Pornography and Violence

Pornography and Violence

Regardless of whether one acknowledges so or does not, every person has been exposed to some form of pornography. It is impossible to flip through the channels on your television past ten pm., and expect to find something decent to watch without having stumbled upon an at least partially nude segment. Does this universally undetected exposure to pornography promote violence against women, and is the porn industry therefore to blame for sexual crimes committed towards females? This question has provoked a series of answers of which only those based upon analyses of scientific evidence can be considered. A combination of unbiased psychological and sociological research must be gathered in order to obtain a relevant and knowledgeable conclusion. Should a researching associate undertake even a minor portion of the analysis of this issue, the results will not be representative of the factual information. The only way to assure an accurate assessment is through crucial inquiry of the causes that would either prove that pornography does influence violence towards women, or that; it has absolutely none at all.

When making a decision, the vast majority of people will be guided by their personal taste and common sense, and will disregard any contradictory scientific rational evidence. For example, someone's favourite colour is white. Scientific analysis has long since concluded that white is not a colour, yet when asked what their favourite colour is, this person would most probably continue to answer white... Accordingly, people continue to label pornography as evil, and in turn the main contributing source to violence against women. People are innately inclined to believe what they see and hear, and to disregard any information, in this case that of rational scientific genre, that may threaten their long since hardened concrete opinions. Mass media displays the available stands on issues through image and sound, therefore supplying their wide target audience with, as appears to those who view these stands, a solid enough basis to comfortably formulate an opinion. However complete the media is in offering information, the way in which it presents its contents is extremely biased. Each componential organization of the media is either financially aided by, or the financial aid of a certain well known corporation... This imposes the media to alter information in favour of the corporation it reflects... Due to the shabby reputation pornography has earned since its introduction, well known organizations do not want to risk a decline in their public support, therefore explaining that porn is defined by the media as a cheap, scorned, and desperate industry through reoccurring slanderous exposures. Only those who are entirely media literate can understand that the media's first priority is to maintain the support of their sponsors, and that the porn related issues are not permitted to be supportive of the subject, which therefore allows only porn belittling oriented commentaries to be included.

A study carried out in November of 1997 by Wendy McElroy portrayed whether or not pornography is related to violence on the notion that women are pressurized into it. Upon interviewing dozens of women involved in some form of pornographic material, not one accounted to being coerced or to knowing even one women who had been. McElroy acknowledged that every industry has its abuses, and therefore does not entirely dismiss reports of violence. However, she believes that anyone who imposes psychological or physical intimidation to make a woman perform should be charged with kidnapping, assault, or rape. Any such pictures or films should be seized and burned because no one has the right to gain from a crime. Anti-pornographic feminists deem pornography violent, as they believe that any women who involves herself in it has been so traumatically brainwashed by patriarchy, they no longer have the capacity to offer valid consent. Through her various interviews with dozens of women, McElroy asserts that each appears to be willing. It cannot be said that women are forced into pornography in any way, no testimony has been given by those concerned to conclude so. The most common motive for women to enter the industry is to liberate their own free will.

The Meese Commission hired Canadian sociologist Edna F. Einsiedel to reassess and recapitulate existing studies that may influence whether or not a link exists between pornography and violence. Upon completing her task, she reported, "No evidence currently exists that actually links fantasies with specific sexual offences..." Einsiedel also remarked that pornography is valued by some therapists who use it to treat patients suffering from aggressive behavioural syndrome, a disease distinguished by irritability, restlessness, impulsivity, and a proneness to violence... Edward Donnerstein, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, is the founder of research showing some connections between viewing certain types of violent pornography and antagonistic behaviour. "It is the violence more than the sex and negative messages about human relationships that are the problem. And these messages are everywhere."Despite various government enquiries and societal articulation of apprehension, U.S. television has maintained an extremely high rank of violence over the past two decades. A violent act occurs 5-6 times per hour in a prime time program; the rate is 20 to 25 times per hour in a Saturday morning cartoon. The highest rates of violence are generally found in in programs broadcast between 6:00 and 9:00 in the morning, and between 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon, the times whose target audiences are composed primarily of children. Experimental studies were conducted to see if there was in increase in aggression among those who watched the violent programs. In one of these studies a psychologist found that elementary-school aged children who were randomly assigned to watched episodes of the popular children's program The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers showed seven times as many aggressive acts during subsequent free play with peers as did children who had not just viewed the episodes. So why is it that these programs aren't banned, or at least purged of their violent content? A second type of research involved comparing levels of aggression among people who varied in the amount of television they watched in their everyday lives. The almost unanimous finding was that those who watched more television were more aggressive than their peers who watched less... This was found to be the case in one important 22-year long longitudinal study, where researchers found that the best forecaster of young men's aggressiveness at age 19 was the concentration of violence in TV programs watched at age