Sex And Violence Essay Research Paper Violence

Sex And Violence Essay, Research Paper

Violence and Pornography

After considering the increase in rape and molestation, sexual harassment, and other sex crimes over the last few decades, and also the corresponding increase of business in the pornography industry, does the media cause undesirable social consequences with specific reference to pornography and violence.

In the late seventies, America became shocked and outraged by the rape, mutilation, and murder of over a dozen young, beautiful girls. The man who committed these murders, Ted Bundy, was later apprehended and executed. During his detention in various penitentiaries, he was mentally probed and prodded by psychologist and psychoanalysts hoping to discover the root of his violent actions and sexual frustrations. Many theories arose in attempts to explain the motivational factors behind his murderous escapades. However the strongest and most feasible of these theories came not from the psychologists, but from the man himself, ” as a teenager, my buddies and I would all sneak around and watch porn. As I grew older, I became more and more interested an involved in it, ( pornography) became and obsession. I got so involved in it, I wanted to incorporate ( porn) into my life, but I couldn’t behave like that and maintain the success I had worked so hard for. I generated an alt!

er-ego to fulfill my fantasies under-cover. Pornography was a means of unlocking the evil I had buried inside myself”

According to Edward Donnerstein, a leading researcher in the pornography field, ” the relationship between sexually violent images in the media and subsequent aggression and ….. callous attitudes towards women is much stronger statistically than the relationship between smoking and cancer.” After considering the increase of sex related crimes, the linkage between violence and pornography needs considerable study and examination.

In order to properly discuss pornography, and be able to link it to violence, we must first come to a basic and agreeable understanding of what the word pornography means. The term pornography originates from two greek words, porne, which means harlot, and graphein, which means to write. My belief is that the combination of the two words was originally meant to describe, in literature, the sexual escapades of women deemed to be whores. As time has passed, this definition of pornography has grown to include any and all obscene literature and pictures. At the present date, the term is basically a blanket which covers all types of material such as explicit literature, photography, films, and video tapes with varying degrees of sexual content.

Now that pornography has been defined in a fashion mirroring its content, it is now possible to touch upon the more complex ways a community, as a society, views or defines it. Some have said it is impossible for a group of individuals to form a concrete opinion as to what pornography means. A U.S. supreme judge is quoted as saying, ” I can’t define pornography, but I know it when I see it”. This statement can be heard at community meetings in every state, city, and county across the nation. Community standards are hazy due to the fact individuals cannot express or explain in words that pornography is, therefore creating confusion among themselves.

For thousands of years, sex itself has been considered evil and revolting. This is exactly why the concealment of the sex organs and teaching feelings of shame toward human sexuality is so common worldwide. These same feelings of shame are the chief reasons that sex is considered a personal and private matter. Contrary to the beliefs of many, the mass media did not create these settings, society creates this image. In some societies, women have no reservations with regard to living their entire lives completely naked, while in other societies, females cover themselves from head to tow, only revealing their eyes.

The media had been bombarded with criticism, overwhelmingly from the female community, relative to the amount of sexually explicit material that is common argument against pornography is that the media portrays women as being nothing more than sexual playthings and objects to satisfy male sexual desires. As before, the media once again, is not to be held responsible for creating this image: these views are products of society.

It would be downright absurd to assume that women in this society are treated as sexual objects only because the media releases or broadcasts pornographic material. A magazine associated with make-up and skin care, for example will quite obviously not be concentrating on much else. Such a magazine would not display pictures of women who mountain climb or women who water ski; on ly images of make-up and text referring to skin care would be relevant. Clearly, society does not consider women to be beings who’s only purpose in life is to worry about make- up and skin care, but why are the complaints only directed toward pornographic media then. The answer to this question may be more complicated, what remains obvious is that the media does not portray women as only being able to fill male sexual desires. To say that pictures featuring females who pin-up posters of male rock stars or children who collect hockey or baseball cards. Society , hows not say that objects are being !

made out of these rock stars and sports heroes,