Sunday, January 12, 2020
Pornography and Sexual Violence Essay
The class is social psychology. Please use proper headings, double spacing, 12 pt font, one-inch margins, page numbering, and logical flow from topic to topic. Citations may be from the Web, texts, books or scientific journals. Magazine and newspaper citations are generally unacceptable. Please be original with your own views. Being with a strong, creative, original thesis clearly stating what you are trying to show.            Pornography is a term utilized to depict the various sexual practices and desires to arouse the viewer sexually. It should also be clearly distinguished from the term ‘obscenity’. Obscenity is frequently utilized legally to suggest pornographic material. This material may be deemed as illegal if it crosses all the social barriers of decency and is liable for criminal punishment. Sexual images of women can create a positive influence or a negative influence on man. Women can be portrayed as objects of sex, pleasure, abuse and violence. This has resulted in degradation of the status of women in the current world. Feminists throughout the world are objecting at the problems pornography has created for women. During the early 1980’s, pornography became a huge feminist issue. The political situation in the West was also changing during that period. People began to feel the need for greater amount of freedom. Several of the moral issues such as abortion, reproductive rights, sexuality, etc, began to be questioned. Abortion began to be accepted giving the women greater amount of control over their body. Today, women should be pure before the marriage and need to be loyal to their husbands during their married life. Marriage is a relationship in which sex is performed only for reproductive purposes and not for pleasure. If a woman indulged in sex outside their marriage, it was considered to be a form of prostitution. Frequently, women are forced into getting them photographed for creating pornographic material. The pornographic industry throughout the world has turned out into a multibillion-dollar industry (about $ %6 billion), providing material in various forms including movies, internet, books, videos, etc (Malamuth et al, 2005, Utah State University, 2007 & Webb, 2007). Recently, there has been an increase in the number of cases of child abuse throughout the world. The exact cause for this has not been understood clearly. A study conducted by Knudsen does not show a direct relationship between sexual violence against children and pornography. A thorough assessment was created using laboratory findings and case studies of those who had suffered from child sexual abuse. It was found that child sexual abuse was only affected to a slight and indirect extent by pornography (Knudsen, 2005).            Frequently, people associate pornography with erotica. However, there is a lot of difference between these two aspects. Erotica is a situation of an intimate relationship between humans such that closeness, communication, intimacy and sexual arousal are felt. Erotica utilize various symbols for communication and the feeling of interaction.  It could be considered to be one system of language or dialect. Hence, erotica is usually shared between people belonging to close group, culture, religion, sect, ethnic community, etc. People belonging to other communities, sects, group, etc, would be unable to share and communicate with their partner. Hence, the erotic appeal may not be present in such circumstances. Erotica cannot mix with brutality. To some extent erotica can vary from one taste to another. Many people use the term erotica in order to demonstrate and applaud pornography. However, both these terms need to be completely differentiated from one another. Pornography is the misuse of women and children in the name of erotica. This misuse can be considered in two ways. Firstly, a woman may be abused and forced into pornography through the erotica. Besides, many of the female pornography material depict man dominating and abusing women and treating them as mere objects. I do feel that pornography directly and indirectly creates a situation in which the woman is victimized. This may further the chances of women getting sexually offended (Utah State University, 2007).            Many of the material available today on the internet and the print media has been generated by threatening women into certain acts that have not been expected. For example, Linda Marchiano was threatened with a gun to perform several sexual acts in the film Deep Throat. Today graphic material is available on the Internet of women being tortured, raped and victimized for the sake of sexual arousal. I do feel that this may not create a sense of erotica but instead encourage violence and crime against women (Utah State University, 2007).            Pornography has changed the entire concept of masculinity and femininity. Earlier, these two genders were considered as complimentary to one another. A woman was basically made to supplement the needs of man. However, pornography has spoilt this relationship between man and woman. Indirectly man is victimizing women in the name of pornography. Men dominate women and children using pornographic material. Man would try to conquer other sexually, and women would have to submit to the sexual needs of man. In a husband-wife relationship, the wife would become the weaker party and the husband would become the stronger one. Once this domination is created, every chance exists for the man to abuse and ill-treat the woman. Today pornography has been closely associated with male supremacy. As pornography is becoming more and more common in today’s world, it is having a negative influence on the people. Pornography touches upon male dominance, sexual inequality and sexual subordination. Hence, people consider and use violence, force and domination as a part of sex. This helps to spread terrorism and hatred amongst the population. Today, people are unable to identify the thin line present between pornography and erotica (Utah State University, 2007).            Pornography may influence the individual to various extents depending on the individual factors, the type of pornographic material, the extent to which the material causes sexual arousal, etc. Studies have demonstrated that when children and adolescents are exposed to pornographic material, there are chances that these children on becoming adults would have perverted sexual tendencies. They may also perform violent acts in order to gain sexual gratification. However, some studies have demonstrated that expose of the child or adolescent to a minimal amount of pornographic material during early age would help them to benefit later, as they would be aware of the sexual processes that occur in adults. However, this area needs to be thoroughly researched further to determine the type of pornographic material and the extent to which they would benefit (Malamuth et al, 2005).            The World needs to change its attitude toward pornography. To some extent individuals possessing certain characteristics may be exposed to a greater extent than others to pornographic material. A study conducted by Malamuth et al (2005) demonstrated that men, who were exposed to material containing sexuality and violence against women, accepted these attacks secretly. The acceptance was much greater in men who were exposed to pornographic material than those who were not. Men who were exposed to media presentations of material, which glorified sexual attacks on women, developed aggressive attitudes towards women (Malamuth et al, 2005).            Thus it can be seen that pornographic material is harmful to the development of cordial relationships throughout the world between man and woman. The effect of pornographic material varies depending on the culture, region of the world, sect, religion, etc. Scientists should try to develop a method of determining the direct relationship that exists between pornography and sexual violence against women. The Internet may be a very useful resource for teenagers and students. However, this resource could also be misused, as activity may be difficult to monitor. It is high time for the law-enforcement agencies and parents to help control the activity of teenagers and students over the Internet. The manner in which the child or teenagers utilizes the Internet plays a major role in the development of the personality and behavior later in life (Paul et al, 2005 & Bremer, 2005). References: Bremer, J. (2005). â€Å"The Internet and children: advantages and disadvantages.†Psychiatr Clin N Am, 14(3), 405-428. http://www.springerlink.com/content/g074414vx721x677/ Knudsen, D. D. (2005). â€Å"Child sexual abuse and pornography: Is there a relationship?†Journal of Family Violence, 3(4), 253-267. Malamuth, N., & Huppin, M. (2005). â€Å"Pornography and Teenagers: The Importance of Individual Differences.†Adol Med Clin, 16(2). Paul, B. & Bryant, J. A. (2005). â€Å"Adolescents and the Internet.†Adol Med Clin, 16(2). Utah State University (2007). â€Å"Lesson 10. Pornography, Violence, and the Law.†Retrieved on December 7, 2007, from Utah State University Web site: http://cc.usu.edu/~fath6/Gen5.htm Villani, V. S. (2005). â€Å"Media literacy for clinicians and parents.†Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am, 14(3), 523-553. Webb, E. (2007). â€Å"Pornography or Censorship-Silence or Choice?†Retrieved on December 7, 2007, from DSP Web site: http://www.dsp.org.au/dsp/porno.htm
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