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[EFLtrainer]

Again, consider the source

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27896


Stimulating images, damaged minds

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Posted: June 8, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com


It was inevitable.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia – in American Library Association, Inc., [and] Multnomah County Public Library vs. United States of America – stepped promptly into the generous boardwalk carved out by the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize "soft" child pornography (i.e., "virtual" children).

On May 31, 2002, the Appeals Court legalized the "right" of library patrons to assault children and other non-consenting folks by viewing, and then leaving on the computer screen, pathological acts of bestiality and sexual torture of adults and children – paid for with our tax dollars.

Well, it's not a perfect world.

These "rational" judicial verdicts treat as legitimate "speech" images that create, in viewers young as well as old, physical changes in the brain and that imbed irrational states of intense sexual and fear arousal. Children and illiterate alike rapidly decode sexual pictures. As BBC art expert John Berger says in "The Art of Seeing," (1977): "The child looks and recognizes before it can speak ?seeing comes before words."

News flash: Speech is the written or spoken word, it is not pictures.

Based on what brain researchers call the "law of strength," we know that the brain's right hemisphere of image processing, feeling and excitation dominates the left hemisphere's efforts to decode text and then to engage in rational thinking.

Pornography-as-speech judges fail to recognize that erotically or sadosexually assaulted children cannot give informed consent to images that, on the evidence, cause brain-mind-memory restructuring – changes that can last for years.

The following comments by UCLA psychologist Dr. Margaret Kemeny to commentator Bill Moyers on "Mind & Body," a PBS-BBC 1993 series special, are wholly applicable to pornographic exposures at school, at home and elsewhere:

Although it seems intangible, anytime we feel anything, anytime we think anything, anytime we imagine anything, there is activity in the brain that is taking place in the body at that time. That activity can then lead to a cascade of changes in the body that have an impact on health ?on the immune system.

Yes, even liberal Mr. Moyers reports that what we see changes our immune system, saying in the 1984 Annenberg/CPB, WNET/New York series, "The Brain: Learning & Memory:" "For thousands of years it has been said that our thoughts and feelings can make us sick or well ?States of mind like sadness may have a counterpart hidden within the brain."

Because sexually explicit stimuli overwhelm the left hemisphere, rational thought and reason, these false images violate true informed consent and they are harmful to vulnerable adults and to minors.

The physiological reality, discussed in a later article, is that viewing pornography commonly triggers internal, endogenous drug production. The exposure – on computers or elsewhere – of adults, and especially children, to split-second "teaser" images incites an endogenous drug "high." Neurologist Gary Lynch explains to Moyers in the 1984 PBS "Brain" series:

What we're saying here is that ?an event which lasts half a second within five to 10 minutes has produced a structural change that is in some ways as profound as the structural changes one sees in [brain] damage.

Even pornography advocates freely admit that these stimuli create emotional excitation (experienced as a state of lust overlapped with fear, shame and confusion).

Consider all of this in light of a report in Science (Feb. 16, 1996) titled "New Clues to Brain Dopamine" that "too much neuronal activity can be as bad as too little."

Writing in "Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think," (1990) educational psychologist Jane Haley demonstrates the obvious, that the human brain "is plastic." Especially when we are young, "large areas of uncommitted brain tissue can be molded ... to the demands of a particular environment."

So pornography molds some brain environments. In a classic 1979 work, "Consciousness: Brain, States of Awareness and Mysticism," neurologist Paul MacLean observed that humans believe what their eyes see. The physical brain does not distrust pornography:

When nature ?failed to provide [man with] a radar antenna and viewing screen ?a mere phantom is sometimes sufficient to trigger the entire copulatory act [in animals].

Pornographic addiction is better understood if, as brain expert Richard Restak states in his 1988 work "The Mind," "inhibition rather than excitation is the hallmark of the healthy brain."

This list of health-based neurological observations about the instinctual brain-imprinted response to pornographic sights and sounds indicates that viewing pornography is a biologically significant event that overrides informed consent – and that is harmful to children's "plastic" brains because it compromises their grasp of reality and thus their mental and physical health, their well-being and their pursuit of happiness.

These physiological facts prove – except to pornography-friendly judges – that the sexual excitation of children, whether direct or mediated, certainly is contra-indicated.

Pornography might be as harmful to minors as our court system has become.

[Gord]

[nev]

EFL Trainer, here is yet more solid evidence. Sorry Gord, looks like you've been beaten.

http://science-and-the-truth.blogspot.com/

[EFLtrainer]

http://mentalhealthlibrary.info/library/porn/pornlds/pornldsauthor/links/victorcline/porneffect.htm#1970


Published by Morality in Media; 475 Riverside Drive; New York, NY 10115
Introduction
Whether pornography has any significant harmful effects on consumers continues to be a controversial issue, not only for average citizens but also for behavioral scientists. This is not surprising in light of the fact that two national commissions--the Majority Report of the 1970 Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography and the 1986 unprotected by the First Amendment, a judge or a jury representing a cross section of the community must determine that the material :

�� Taken as a whole, appeals to a prurient (sick, morbid , shameful, or lascivious) interest in sex;
�� Depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive manner ( i.e. goes beyond contemporary community standards with regards to depictions of sexual content or activity) ; and
�� Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political , and scientific value.

In common parlance, it (pornography) usually means "material that is sexually explicit and intended primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal."


Attorney General's Commission on Pornography--came to diametrically opposed conclusions about this matter.
Some social commentators claim that pornography is mainly a form of entertainment, possibly educational, sometimes sexually arousing, but essentially harmless. Or, they claim, at the very least, that there is no good scientific evidence of harm. Other social commentators claim more dire consequences and give as examples recent cases, played up by the media, of sex-murderers who have claimed that pornography "made them do it."

LDS Perspective

I believe the information shared in this article about pornography are as useful to us as members of the LDS Church as it is for those who are non-LDS.

Defining Pornography and Obscenity

To ascertain something about pornography's effects, we first need to define it. The word "pornography" comes from the Greek words "porno and "graphia" meaning "depictions of the activities of whores." In common parlance, it usually means "material that is sexually explicit and intended primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal."
"Obscenity," however, is a legal term which was defined by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1973 Miller V. California decision. For something to be found obscene, and therefore the material has to meet all three tests before it can be found obscene in the eyes of the law and its distribution prohibited. This means that something could be regarded as "pornographic" but still not be obscene, such as an explicit sex film produced and used to teach medical students about human sexuality, or a film or book with serious artistic and/or literary value which has some explicit sexual content.
Thus, the Supreme Court has protected a wide variety of sexual matter in movies, books, magazines and in other formats from being prohibited for sale and exhibition to adults (there is a stricter standard with respect to minors). Under the Miller test, however, the distribution of pornographic material which is obscene, such as most of what has been called "hardcore," can be prohibited and penalties proscribed.
The distribution of obscenity is prohibited on the federal level and on the state level in over 40 states. While enforcement of obscenity laws has increased in recent years, particularly at the federal level, enforcement is at best sporadic in many parts of the nation.
This lack of enforcement, especially at the state and local levels, may be attributable, in part, to the view of many people and, in particular, public officials that pornography is essentially harmless or, at the least, that there is little or no real evidence of harm.

Effects On Adults

Data From Clinical Case Studies

In reviewing the literature on the effects of pornography, there is a variety of evidence suggesting risk and the possibility of harm from being immersed in repeated exposure to pornography. These data come primarily from three sources:

�� Clinical case history data
�� Field studies
�� Experimental laboratory type studies.

Clinical case history data come from the offices of professional health care personnel treating individuals with sexual dysfunctions, as well as from clergy - and attorneys who counsel or provide services to sexually troubled individuals. Also, in this category is the evidence provided by sexual addicts affiliated with such national support groups as "Sexaholics Anonymous," or in treatment at such centers as the Institute for Behavioral Medicine at Golden Valley, Minnesota.
As a clinical psychologist, I have treated, over many years, approximately 300 sex addicts, sex offenders, or other individuals (96% male) with sexual illnesses. This includes many types of unwanted compulsive sexual acting-out, plus such things as child molestation, exhibitionism, voyeurism, sadomasochism, fetishism, and rape. With only several exceptions, pornography has been a major or minor contributor or facilitator in the acquisition of their deviation or sexual addiction.
However, where pornography was a contributor or facilitator, regardless of the nature of the sex deviation or addiction, I found a four-factor syndrome common to nearly all of my clients, with almost no exceptions, especially in their early involvement with pornography.

1. Addiction

The first change that happened was an addiction-effect. The porn-consumers got hooked. Once involved in pornographic materials, they kept coming back for more and still more. The material seemed to provide a very powerful sexual stimulant or aphrodisiac effect, followed by sexual release, most often through masturbation. The pornography provided very exciting and powerful imagery which they frequently recalled to mind and elaborated on in their fantasies.
Once addicted, they could not throw off their dependence on the material by themselves, despite many negative consequences such as divorce, loss of family, and problems with the law (as with sexual assault, harassment or abuse of fellow employees).
I also found, anecdotally, that many of my most intelligent male patients appeared to be the most vulnerable--perhaps because they had a greater capacity to fantasize, which heightened the intensity of the experience and made them more susceptible to being conditioned into an addiction.
While any male is vulnerable, attorneys, accountants and media people seemed, in my experience, most vulnerable to these addictions. This is simply an anecdotal impression.
However, Sgt. Bob Navarro, a longtime investigator of the porno industry with the Los Angeles Police Department, has commented, "Believe it or not- the higher their education, the more prone these people are to becoming addicted to this material, and, of course, the more money they have to spend on it...Many people have testified as to their extreme addiction to the material in terms of having their whole lives consumed by it: sitting for hours masturbating to adult material and needing progressively stronger, heavier, harder material to give them a bigger kick. Like an alcoholic or a drug addict they are looking for that big kick and they need more just to keep them at that level of feeling 'OK."' (1)
One of my patients was so deeply addicted that he could not stay away from pornography for 90 days, even for $1,000. It is difficult for non-addicts to comprehend the totally driven nature of a sex addict. When the "wave" hits them, nothing can stand in the way of getting what they want-whether that be pornography accompanied by masturbation, sex from a prostitute, molesting a child, or raping a woman.
An example might help illustrate this problem. Ralph was a sexual addict, married 12 years with three children. He was active in his church and held sincere, high moral principles. He believed in the Ten Commandments and opposed adultery'. Yet his particular cycle involved pornography -use, followed by paid sex with prostitutes. After each incident, he begged God for forgiveness and swore it that it would never happen again. But did, again and again.
Since the trigger of each adulterous act was pornography-use, we decided to try to free him from his dependence on this material. I asked him to write me a check for $1,000, indicating that I would return it if he went 90 days without using pornography. Ralph loved to hang on to his money and was quite attracted to our strategy. "There's no way I'd look at dirty videos or magazines if I knew it would cost me a thousand dollars!" he said.
He managed to resist temptation remarkably well for a while. But on the 87th day, he drove past an "adult" bookstore in an unfamiliar city while on a business trip. He slammed on the brakes, entered the store, and went virtually berserk for 90 minutes. When I saw him the following week, he tearfully confessed that he had lost his $1,000. Since he had gone 87 days "sober," I decided to give him another chance.
So we started another 90-day "sobriety" cycle. We both felt that if he could go 87 days, he could certainly make 90 if we tried again, especially if it meant recovering his $1,000.
This time he went only 14 days before he relapsed. He lost his money, which was given to a charity. He was extremely committed to quit in order to save his marriage and to live in harmony with his religious principles. But that was not the case. In my opinion, even if he had given me $10,000, he still would have relapsed. When the wave hits them, these men are consumed by their appetite, regardless of the costs or consequences. Their addiction virtually rules their lives.

2. Escalation

The second phase was an escalation-effect. With the passage of time, the addicted required rougher, more explicit- more deviant, and "kinky" kinds of sexual material to get their "highs" and "sexual turn-ons." It was reminiscent of individuals afflicted with drug addictions. Over time there is nearly always an increasing need for more of the stimulant to get the same initial effect.
If their wives or girlfriends were involved with them, they eventually pushed their partners into doing increasingly bizarre and deviant sexual activities. In many cases, this resulted in a rupture in the relationship when the woman refused to go further-often leading to much conflict, separation or divorce.
Being married or being in a relationship with a willing sexual partner did not solve their problem. Their addiction and escalation were manly due to the powerful sexual imagery in their minds, implanted there by the exposure to pornography. They often preferred this sexual imagery, accompanied by masturbation, to sexual intercourse itself. This nearly always diminished their capacity to love and express affection to their partner in their intimate relations. The fantasy was all-powerful, much to the chagrin and disappointment of their partner. Their sex drive had been diverted to a degree away from their spouse. And the spouse could easily sense this, and often felt very lonely and rejected.
I have had a number of couple-clients where the wife tearfully reported that her husband preferred to masturbate to pornography than to make love to her.

3. Desensitization

The third phase that happened was desensitization. Material (in books, magazines or film/videos) which was originally perceived as shocking, taboo-breaking, illegal, repulsive or immoral, though still sexually arousing, in time came to be seen as acceptable and commonplace. The sexual activity depicted in the pornography (no matter how antisocial or deviant) became legitimized. There was increasingly a sense that "everybody does it" and this gave them permission to also do it, even though the activity was possibly illegal and contrary to their previous moral beliefs and personal standards.

4. Acting Out Sexually

The fourth phase that occurred was an increasing tendency to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography that the porn-consumers had been repeatedly exposed to, including compulsive promiscuity, exhibitionism, group sex, voyeurism, frequenting massage parlors, having sex with minor children, rape, and inflicting pain on themselves or a partner during sex. This behavior frequently grew into a sexual addiction which they found themselves locked into and unable to change or reverse--no matter what the negative consequences were in their life.
Many examples of negative effects from pornography-use come from the private or clinical practice of psychotherapists, physicians, counselors, attorneys, and ministers. Here we come face to face with real people who are in some kind of significant trouble or pain. A few examples might illustrate this.
Deputy Mayor Arrested: The 46-year~old Deputy Mayor of the City of Los Angeles attended a west L.A. porn theater one afternoon a few years ago. While watching the sex film, he became so aroused that he started to sexually assault a patron sitting next to him. The individual turned out to be an undercover city vice-squad officer. The Deputy Mayor was arrested, booked, and found guilty in a subsequent trial. This distinguished public servant left the office shamed and humiliated, his career in shambles.
Marriage Threatened: A 36-year-old married male, college-educated, a professional and very successful financially, had an addiction to pornography, masturbation and frequenting massage parlors where he had paid sex. He had an excellent marriage, four children and was very active in his church, where he assumed important positions of responsibility. While he felt guilty about his engagement in illicit sex, which was contrary to his religious, ethic, and personal values and had the potential of seriously disturbing his marriage if found out, he compulsively continued to do that which, at a rational level, he did not want to do.
His problem came to light when he infected his wife with a venereal disease. This created many serious and disturbing consequences in his life and marriage.
Incest: A 30-year-old single male, religiously active and very committed to his faith, had a history of pornography-addiction. He was too shy and backward to ask adult females on dates. So he developed intimate relationships with his four-and seven-year-old nieces and their girlfriends which culminated in his repeatedly sexually molesting them. The modeling of explicit sexual activity in the "adult" pornography which he consumed helped fuel his sexual appetite and interest in these children.
Because of his guilt over what he was doing, he eventually sought professional help. However, his state had a "disclosure law" which required that he be reported to state officials for his sexual abuse of these children. Because of his cooperative attitude and the fact that he sought treatment on his own, he was placed on probation, received long term psychotherapy and is now living a more normal life.
Serial Rapist: I was asked to consult on a case where a Phoenix-Tucson area professional person, president of his firm and head of his church's committee on helping troubled children, was found to be a serial rapist who had violently raped a number of women at gun or knife-point in the Arizona area. In doing the background study on him, I found him to come from an exemplary background and trouble-free childhood. He was an outstanding student in high school and college.
His wife, children, business, and church associates had not the slightest inkling of his double life or dark side. The only significant negative factor in his life was an early adolescent addiction to pornography which, for the most part, was kept secret from others. This gradually escalated over a period of years, eventually leading to spending many hours and incurring great expense in "adult" bookstores, looking at violent video-porn movies and masturbating to these.
His first rape was triggered by seeing a close resemblance in the woman he assaulted to the leading character in a porn movie he had seen earlier in the day. Reality and fantasy had become extremely blurred for him as he acted out his pathological sexual fantasies.
Most Frequent Consequences: However, in my clinical experience, the major consequence of being addicted to pornography is not the probability or possibility of committing a serious sex crime (though this can and does occur), but rather it��s disturbance of the fragile bonds of intimate family and marital relationships. This is where the most grievous pain , damage and sorrow occurs. There is repeatedly an interference with or even destruction of healthy love and sexual relationships with long term bonded partners. If one asks if porn is responsible or causes any sex crimes, the answer is unequivocally in the affirmative, but that is only the "tip of the iceberg."
In some patients, I find that there is an almost instant addiction, while with others, it may take 5-10 years of erratic exposure to get hooked. But like a latent cancer, it almost never disappears on its own or reverses its course unless there is some therapeutic intervention.

Pornography's Impact On Psychosexual Development

It should be noted that other kinds of data which bear on these issues come from therapists who see symptoms of arrested development in the psychosexual growth of the heavy consumers of pornography they are treating.
An example would be psychiatrist Harold Voth, who is on the faculty of the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka, Kansas. Dr Voth sees pornography as typically depicting perverse sex, degradation through sex, violent sex, and transient, meaningless sex--all of which are reflections of incomplete and abnormal human development. As he notes, healthy mature people do not behave in these ways. (2)
However, he states, there are millions of people who appear manifestly healthy, but who also harbor substantial latent sicknesses which are residues of developmental arrests or abnormal development which may find expression in sexual perversions. Thus, viewing pornography, most of which depicts perverse behavior, activates the developmental sexual arrests which exist in millions of people.
He sees these people as developing a kind of addiction for pornography, thus receiving many exposures to it over time. These pornographic stimuli promote regressive behavior rather than more mature behavior.
Dr. Voth sees such exposure as especially damaging to the young who are on the threshold of entering into an active sexual life. For them, these vital processes should be guided toward greater maturity, not retrogressively toward perversion or transient, meaningless sex. As he states, "Society and individuals alike can only be harmed when we legitimize abnormal behavior."
Dr. Voth also notes that some men become dissatisfied with their wives whom they believe to be inadequate (and vice versa) after viewing the exaggerated sexual prowess as depicted by the typical pornographic movie. He suggests that society has the responsibility to protect itself from itself--that is, from the elements within society which harm it. He sees pornography as appealing to sexuality at its worst, and since mature sexuality is so essential to the heterosexual bond and to family life, he believes steps should be taken to clearly identify pornography as unhealthy with many risks associated with its consumption.

Conditioning into Deviancy

Other cause/effect data come from the conditioning laboratories of investigators such as Dr. Stanley Rachman. In his research, he demonstrated that, with the use of highly erotic pictures, sexual deviations could be created in adult male subjects in a laboratory setting. He was actually able to condition, in two separate experiments, 100% of his male subjects into a sexual deviancy (fetishism). (3)
Additionally, the work of R.L. McGuire, author of a study, "Sexual Deviation as Conditioned Behavior: A Hypothesis," suggests that exposure to special sexual experiences (which could include witnessing pornography), and then masturbating to the fantasy of this exposure, can sometimes later lead to participation in deviant sexual acts. (4)
The considerable literature on therapy for sex deviates suggests that their sexual orientation can sometimes be changed (reconditioned) with the use of explicit sex films as a therapeutic tool. (5) If these data are valid, then one must also allow for the possibility that deliberate or accidental exposure to pornography or deviant real life sex experiences can also facilitate the conditioning of individuals into sexual aberrations.
Psychologist Patrick Carnes (currently the leading U.S. researcher on sexual addictions) has published a series of research and data-based books, bringing to national awareness the problem of out-of-control, compulsive sexual behavior. His latest volume documents a host of serious legal, marital, and health consequences of such compulsions. (6)
He found that among 932 sex addicts studied, 90% of the men and 77% of the women report pornography as significant to their addictions. He also found that two common elements in the early etiology of sexually addictive behavior are childhood sexual abuse and frequent pornography accompanied by masturbation.
Rather ironically, Dr. Carnes also found that many therapists (psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers) suffer from sexual addictions and inappropriate "acting out" sexual behavior. As he put it, "One of the discoveries that emerged from our survey is that women addicts seeking help are often sexually abused by their therapists."
Therapists have also found their malpractice insurance rates rising dramatically in recent years, due in part to lawsuits brought against significant numbers of their colleagues who have sexually abused or exploited clients in the course of treatment. This suggests that compulsive sexual behavior is a problem even for practitioners in the therapeutic community. (7)

All Sex Deviations Appear To Be Learned Behaviors

The best evidence to date suggests that most or all sexual deviations are learned behaviors, usually through inadvertent or accidental conditioning. There is no convincing evidence, to date, suggesting the hereditary transmission of any pathological sexual behavior pattern such as rape, incest, pedophilia, exhibitionism, or promiscuity.
As McGuire explains it, as a man repeatedly masturbates to a vivid sexual fantasy as his exclusive outlet (introduced by a real life experience or possibly pornography), the pleasurable experiences endow the deviant fantasy (rape, molesting children, injuring one's partner while having sex, etc.) with increasing erotic value. The orgasm experienced then provides the critical reinforcing event for the conditioning of the fantasy preceding or accompanying the act. (
McGuire indicates that any type of sexual deviation can be acquired in this way, that it may include several unrelated deviations in one individual and that it cannot be eliminated even by massive feelings of guilt. His paper cites many case histories to illustrate this type of conditioning.
Other related studies by D.R. Evans and B.T. Jackson support his thesis. They found that deviant masturbatory fantasy very significantly affected the habit strength of the subject's sexual deviation. (9)

Common Pathway to Self Inflicted Sexual illness

In my treatment of primarily male patients with paraphilias (sexual pathology), I consistently have found that most men are vulnerable to the effects of masturbatory conditioning to pornography with a consequence of sexual ill health, because we are all subject to the laws of learning, with few or no exceptions.
In my experience as a sexual therapist, any individual who regularly masturbates to pornography is at risk of becoming, in time, a sexual addict, as well as conditioning himself into having a sexual deviancy and/or disturbing a bonded relationship with a spouse or girlfriend.
A frequent side effect is that it also dramatically reduces their capacity to love (e.g., it results in a marked dissociation of sex from friendship, affection, caring, and other normal healthy emotions and traits which help marital relationships). Their sexual side becomes in a sense dehumanized. Many of them develop an "alien ego state" (or dark side), whose core is antisocial lust devoid of most values.
In time, the "high" obtained from masturbating to pornography becomes more important than real life relationships. It has been commonly thought by health educators that masturbation has negligible consequences, other than reducing sexual tension. Moral objections aside, this may be generally true, but one exception would appear to be in the area of repeatedly masturbating to deviant pornographic imagery (either as memories in the mind or as explicit pornographic stimuli), which risks (via conditioning) the acquiring of sexual addictions and/or other sexual pathology.
It makes no difference if one is an eminent physician, attorney, minister, athlete, corporate executive college president, unskilled laborer, or an average 15-year-old boy. All can be conditioned into deviancy.
The process of masturbatory conditioning is inexorable and does not spontaneously remiss. The course of this illness may be slow and is nearly always hidden from view. It is usually a secret part of the man's life, and like a cancer, it keeps growing and spreading. It rarely ever reverses itself, and it is also very difficult to treat and heal. Denial on the part of the male addict and refusal to confront the problem are typical and predictable, and this almost always leads to marital or couple disharmony, sometimes divorce and sometimes the breaking up of other intimate relationships.

Imprinting the Brain with Sexual Images

The work of psychologist James L. McGaugh at the University of California, Irvine, needs mention here. His findings (oversimplifying considerably) suggest that memories of experiences, which occurred at times of emotional arousal (which could include sexual arousal), get "locked into the brain" by an adrenal gland hormone, epinephrine, and are difficult to erase. This may partly explain pornography's addicting effect. Powerful sexually arousing memories of experiences from the past keep intruding themselves hack on the mind's memory screen, serving to stimulate and erotically arouse the viewer. If he masturbates to these fantasies, he reinforces the linkage between sexual arousal and orgasm, with the particular scene or image repeatedly rehearsed in his mind. (10)
One might quickly see the risks involved with large numbers of males being exposed to the following film. This 8 mm motion picture film, marketed out of Los Angeles, depicts two Girl Scouts in their green uniforms selling cookies from door to door. At one residence they are invited in by a mature, sexually aggressive adult male, who proceeds to instantly seduce them and subject them to a number of unusual and extremely explicit sexual acts, all shown in greatest detail. The girls are depicted as eagerly enjoying this sexual orgy.
This film is what is usually termed hardcore pornography. This is the kind of pornographic stimulus (here, a film) that the male viewer can play again and again either in the privacy of his home or in his mind for his sexual pleasure.
If the research of Rachman, McGuire, McGaugh and scores of other investigators in the area of human learning has any meaning at all, it would suggest that such a film could be hazardous. It could potentially condition some male viewers into having reoccurring sexual fantasies (vividly imprinted into the brain by the epinephrine) which they might repeatedly masturbate to and then, later, be tempted to act out as sexual advances toward female minors--especially if they were in Girl Scout uniforms.

The Research On Aggressive Pornography (Porno-Violence)

Aggressive sexual crimes against women are a very serious and escalating problem in the United States. Recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings concluded that rape has increased four times as fast as the overall crime rate over the last decade. And, in fact, the United States leads the world in rape statistics with a rape rate four times that of Germany, 13 times as much as England, and 20 times as much as Japan. (11)
In recent years, there has been a considerable body of research on aggressive pornography, much of it found in hard "R-rated" films. Many of these films are also broadcast unedited on cable TV and later are available to children in nearly every video store in America. The typical film shows nude females, or females in sexually arousing situations and postures, being raped, tortured, or murdered.
The results of this research suggest the possibility of conditioning viewers into associating sexual arousal with inflicting injury, rape, humiliation, or torture on females. Where these films are available on videotapes (which most are), these can be repeatedly viewed in the privacy of one's residence and masturbated to, with the associated risks of negative or antisocial conditioning and behavior, previously noted.
Drs. Neil Malamuth and Edward Donnerstein noted in their research-based book, Pornography and Sexual Aggression, (12) that "Certain forms of pornography (aggressive) can affect aggressive attitudes toward women and can desensitize an individual's perception of rape. These attitudes and perceptions are, furthermore, directly related to actual aggressive behavior against women. ...These results suggest, again, that aggressive pornography does increase aggression against women."
Drs. Malamuth and Donnerstein also found that watching films, depicting a woman as saying that she enjoys being raped, increased male acceptance of interpersonal violence against women and tended to increase the male's acceptance of rape myths (such as believing that women enjoy rape).
These authors conclude, "There can be relatively long-term, antisocial effects of movies that portray sexual violence as having positive consequences" (e.g., the woman indicated she enjoyed being raped, or she said "no" when she really meant "yes" while being sexually assaulted).
The literature on aggressive pornography is rather impressive in its consistency in suggesting a variety of harms or possibility of antisocial outcomes from exposure to this material. This should not be surprising alter 40 years of research on film and TV violence arriving essentially at the same conclusion. (13)
Dr. Malamuth and associates further found that when college males were exposed to sexually violent pornography, such as rape and other forms of sexual violence, two-thirds of the male subjects, following such exposure, indicated an increased willingness to force a woman into sex acts if they were assured of not being caught or punished.
In similar research by Seymour Feshback and associates, 51% of "normal" UCLA males indicated the likelihood of emulating a sadomasochistic rape (seen in porn material they had been exposed to) if they were assured of not getting caught. (14)
.
The Effects Of The 'Rape Myth' On Pornography-Consumers

In a study by Mills College sociologist, Diana Russell, it was found that the depiction and dissemination of the "rape myth" (e.g., that most women really enjoy having sex forced upon them) were significant elements in reducing inhibitions to the use of violence, habituating both males and females to the idea of rape and also accepting sexual aberrance as "normal" behavior. (15)
She also found that once the seeds of deviant behavior were planted in the male fantasy, the men were inclined to act out their fantasies. She found that both the fantasies that were acted out, as well as the mere conceptualization of these deviant fantasies as viable behaviors, led to considerable conflict and suffering on the part of both males and females, particularly in their sexual relationships with intimate partners.

The Effects of Non-Violent Pornography

The issue which has caught the attention of some behavioral scientists doing work in this area is whether it is the violence or the sex that is doing most of the "harm" when it is fused together in so-called aggressive pornography or porno-violence. Some will say, "Just eliminate the violence-the sex is OK."
If we look at non-violent pornography which is totally devoid of violence, we may ask, what about its effects? First, we might indicate several examples of non-violent pornography which most therapists, as well as most ordinary citizens, would not regard as healthy models of sexual behavior:

�� Child pornography
�� Incest type porn (e.g., mother seducing son, daughter seducing father, older brother seducing younger sister, etc.)
�� Sex with animals
�� Group sex
�� Sex which humiliates and denigrates women and their sex role in man/woman relationships (viewed without overt violence)
�� Pornography such as that involving the eager Girl Scout teenagers having two-on-one sex with the adult male, etc.
�� Obscene films which present a massive amount of misinformation or gross distortions about human sexuality.

All of the above, while lacking violence, still have the potential of having negative effects on some viewers because they model unhealthy sex role behavior or give false information about human sexuality. Additionally, nonviolent porn can contribute to acquiring a great variety of sexual addictions.
Additionally, there exists empirical research on the effects of "adult" non-violent pornography by researchers Dolf Zillmann and Jennings Bryant. (16) This research suggests that when experimental subjects are exposed to repeated presentations of hardcore non-violent adult pornography over a six-week period, they:

�� Develop an increased callousness toward women; Trivialize rape as a criminal offense; to some it was no longer a crime at all;
�� Develop distorted perceptions about sexuality;
�� Develop an appetite for more deviant, bizarre or violent types of pornography (escalation); normal sex no longer seemed to "do the job;"
�� Devalue the importance of monogamy and lack confidence in marriage as either a viable or lasting institution, and
�� View non-monogamous relationships as normal and natural behavior.

Pornography's Effect on Sexual Satisfaction and Family Values

In further research by Drs. Zillmann and Bryant on prolonged consumption of nonviolent pornography, their subjects, after many weeks exposure, reported less satisfaction with their partner's sexual performance, affection, and physical appearance.
The researchers further found an incompatibility of the sexual values in pornography and the sexual values implicit in enduring intimate relationships, and, in particular, in marriage. The chief proclamation of pornography is great sexual joy without any attachment, commitment or responsibility.
Drs. Zillmann and Bryant found that their subjects (both male and female), after intensive exposure to pornography, had a greater acceptance of pre-and extramarital sex and an enhancement of the belief that male and female promiscuity is natural.
Extensive exposure also lowered their evaluation of marriage, making this institution appear less significant and less viable in the future. It also reduced their desire to have children and promoted the acceptance of male dominance and female servitude.
The authors saw the diminished desire for progeny as reflecting the pornographic projection of carefree and consequence-free, promiscuous sexuality. Children have no place in the short-lived relationship in which this maxim is practiced. This would suggest that the consumption of pornography erodes marital values and the institution of marriage itself. (17)

1986 Attorney General's Commission On Pornography

The 10-member panel of the 1986 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, after reviewing a great volume of clinical and experimental research, concluded unanimously that "Substantial exposure to sexually violent materials (violent pornography)...bears a causal relationship to antisocial acts of sexual violence...," and, "There is a causal relationship between exposure to sexually violent materials and an increase in aggressive behavior directed toward women."
The members of the Commission also commented, "The evidence from formal or informal studies of self-reports of offenders themselves supports the conclusions that the causal connection we identify relates to actual sexual offenses..." (1
The Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, in further reviewing the research on pornographic materials which were not violent but did involve degradation, domination, subordination and humiliation (of women), concluded, "Substantial exposure to materials of this type bears some causal relationship to the level of sexual violence, sexual coercion, or unwanted sexual aggression in the population so exposed...as well as the incidence of various non-violent forms of discrimination against or subordination of women in our society." (19)

1970 Presidential Commission On Obscenity & Pornography

If we look at field studies of pornography's effects, we might cite evidence going back to the 1970 Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, the Technical Reports of which I carefully reviewed and later wrote and edited a book entitled, Where Do You Draw the Line? (20)
In a sophisticated study, financed by the Presidential Commission and published in Volume VII of its Technical Reports, Drs. K.E. Davis and G.N. Braucht assessed the relationship between exposure to pornography and moral character, deviance in the home and neighborhood, and sexual behavior. In their study, impressive in its rigorous methodology and statistical treatment, Drs. Davis and. Braucht, while finding a "positive relationship between sexual deviance and exposure to pornography at all ages of exposure," also found that "exposure to pornography is the strongest predictor of sexual deviance among the early ages of exposure subjects."
In this early age of exposure (to pornography) subgroup, "the amount of exposure was significantly correlated with a willingness to engage in group sexual relations... (and other) 'serious' sexual deviance; and there were trends for the number of both high school heterosexual partners and total homosexual partners to be positively related to (pornographic) exposure."
This suggests that pornography may act as a facilitator or accelerator of youthful promiscuity, which could raise health concerns relative to the acquisition and spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as sexual addictions.
Correlation alone, of course1 never demonstrates a causal relationship. However, it does sometimes permit a reasonable hypothesis. Because the researchers had partialed out the contribution of other key variables in this study, the possibility of causation (of harm via pornography exposure) was highly suggested. In another study of 476 reformatory inmates, published in Volume IX of the Commission's Technical Reports, Dr. Martin Propper notes again and again a relationship between high exposure to pornography and sexually promiscuous and deviant behavior, as well as affiliation with groups high in criminal activity and sex deviancy.
In yet another study, published in Volume VII of the Technical Reports, C. Eugene Walker found that 39% of the sex offenders interviewed indicated that "pornography had something to do with their committing the sex offense that they were convicted of."
While one must be cautious in interpreting these results, they again raise the possibility of serious negative outcomes from exposure to pornography.

Sex Offenders' Use Of Pornography

In research conducted by Dr. W. Marshall, almost half of the rapists that he studied used pornography depicting consenting sex to arouse themselves, preparatory to seeking out a victim to rape. (21) Another investigator, Dr. M.J. Goldstein, found that far more of the sex offenders than the non-offenders he studied wished to, and often did, emulate the acts they saw depicted in pornography. (22)
In still another study, most of Dr. G.G. Abel's sex offenders said that pornography increased their appetites for deviant activities (and these were the men who reported the least control over their deviant urges). (23) Other investigators have reported that rapists and child molesters use pornography incitefully, both immediately prior to their crimes and during the actual assaults. (24)
Still another type of evidence comes from a study conducted by Darrell Pope, a former Michigan State Police officer, who found that of 38,000 cases of sexual assault on file in Michigan, 41% involved pornography-exposure just prior to the act or during the act. 25)
Gary Bishop, Serial Killer

Another example of the effects of pornography comes from Gary Bishop, convicted homosexual pedophile who murdered five young boys in Salt Lake City, Utah in order to conceal his sexual abuse of them. He wrote in a letter after his conviction: "Pornography was a determining factor in my downfall. Somehow I became sexually attracted to young boys and I would fantasize about them naked. Certain bookstores offered sex education, photographic or art books which occasionally contained pictures of nude boys. I purchased such books and used them to enhance my masturbatory fantasies."
"But it wasn't enough. I desired more sexually arousing pictures so I enticed boys into letting me take pictures of them naked. From adult magazines, I also located addresses of foreign companies specializing in 'kiddie porn' and spent hundreds of dollars on these magazines and films.
"Such material would temporarily satisfy my cravings, but soon I would need pictures that were more explicit and revealing. Some of the material I received was shocking and disgusting at first, but it shortly became commonplace and acceptable. As I continued to digress further into my perverted behavior, more stimulation was necessary to maintain the same level of excitement."
"Finding and procuring sexually arousing materials became an obsession. For me, seeing pornography was like lighting a fuse on a stick of dynamite; I became stimulated and had to gratify my urges or explode. All boys became mere sexual objects. My conscience was desensitized and my sexual appetite entirely controlled my actions."
Gary Bishop then continued to tell how he sexually abused and killed his boy victims.

Ted Bundy, Serial Killer

In the case of Ted Bundy, serial killer of possibly 31 young women, he stated in the videotaped interview hours before his execution, "You are going to kill me, and that will protect society from me. But out there are many, many more people who are addicted to pornography, and you are doing nothing about that."

[Gord]

[EFLtrainer]

Alright, so this is my argument:

1. There is an indisputable connection between mind and body.

2. The same stimuli can and will have different effects on different people

3. Those that are, for lack of a better word, abnormal will be more likely to respond negatively, i.e. be influenced by, to stimuli as they are predisposed to, being abnormal. This abnormality may be psychological or physiological, or both. (Think schizophrnia as an example of physiological abnormalities that absolutely affect behavior.)

4. We are still learning exactly how the brain and body functions and we know precious little about the mind.

5. To assume that the measuring of an entire society is going to reveal something about the abnormal fringe in the issue under discussion is foolishly naive and bad science.

6. That is, the positive effects of pornography, such as release or stimulating a healthy sexual relationship for a couple, don't tell us anything about the negative effects, but may well help to hide them in large studies as there are far more people in the "normal" set. (This is basic statistics.)

7. Thus, citing studies of the general population are meaningless.

8. There has been precious little work done on the deviant mind and pornography, but the anecdotal studies show a definite correlation and possible causation.

9. I also argue that in this case you are talking about a feedback loop. It is impossible to sort out the two, and always will be. For example, let's assume there is a causal relationship. So, someone starts having sex at some point. Completely independent of any exposure to porn, they start escalating their sexual experiences. Then they get into porn. They use the porn to stimulate in some form. They seek wider experience. They then seek more abnormal porn as they become desensitized to the milder porn. Then they escalate their sexual activities.

How the hell do you sort out the causal agent? They are connected, people. This is basic physiology and basic psychology. Addiction research fits perfectly here. Know how addiction works?

10. The studies have not been done that can prove or disprove a link between porno and behavior. Those studies must study ONLY those that are deviant (offenders) using the "normal" pool as a control for comparison. If you don't understand this you may need to brush up on basic scientific methodology, statistical analysis and basic psychology.

11. To address the utter stupidity in this thread: I do not object to people citing this or that study (though I think they are largely irrelevant.) I object to idiotic assertions that because I have not addressed a given instance or situation I am then assumed to support or connect or not connect that to the issue. This an absurd assumption to make. ("So, you don't like lemons? You must not like citrus." "So, you think child pornography is bad? You must think all porn is bad." "You didn't answer my question. Your opinion must be whatever I say it is, then." Stupid.)

12. Further, my pimary point in dealing with trolliwog was that you ARE responsible if you are buying material or in some way supporting the production of material that is, in fact, exploitative. Simple. Claiming ignorance is not acceptable, nor logically defensible. However, the attempt to be sure as much as possible must be commended. THAT said, how can you ever be? You can't in general, but I suppose you can be in specific cases if you happen to know something about the people involved.

13. SO... if you are a buyer of porn, and are concerned about exploitation (if you don't care, then obviously this point and the preceding point will be irrlevant to you), you have to decide: Is my pleasure worth the possible exploitation of others? Your choice, but don't play innocent like you didn't know.

14. To address the utter stupidity of claiming I have somehow "lost": how the hell do you lose in the stating of differing opinions??? We are not talking facts, people. We are talking theory and opinion. If you don't understand that, you truly are stupid.

15. If you think this is a debate, thus can be won or lost, go back to high school and learn what a debate is and how one is run.

Final note: this discussion cannot be won. You cannot deny a single one of the points made above. You can state your opinion on their relevance, importance and interpret what they mean. You CANNOT "win" an opinion. Particulary one based on limited, incomplete data.

[joe_doufu]

Man, all these long-winded posts have got me in the mood for some good porn viewing. What's your favorite site everybody?

[EFLtrainer]

Check out the bold text at the bottom.

http://www.dianarussell.com/porntoc.html

A THEORY ABOUT THE CAUSATIVE ROLE OF PORNOGRAPHY

Sociologist David Finkelhor has developed a very useful multicausal theory to explain the occurrence of child sexual abuse (1984). According to Finkelhor's model, in order for child sexual abuse to occur, four conditions have to be met. First, someone has to want to abuse a child sexually. Second, this person's internal inhibitions against acting out this desire have to be undermined. Third, this person's social inhibitions against acting out this desire (e.g., fear of being caught and punished) have to to be undermined. Fourth, the would-be perpetrator has to undermine or overcome his or her chosen victim's capacity to avoid or resist the sexual abuse.

According to my theory, these conditions also have to be met in order for rape, battery, and other forms of sexual assault on adult women occur (Russell, 1984). Although my theory can be applied to other forms of sexual abuse and violence against women besides rape, the following formulation of it will focus on rape because most of the research relevant to my theory has been on this form of sexual assault.

In Sexual Exploitation (1984) I suggest many factors that may predispose a large number of males in the United States to want to rape or assault women sexually. Some examples discussed in this book are (1) biological factors, (2) childhood experiences of sexual abuse, (3) male sex-role socialization, (4) exposure to mass media that encourage rape, and (5) exposure to pornography. Here I will discuss only the role of pornography.

Although women have been known to rape both males and females, males are by far the predominant perpetrators of sexual assault as well as the biggest consumers of pornography. Hence, my theory will focus on male perpetrators.

A diagrammatic presentation of this theory appears in Figure 1. As previously noted, in order for rape to occur, a man must not only be predisposed to rape, but his internal and social inhibitions against acting out this rape desires must be undermined. My theory, in a nutshell, is that pornography (1) predisposes some males to want to rape women and intensifies the predisposition in other males already so predisposed; (2) undermines some male's internal inhibitions against acting out their desire to rape; and (3) undermines some male's social inhibitions against acting out their desire to rape.

THE MEANING OF "CAUSE"

Given the intense debate about whether or not pornography plays a causal role in rape, it is surprising that so few of those engaged in it ever state what they mean by "cause." A definition of the concept of simple causation follows:

An event (or events) that precedes and results in the occurrence of another event. Whenever the first event (the cause) occurrs, the second event (the effect) necessarily or inevitably follows. Moreover, in simple causation the second event does not occur unless the first event has occurred. Thus the cause is both the SUFFICIENT CONDITION and the NECESSARY CONDITION for the occurrence of the effect (Theodorson and Theodorson, 1979).

By this definition, pornography clearly does not cause rape, as it seems safe to assume that some pornography consumers do not rape women, and that many rapes are unrelated to pornography. However, the concept of multiple causation is more relevant to this question than simple causation.

With the conception of MULTIPLE CAUSATION, various possible causes may be seen for a given event, any one of which may be a sufficient but not necessary condition for the occurrence of the effect, or a necessary but not sufficient condition. In the case of multiple causation, then, the given effect may occur in the absence of all but one of the possible sufficient but not necessary causes; and, conversely, the given effect would not follow the occurrence of some but not all of the various necessary but not sufficient causes (Theodorson and Theodorson, 1979).

As I have already presented the research on males' proclivity to rape, I will next discuss some of the evidence that pornography can be a sufficient (though not necessary) condition for males to desire to rape (see the list on the far right of Figure 1). I will mention when the research findings I describe apply to violent pornography and when to pornography that appears to the viewer to be non-violent.

I. THE ROLE OF PORNOGRAPHY IN PREDISPOSING SOME MALES TO WANT TO RAPE

"I went to a porno bookstore, put a quarter in a slot, and saw this porn movie. It was just a guy coming up from behind a girl and attacking her and raping her. That's when I started having rape fantasies. When I saw that movie, it was like somebody lit a fuse from my childhood on up... I just went for it, went out and raped." Rapist interviewed by Beneke, 1982, pp. 73-74.

According to Factor I in my theoretical model, pornography can induce a desire to rape women in males who previously had no such desire, and it can increase or intensify the desire to rape in males who already have felt this desire. This section will provide the evidence for the four different ways in which pornography can induce this predisposition that are listed alongside Factor I in Figure 1.

(1) Pairing sexually arousing/gratifying stimuli with rape

The laws of social learning (for example, classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, and social modeling), about which there is now considerable consensus among psychologists, apply to all the mass media, including pornography. As Donnerstein testified at the Hearings in Minneapolis: "If you assume that your child can learn from Sesame Street how to count one, two, three, four, five, believe me, they can learn how to pick up a gun" (Donnerstein, 1983, p. 11). Presumably, males can learn equally well how to rape, beat, sexually abuse, and degrade females.

A simple application of the laws of social learning suggests that viewers of pornography can develop arousal responses to depictions of rape, murder, child sexual abuse, or other assaultive behavior. Researcher S. Rachman of the Institute of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital, London, has demonstrated that male subjects can learn to become sexually aroused by seeing a picture of a woman's boot after repeatedly seeing women's boots in association with sexually arousing slides of nude females (Rachman and Hodgson, 1968). The laws of learning that operated in the acquisition of the boot fetish can also teach males who were not previously aroused by depictions of rape to become so. All it may take is the repeated association of rape with arousing portrayals of female nudity (or clothed females in provocative poses).

Even for males who are not sexually excited during movie portrayals of rape, masturbation subsequent to the movie reinforces the association. This constitutes what R.J. McGuire, J.M. Carlisle and B.G. Young refer to as "masturbatory conditioning" (Cline, 1974, p. 210). The pleasurable experience of orgasm--an expected and planned--for activity in many pornography parlors--is an exceptionally potent reinforcer. The fact that pornography is widely used by males as ejaculation material is a major factor that differentiates it from other mass media, intensifying the lessons that male consumers learn from it.

(2) Increasing males' self-generated rape fantasies

Further evidence that exposure to pornography can create in males a predisposition to rape where none existed before is provided by an experiment conducted by Malamuth. Malamuth classified 29 male students as sexually force-oriented or non-force-oriented on the basis of their responses to a questionnaire (1981a). These students were then randomly assigned to view either a rape version or a mutally consenting version of a slide-audio presentation. The account of rape and accompanying pictures were based on a story in a popular pornographic magazine, which Malamuth describes as follows:

The man in this story finds an attractive woman on a deserted road. When he approaches her, she faints with fear. In the rape version, the man ties her up and forcibly undresses her. The accompanying narrative is as follows: "You take her into the car. Though this experience is new to you, there is a temptation too powerful to resist. When she awakens, you tell her she had better do exactly as you say or she'll be sorry. With terrified eyes she agrees. She is undressed and she is willing to succumb to whatever you want. You kiss her and she returns the kiss." Portrayal of the man and woman in sexual acts follows; intercourse is implied rather than explicit (1981a, p. 3.

In the mutually consenting version of the story the victim was not tied up or threatened. Instead, on her awakening in the car, the man told her that "she is safe and that no one will do her any harm. She seems to like you and you begin to kiss." The rest of the story is identical to the rape version (Malamuth, 1981a, p. 3.

All subjects were then exposed to the same audio description of a rape read by a female. This rape involved threats with a knife, beatings, and physical restraint. The victim was portrayed as pleading, crying, screaming, and fighting against the rapist (Abel, Barlow, Blanchard, and Guild, 1977, p. 898). Malamuth reports that measures of penile tumescence as well as self-reported arousal "indicated that relatively high levels of sexual arousal were generated by all the experimental stimuli" (1981a, p. 33).

After the 29 male students had been exposed to the rape audio tape, they were asked to try to reach as high a level of sexual arousal as possible by fantasizing about whatever they wanted but without any direct stimulation of the *beep* (1981a, p. 40). Self-reported sexual arousal during the fantasy period indicated that those students who had been exposed to the rape version of the first slide-audio presentation, created more violent sexual fantasies than those exposed to the mutually consenting version irrespective of whether they had been classified as force-oriented or non-force-oriented (1981a, p. 33).

As the rape version of the slide-audio presentation is typical of what is seen in pornography, the results of this experiment suggests that similar pornographic depictions are likely to generate rape fantasies even in previously non-force-oriented consumers. As Edna Einsiedel points out (1986, p. 60):

Current evidence suggests a high correlation between deviant fantasies and deviant behaviors....Some treatment methods are also predicated on the link between fantasies and behavior by attempting to alter fantasy patterns in order to change the deviant behaviors (1986, p. 60).

Because so many people resist the idea that a desire to rape may develop as a result of viewing pornography, let us focus for a moment on behavior other than rape. There is abundant testimonial evidence that at least some males decide they would like to perform certain sex acts on women after seeing pornography portraying such sex acts. For example, one of the men who answered Shere Hite's question on pornography wrote: "It's great for me. It gives me new ideas to try and see, and it's always sexually exciting" (1981, p. 780; emphasis added). Of course, there's nothing wrong with getting new ideas from pornography or anywhere else, nor with trying them out, as long as they are not actions that subordinate or violate others. Unfortunately, many of the behaviors modeled in pornography do subordinate and violate women, sometimes viciously.

The following statements were made by women testifying at the Hearings on Pornography in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1993 (Russell, 1993a). Ms. M testified that,

I agree to act out in private a lot of the scenarios that my husband read to me. These depicted bondage and different sexual acts that I found humiliating to do... He read the pornography like a textbook, like a journal. When he finally convinced me to be bound, he read in the magazine how to tie the knots and bind me in a way that I couldn't escape. Most of the scenes where I had to dress up or go through different fantasies were the exact same scenes that he has read in the magazines.

Ms. O described a case in which a man brought pornographic magazines, books, and paraphernalia into the bedroom with him and told her that if she did not perform the sexual acts in the "dirty" books and magazines, he would beat her and kill her.

Ms. S testified about the experience of a group of women prostitutes who, she said,

were forced constantly to enact specific scenes that men had witnessed in pornography... These men... would set up scenarios, usually with more than one woman, to copy scenes that they had seen portrayed in magazines and books. [For example, Ms. S quoted a woman in her group as saying:] "He held up a porn magazine with a picture of a beaten woman and said, 'I want you to look like that. I want you to hurt.' He then began beating me. When I did not cry fast enough, he lit a cigarette and held it right above my breast for a long time before he burned me."

Ms. S. also described what three men did to a nude woman prostitute whom they had tied up while she was seated on a chair:

They burned her with cigarettes and attached nipple clips to her breasts. They had many S and M magazines with them and showed her many pictures of women appearing to consent, enjoy, and encourage this abuse. She was held for twelve hours while she was continuously raped and beaten.

Another example cited by Ms. S:

They [several Johns] forced the women to act simultaneously with the movie. In the movie at this point, a group of men were urinating on a naked woman. All the men in the room were able to perform this task, so they all started urinating on the woman who was now naked.

When a male engages in a particularly unusual act that he had previously encountered in pornography, it becomes even more likely that the decision to do so was inspired by the pornography. One woman, for example, testified to the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography about the pornography-related death of her son:

My son, Troy Daniel Dunaway, was murdered on August 6, 1981, by the greed and avarice of the publishers of Hustler magazine. My son read the article "Orgasm of Death," set up the sexual experiment depicted therein, followed the explicit instructions of the article, and ended up dead. He would still be alive today were he not enticed and incited into this action by Hustler magazine's "How to Do" August 1981 article, and article which was found at his feet and which directly caused his death (1986, p. 797).

When children do what they see in pornography, it is even more improbable than in the case of adults to attribute their behavior entirely to their predispositions.

Psychologist Jennings Bryant testified to the Pornography Commission about a survey he had conducted involving 600 telephone interviews with males and females who were evenly divided into three age groups: students in junior high school, students in high school, and adults aged 19 to 39 years (1985, p. 133). Respondents were asked if "exposure to X-rated materials had made them want to try anything they saw" (1985, p. 140). Two-thirds of the males reported "wanting to try some of the behavior depicted" (1985, p. 140). Bryant reports that the desire to imitate what is seen in pornography "progressively increases as age of respondents decreases" (1985, p. 140; emphasis added). Among the junior high school students, 72% of the males reported that "they wanted to try some sexual experiment or sexual behavior that they had seen in thier initial exposure to X-rated material" (1985, p. 140).

In trying to ascertain if imitation had occurred, the respondents were asked: "Did you actually experiment with or try any of the behaviors depicted [within a few days of seeing the materials]?" (1985, p. 140). A quarter of the males answered that they had. A number of adult men answered, "no," but said that some years later they had experimented with the behaviors portrayed. However, only imitations within a few days of seeing the materials were counted (1985, p. 140). Male high school students were the most likely (31%) to report experimenting with the behaviors portrayed (1985, p. 141).

Unfortunately, no information is available on the behaviors imitated by these males. Imitating pornography is cause for concern only when the behavior imitated is violent or abusive, or when the behavior is not wanted by one or more of the participants. Despite the unavailability of this information, Bryant's study is valuable in showing how common it is for males to want to imitate what they see in pornography, and for revealing that many do imitate it within a few days of viewing it. Furthermore, given the degrading and often violent content of pornography, as well as the youthfulness and presumable susceptibility of many of the viewers, how likely is it that these males only imitated or wished to imitate the non-sexist, non-degrading, and non-violent sexual behavior?

Almost all the research on pornography to date has been conducted on men and women who were at least 18 years old. But as Malamuth points out, there is "a research basis for expecting that children would be more susceptible to the influences of mass media, including violent pornography if they are exposed to it" than adults (1985, p. 107). Bryant's telephone interviews show that very large numbers of children now have access to both hard-core and soft-core materials. For example:

The average age at which male respondents saw their first issue of Playboy or a similar magazine was 11 years (1985, p. 135).

All of the high school age males surveyed reported having read or looked at Playboy, Playgirl, or some other soft-core magazine (1985, p. 134).

High school males reported having seen an average of 16.1 issues, and junior high school males said they had seen an average of 2.5 issues.

In spite of being legally under age, junior high students reported having seen an average of 16.3 "unedited sexy R-rated films" (1985, p. 135). (Although R-rated movies are not usually considered pornographic, many of them meet my definition of pornography.)

The average age of first exposure to sexually oriented R-rated films for all respondents was 12.5 years (1985, p. 135).

Nearly 70% of the junior high students surveyed reported that they had seen their first R-rated film before they were 13 (1985, p. 135).

The vast majority of all the respondents reported exposure to hard-core, X-rated, sexually explicit material (1985, p. 135). Furthermore, "a larger proportion of high school students had seen X-rated films than any other age group, including adults": 84%, with the average age of first exposure being 16 years, 11 months (1985, p. 136).

In a more recent anonymous survey of 247 Canadian junior high school students whose average age was 14 years, James Check and Kristin Maxwell (1992) report that 87% of the boys and 61% of the girls said they had viewed video-pornography. The average age at first exposure was just under 12 years.

33% of the boys versus only 2% of the girls reported watching pornography once a month or more often. As well, 29% of the boys versus 1% of the girls reported that pornography was the source that had provided them with the most useful information about sex (i.e., more than parents, school, friends, etc.). Finally, boys who were frequent consumers of pornography and/or reported learning a lot from pornography were also more likely to say that is was "OK" to hold a girl down and force her to have intercourse (abstract).

Clearly , more research is needed on the effects of pornography on young male viewers, particularly in view of the fact that recent studies suggest that "over 50% of various categories of paraphiliacs [sex offenders] had developed their deviant arousal patterns prior to age 18" (Einsiedel, 1986, p. 53). Einsiedel goes on to say that "it is clear that the age-of-first-exposure variable and the nature of that exposure needs to be examined more carefully. There is also evidence that the longer the duration of the paraphilia, the more significant the association with use of pornography" (Abel, Mittleman, and Becker, 1985).

The first two items listed under Factor I in my theoretical model both relate to the viewing of violent pornography. But sexualizing dominance and submission is a way in which non-violent pornography can also predispose some males to want to rape women.

(4) Creating an appetite for increasingly stronger material

Dolf Zillmann and Jennings Bryant have studied the effects of what they refer to as "massive exposure" to pornography (1984). (In fact, it was not particularly massive: 4 hours and 48 minutes per week over a period of six weeks.) These researchers, unlike Malamuth and Donnerstein, focus on trying to ascertain the effects of non-violent pornography and, in the study to be described, they use a sample drawn from a non-student adult population.

Male subjects in the massive exposure condition saw 36 non-violent pornographic films, six per session per week; male subjects in the intermediate condition saw 18 such movies, three per session per week. Male subjects in the control group saw 36 non-pornographic movies. Various measures were taken after one week, two weeks, and three weeks or exposure, including the kind of materials that the subjects were most interested in viewing.

Zillmann and Bryant found that a desire for stronger material was fostered in their subjects. "Consumers graduate from common to less common forms of pornography," Zillman maintains, that is, to more violent and more degrading materials (1984, p. 127). Zillmann suggests this may be "because familiar material becomes unexciting as a result of habituation" (1984, p.127).

According to Zillmann and Bryant's research, then, pornography can transform a male who was not previously interested in the more abusive types of pornography, into one who is turned on by such material. This is consistent with Malamuth's findings (described on p. 53) that males who did not previously find rape sexually arousing, generate such fantasies after being exposed to a typical example of violent pornography.

[EFLtrainer]

The brain is a funny place. Don't be so sure you know what causes what:

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/000395.html

October 22, 2002
Brain Tumor Causes Pedophilia
This is evidence that there is a part of the brain that is involved in moral enforcement:

The sudden and uncontrollable paedophilia exhibited by a 40-year-old man was caused by an egg-sized brain tumour, his doctors have told a scientific conference. And once the tumour had been removed, his sex-obsession disappeared.

The cancer was located in the right lobe of the orbifrontal cortex, which is known to be tied to judgment, impulse control and social behaviour. But neurologists Russell Swerdlow and Jeffrey Burns, of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, believe it is the first reported case linking damage to the region with paedophilia.

Did this guy have this behavior as a result of the tumor's increasing the amount of pleasure he felt for forbidden activities? Or did the tumor disable a part of the brain that enforces moral constraint? Either way there is an important lesson here for future human genetic engineering: It will be possible some day to genetically engineer humans who do not feel as much constraint to respect the rights of others. Genetic engineering will make possible the design of minds that have a different set of desires than the typical range of desires seen in fairly normal law-abiding humans today.

[EFLtrainer]

http://www.contentwatch.com/learn_center/article.php?id=107

One research study analyzed the various arguments and data presented by other studies that contended the lack of reliable connections between pornography and aggressive sexual behavior. The study concluded that, in fact, there was existence of reliable associations between frequent pornography use and sexually aggressive behaviors, particularly for violent pornography and/or for men at high risk for sexual aggression (Malamuth, Neil et. al., 2000).

Another study collected from 100 survivors at a rape crisis center discovered that 28% of respondents reported that their abuser used pornography and that for 12% of the women, pornography was imitated during the abusive incident (Bergen, Raquel Kennedy, 2000).

In spite of these findings, others persist in their contention that there is little correlation between pornography use and causation of sexual deviant behavior. In part, they cite as evidence that, although many sex offenders do use pornography, there are just as many others who consume pornography who do not engage in sex crimes.

Regardless of your position, my experience indicates the majority of sex offenders have pornography consumption as an associated behavior. It is imperative that these individuals maintain abstinence from pornography as part of their effort to minimize possible risk factors for re-offending. But what about everyone else?

[EFLtrainer]

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/chunter/porn_effects.html#conclusion

Conclusion

This paper has provided an overview of the limited effects - powerful effects debate about pornography. From this presentation, it should be clear that just like debates about television violence or the effect of the mass media in general, there are no clear answers. As such, it would seem that the best conclusion one can reach about the effect of pornography is that it "does not serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, but rather functions among and through a nexus of mediating factors and influences (Klapper, 1960)." Thus bringing us full circle, back to the limited effects conclusion that sparked pornography research in the first place.

[EFLtrainer]

[EFLtrainer]

[Gord]

[Gord]