Does Contemporary Pornography Spread and Encourage Rape Culture?

[WyattDerp]

You think the internet has somehow changed pornography's relationship to rape?

It certainly completely changed accessibility... there is a huge difference between buying violent porn in person and downloading it anonymously. Why would that not warrant a second look?

 

[WyattDerp]

The bottom line on these experiments is, "More Net access, less rape."

Education and prosperity help with just about anything. That doesn't answer the question "more violent rape fantasy porn, more rape?".

 

[Revoltingest]

Porn is about sex.
Rape is about abuse, control & violence.
No connection there that I see.

 

[Innominate]

They also think killing people who think otherwise is the best idea ever, which the Hitler salute and swastikas stand for. That is why I, having found the situation of swastikas being banned as pre-existing, and seeing not any indication of that being used to ban other stuff -- ever --, no desire to petition to allow the swastika and Hitler salute back.

A few points here..
1) There are some neo-"Nazis" that are just rigid racist, nationalist, segregationists. Sure, that's really bad, but it's not a ban-able offense (in my opinion)
2) Again..swastikas have meanings to many religions that have nothing to do with Nazism
3) If I make a group in support of killing people, who the hell cares until clear intent is there? We don't arrest people for things like this unless there is an overwhelming sign that they will kill..the majority of these pseudo-edgy guys would most likely abandon the movement if it came to actual genocide (the environment for a holocaust doesn't really seem to be around..)

The point is that suppression of expression doesn't seem to be the way to go (or at least to me).

WTF? You cannot compare people who want the NSDAP back with some drunk kids in mosh pits. Neo-nazis don't just indulge in innocent daydreams of violence. And as I said, I don't think banning the swastika achieves anything.. but *anything* that hurts or annoys these people I celebrate. Sue me. The stuff you mentioned to me is the mental equivalent of cutting. Sad, but not comparable to politically organizing to ultimately murder systematically.

Since when did annoyance become a ground to outlaw something?
Sue you? Nah.. I think you're reading me wrong. I think we're both calm and cool here--all civil.
On that point, it seems that outlawing a group like that from forming a political party would seem to be the reasonable (again, in my opinion) answer. At this point, the group goes from edgy hate to potential death machine.

EDIT: And hey, maybe my parallel was a little (or hey, maybe a lot ) misguided.

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

One thing that concerns me about imposing limits to speech is that, unless carefully written, such limits might become precedents to imposing limits to political speech. For instance, the old obscenity laws were often enough used to limit political speech by declaring certain books or works obscene.

I'm against obscenity laws max hardcore went down under obscenity laws when he should of went down for rape and hate speech against women.

 

[Sunstone]

I'm against obscenity laws max hardcore went down under obscenity laws when he should of went down for rape and hate speech against women.

Does that extend to obscenity laws prohibiting child porn and violent sex videos?

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

I don't think those should come under obscenity laws, child porn is rape.

 

[freethinker44]

Interesting point. I get the impression from reading Hedges and others that many of the actresses don't know what they're getting themselves into. Or are more or less compelled to do it by financial need.

Sounds like any new job I've every had.

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

Porn is about sex.
Rape is about abuse, control & violence.
No connection there that I see.

pornography also depicts control and violence and abuse. I've seen a behind the scenes porn shoot of a woman crying and saying "it hurts" "I know it's meant to be acting but it hurts" they were still filming when she was crying, it was rape, and that wasn't fetish porn, it was mainstream naked penis in vagina porn.

 

[Penumbra]

Do you think contemporary pornography spreads and/or encourages rape culture in our societies? Why or why not?

My own view is that some of it doesn't, but much of it does, and the trend seems towards the stuff that does.

Tbh I've had very little contact with blatant porn, so I can't say much intelligently about it.

If the porn spreads rape culture in our society, it must also come from our society, right? Someone develops it with the idea that there is a market for it, I imagine.

I mean, I know very well-adjusted people that have dominance fantasies, but that doesn't mean they want to go dominate unwilling people. So clearly some people can separate their porn tastes from their actual ability to respect their partners.

BONUS QUESTION: What, if anything, would you do about porn that seems to spread and/or encourage rape culture, assuming at least some porn does so?

Maybe just better safeguards on allowing minors to access it. There's a level of difficulty involved for people underage to buy cigarettes, alcohol, see R-rated movies, see adult films, etc. But on the internet, there are very weak or nonexistent safeguards.

I'm wary about most forms of information-control on the internet, but I think restricting access to certain things that are restricted offline is reasonable.

 

[Skwim]

Education and prosperity help with just about anything. That doesn't answer the question "more violent rape fantasy porn, more rape?".

Nor does it answer the question "Can the laws of physics be unified?"

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

I found a video that might be of interest to you sunstone "Mercedes Ashley: how I got into porn since so many ask" you can find it on YouTube.
It's an hour long and I have watched half of it so far. She says that most porn actresses she's met we're abused as children and porn stars are F'ed up which is why they are built for porn, and that she wouldn't want her children to become porn stars and doesn't see why they would want to, since they have a normal childhood.
It's disturbing but insightful.

 

[Alceste]

I don't think porn causes rape, but I do think it is a very poor educational tool for young people trying to figure out how to have sex with each other. As a younger woman, I could always spot the "porn-trained" lovers, and they were a completely different breed than the "woman-trained" lovers. Terrible in bed. Legendarily so. It was a matter of much amusement and discussion with my girlfriends.

What I would do about that, I suppose, is make better porn. I'd also want to police mainstream porn similarly to how we police any other workplace safety issue. Nobody should be getting injured at work, even if their job is to be slapped around a little. If movie actors can fake violence without injury, then so can porn stars.

 

[Flankerl]

Hateful and bad people encourage rape.

 

[ChristineES]

Do you think contemporary pornography spreads and/or encourages rape culture in our societies? Why or why not?

My own view is that some of it doesn't, but much of it does, and the trend seems towards the stuff that does.

BONUS QUESTION: What, if anything, would you do about porn that seems to spread and/or encourage rape culture, assuming at least some porn does so?

No, I don't believe so. Porn is about sex. Rape is about harming another person in the most intimate way possible- it's about violence.

 

[Alceste]

I found a video that might be of interest to you sunstone "Mercedes Ashley: how I got into porn since so many ask" you can find it on YouTube.
It's an hour long and I have watched half of it so far. She says that most porn actresses she's met we're abused as children and porn stars are F'ed up which is why they are built for porn, and that she wouldn't want her children to become porn stars and doesn't see why they would want to, since they have a normal childhood.
It's disturbing but insightful.

I watched this one - different title but I couldn't find the other.

Interestingly, she thinks porn is a generally positive thing, but the violent, degrading stuff is sick and wrong. She thinks it should be banned and that people who watch it are sick in the head. I totally agree with her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZJCesZH3kI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

I watched this one - different title but I couldn't find the other.

Interestingly, she thinks porn is a generally positive thing, but the violent, degrading stuff is sick and wrong. She thinks it should be banned and that people who watch it are sick in the head. I totally agree with her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZJCesZH3kI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

She generally contradicts herself, but like I said it was insightful.

 

[Alceste]

She generally contradicts herself, but like I said it was insightful.

Yeah, contradiction is probably inevitable when you have a whole separate, walled off personality for your job, and another for your home life.

I've got a cousin who is in the oil industry and also a humanitarian nature lover. He's just as confused and contradictory. Kind of "I love what I do, and I do so much good in the world, and that thing with BP in the gulf of Mexico / the situation in Niger / etc. should never have happened".

Basically, he likes making money so he has to talk himself into believing his chosen industry isn't hurting anyone.

 

[Wherenextcolumbus]

Yeah, contradiction is probably inevitable when you have a whole separate, walled off personality for your job, and another for your home life.

I've got a cousin who is in the oil industry and also a humanitarian nature lover. He's just as confused and contradictory. Kind of "I love what I do, and I do so much good in the world, and that thing with BP in the gulf of Mexico / the situation in Niger / etc. should never have happened".

Basically, he likes making money so he has to talk himself into believing his chosen industry isn't hurting anyone.

Yes I agree this is very true. I mean one minute she says you have to be a messed up person to do porn and that many porn stars have had abusive childhoods. That she's witnesses young women being manipulated into doing things they don't want to, I call that rape. But at the same time she's been a prostitute since she was 14 and has no other way of making a living and so she tells herself she's helping other people's marriages while her own love life is messed up and non existent.

 

[Alceste]

Yes I agree this is very true. I mean one minute she says you have to be a messed up person to do porn and that many porn stars have had abusive childhoods. That she's witnesses young women being manipulated into doing things they don't want to, I call that rape. But at the same time she's been a prostitute since she was 14 and has no other way of making a living and so she tells herself she's helping other people's marriages while her own love life is messed up and non existent.

She also laughs and pulls awkward faces when she talks about the state of her own love life. It's really sad. She's messed up and she knows it.