):104-17.

In response to some recent critiques, we (a) analyze the arguments and data presented in those commentaries, (b) integrate the findings of several metaanalytic summaries of experimental and naturalistic research, and (c) conduct statistical analyses on a large representative sample. All three steps support the existence of reliable associations between frequent pornography use and sexually aggressive behaviors, particularly for violent pornography and/or for men at high risk for sexual aggression.

Annu Rev Sex Res. 2000;11:26-91.

The summary demonstrates a homogeneous set of results showing that while pictorial nudity alone reduces subsequent aggressive behavior, that consumption of material depicting nonviolent sexual activity increases aggressive behavior, and that media depictions of violent sexual activity generates more aggression than those of nonviolent sexual activity.

Hum Comm Res. 2006; 22(2):258-83.

From the existing evidence, we argue that individuals who are predisposed to sexually offend are likely to show an effect of pornography exposure and are the most likely to show the strongest effects.

Aggress and Violent Behav. 2001; 6(1):35-53.


-


It goes on and on and on. Decades of research pointing to pornography increasing violent thought and behavior, especially among the men most likely to commit crime. You can't win this one, Robin. Make whatever argument you want to justify your own reliance on porn, but you can't argue that it's benign.

[Sleeping in EQ]

J Sex Res. 2009 Mar-Jun;46(2-3):216-32.



Aggress Behav. 2007 Mar-Apr;33(2):104-17.



Annu Rev Sex Res. 2000;11:26-91.



Hum Comm Res. 2006; 22(2):258-83.



Aggress and Violent Behav. 2001; 6(1):35-53.


-


It goes on and on and on. Decades of research pointing to pornography increasing violent thought and behavior, especially among the men most likely to commit crime. You can't win this one, Robin. Make whatever argument you want to justify your own reliance on porn, but you can't argue that it's benign.

The Clemson professor is out of his field of expertise as well.

Let's see: unpublished and outside of his expertise.

That's not the strongest article.

[Babs]

The Clemson professor is out of his field of expertise as well.

Let's see: unpublished and outside of his expertise.

That's not the strongest article.

He's an economics prof, as best as I can tell. His argument was that areas of high internet consumption show lower incidence of violent crime. In general, the internet is often used to access porn. Therefore, use of internet porn decreases societal violence. QED.