The Influence of Pornography on Human Behavior
According to Yafee et al. in 1982, pornography is the delineation of the life of a prostitute through graphic representation of sexual conduct whose deliberate intentions is to arouse sexual desires and to facilitate its expression. Whereas, the subsections 159 (1) and 152 (2) of the constitution of Canada refers pornography as an ‘obscene’ matter, i.e. crime, horror, cruelty, violence, and exploitation (Fraser, 1985). Yafee’s definition states pornography as a depiction of sexual pleasures, but on the other hand, the Canadian constitutional definition of pornography reflects the idea of violence and sexual exploitation. The paper centralized on the theme that modern pornographic depiction is a
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In the further support of this argument, it is said by River Redwood that “the pornography is about acting and performing only”. The pornographic media is an ‘idealized sexual fiction’ and it is not the best place to learn about the sexual behavior and human communication in the real world. It is more fiction than reality (Meulen, 2013). Moreover, Susan in 1989 said that men’s sexuality in pornography is represented in the form of rapist and female sexuality is depicted as the rape victim. Further, she explores the idea that in the pornographic world, men exploit the women by abusing, hurting and dominating whereas, women is depicted as the person who enjoy the sexual submission and exploitation (Cole, 1989). Pornography celebrates the physical power of men over women” (Dworkin, 1981:26). Pornography promotes the stereotypical violent image of masculinity and those men who don’t measure up are suspect—they are wimps, sissies, fags, girls (Jensen, 2007). For example, “according to a 2013 survey of 4,200 Canadians (majority men) 18 years and over by Canadian Living magazine, 52 per cent of those surveyed admitted to sexting and prone to the stereotypical violent masculinity.” (C., & Cotroneo, 2013). The statistics represent the idea that by internet resources, pornography is promoting the stereotypical masculinity in the life of adolescences and hence, leads to juvenile delinquencies. However, pornographers work hard to make pornography abuse-invisible by depicting the vulnerability of women in pornography as a pleasurable
Anne McClintock wrote her essay “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap: Portraying the female and male orgasm” to examine pornography and how it has changed throughout history and its effects on how women perform as sexual beings. McClintock focuses on the various roles of pornography such as its emphasis on voyeurism, pleasure, and the male ego. She wants her readers to know that women are still not represented in pornography to satisfy their own desires, but they are there to cater to men and their subconscious. I will analyze how McClintock argues that due to the history of sexism towards women, the roles that men and women have in pornography are inherently different because of the societal belief that women are only seen as objects of sexual desire and are solely there to satisfy the male audience.
“Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt,” written by Jean Kilbourne, who is an award-winning author and educator, is best known for her lectures on the effects of media images on young people and specifically young women. In this essay, Kilbourne discusses the ways advertising constantly uses images that make sexual and violent situations against women and children increasingly normalized in our society. In order to support her argument, the essay is heavily filled with images of these particular advertisements that portray the sexual exploitation of women and children. Overall, the author uncovers that these advertisements do not promote self-love or confidence. In fact, these constant messages invoke self-hatred and open contempt among young women.
Introduction People from all around the world are watching Victoria’s Secret’s fashion show in every year. Especially, this fashion show catches most of teenagers’ attention, not only because the fairy tale-like stage, but also does various supermodels wearing delicate bras shows in the fashion show. There was an evident showed that women in the description of raunch culture were characterized by the increased presence and popularity of female pornographic imagery: high heels, sequins and glitter, bunny rabbit ears and exposed cleavage (Bishop, 2012). Correspondingly, Livingstone (1998) remarked that the number of young women engaged in sex acts with other women has increased and the result was linked with chiefly performed for the titillation of men, rather than reflective of genuine lesbian or bisexual desire. Also, problematic was that young women were positioned in this literature as passively absorbing sexist media and culture.
There has been an evaluation of sexual behavior over the past centuries, and it has demonstrated that there were acts that were considered taboo, homosexuality, bestiality and so on. Due to the emergence of most of the cultures, the history of sexual behavior shows an increase in the collective supervision of sexual abuse, moral codes were developed in the process. The sexual activity of some cultures have been “detailed in art, literature, poetry, mythology, and theater”(pg. 24). Even same-sex behavior was actually displayed in visual arts.
Working in the pornography industry, one’s life can change in a blink of an eye. It influences many people around the world. The people who work in this industry do it to make quick money and to receive pleasure while still having fun. Society is divided into two sides when it comes to this topic. Some believe that there is no harm when it comes to pornography, while others look at the people in the industry with shame.
Parents are positioned to feel a sense of fear as Devine argues that “no matter how hard fathers and mothers try… they cannot protect their daughters of our pornified culture”. This technique is largely effective as it is almost guaranteed to peak the interest of concerned parents as they begin to worry about the pressures society and the fashion industry has placed among their young, impressionable
Hanes’ purpose is to provide facts to parents so they understand what will happen if they do not censor the images their young girls see. In the article, Hanes explains that these images will lead young girls “down a path of self-objection to cyberbullying to unhealthy body images” (483). The statistics listed in the article help the author grasp the attention of the reader, causing the reader to feel a sense of urgency when understanding this issue. Stephanie Hanes, author of the essay “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect”, explains that our society should be worrying about the increase in sexualization amongst young girls.
Roxane Gay once proclaimed, “Rape culture is a culture where we are inundated, in different ways, by the idea that male aggression and violence towards women is acceptable and often inevitable.” Imagine being attacked, stripped of your identity, and being forced into and blamed for actions you did not give consent to. This is considered normal for many women who experience the appalling act of sexual assault and its effects brought upon through the media’s depiction of rape culture. In The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist named Hester Prynne is objectified for her act of adultery and forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for all of eternity. The letter “A” serves as a symbol which outcasts Hester
Inside and beyond the myth and the social impact of the subject as One or Substance. Alan H. Goldman’s essay ‘Plain Sex’ is a central contribution to the academic debate about sex within the analytic area, which has been developing since the second half of the ‘90s in Western countries. Goldman’s purpose is encouraging debate on the concept of sex without moral, social and cultural implications or superstitious superstructures. He attempts to define “sexual desire” and “sexual activity” in its simplest terms, by discovering the common factor of all sexual events, i.e. “the desire for physical contact with another person’s body and for the pleasure which such contact produces; sexual activity is activity which tends to fulfill such desire of the agent” (Goldman, A., 1977, p 40).
“Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person” (Kilbourne,278). When advertisers continuously use women as sex objects in order to sell their products they begin to form the mindset that “all women, regardless of age, are
As stated that “the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous” (Mulvey 490), she relates to the fetishistic looking, in which women can be seen as curiously and admirationaly look on; or it is considered as a bust to look fetish/ desired. But Mulvey proved impotent how women can get out of this suffering. She wonders “how to fight the unconscious/ structured like a language, [...] while still caught within the language of patriarchy?” (Mulvey 484).
This form of objectification is often used as a means to appeal to men's sexual desires in order to promote and attract consumers, because marketers still latch onto the old “sex sells”, or so it would seem (Rowland, 2016). Music videos, magazines, fashion commercials, are all channels through which women are exploited and put out to be headless objects isolated for their bodies solely for sexual pleasure and viewing purposes. Rowland explains that although this charade may allure and trap most men, this is not the case for women. Emma Rooney cites in The Effects of Sexual Objectification on Women's Mental Health, “the sexual objectification of women is a driving and perpetuating component of gender oppression, systemic sexism, sexual harassment, and violence against women”. Jessica Vanlenti writes in ‘Worldwide sexism…Women’, that researchers from The University of Missouri-Kanas and Georgia State found these forms of objectification to be linked to women’s psychological distress, and are leading causes of suicide among young adolescent women.
The negative effects on the people who watch porn daily include “legal/occupational issues, social implications, physical problems, and financial troubles.” (Watts and Hilton,2011) In a study conducted by Mulac, Jansma, and Linz, they were able to find that men who watch porn displayed abusive dominance, increased anxiety, and rejected sexual offers from their partners. Pornography racked up a whooping 97 billion dollars in revenue in 2006, which was more than Google, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple, and Netflix. There is no coincidence that there is a pornography addiction problem in the world based off those numbers.
The documentary talks about the numerous ways throughout time in which women are mistreated in society. It seems as though as time progresses women become more of sexual objects than human beings. Certain people in society assume it is acceptable to demean or devalue women and to think of women as second class citizens that exist to tend to their needs. This documentary depicts the deriding ways the media and society see and treat women. Throughout the documentary, many philosophers discuss the impact the media has on young children.
“Pornography is the theory; rape is the practice.” (Kutchinsky B. 1991) The word ‘pornography’ acquires and bears a constant negative connotation, the word itself encapsulates the abhorring behaviour of exploiting women’s rights and rape fantasies. With a long history, from the beginning of Playboy in the 1950’s (Sanburn, 2011), pornography has progressed hugely and is becoming more normalised and accepted. The pornography industry is predominantly catered to the male perspective, hence the male viewpoint portrayed against the female viewpoint portrayed in pornography.