Pornography In The Media- Essay, Research Paper

Pornography in the Media-

It started by way of messengers and scribes, evolved through

the presentation of newspapers and radio, brought us together with

television, and now serves us world-wide via the ever-popular

Internet. It is the mass media, and even from the earliest days of

its existence, it has contributed greatly in ways that both enlighten

and enrich society, and ways that deteriorate and perplex it. It is

not a surprise to learn, then, that the mass media is the most

powerful source of information we have, and nothing else in today s

world influences public perception quite as heavily.

Unfortunately, however, most of what is broadcast or

transmitted in the news today is with reference to the chaotic

condition of our planet, or something else that society as a whole

sees as detrimental or damaging. But the news on television is not

the only type of media taking the criticism of society. Other forms

of mass media, specifically movies and television programs containing

pornography and violence have been heavily criticized. The underlining

concept to be debated here is that society is negatively influenced,

specifically, by these images of pornography and the result is

increased violence against women. This assumption, and it is indeed

only an assumption, is completely fallacious, however, as no concrete

and completely conclusive evidence has ever been formulated in

support of the theory. The key premise here is that the mass media

does not cause undesirable social behaviour and in actuality, the

media people should not be dubbed as the bad guys . They simply use

their power in the most constructive ways possible in order to promote

their ratings and popularity. One way to do that is to concentrate on

what sells: sex, violence and disaster.

Having said this, why is it then, that many in society still

believe otherwise; why do they continue to believe that pornography is

evil and is a major cause for violence against women, specifically

rape? There are many reasons for this misinterpretation and through

the following few points, an attempt will be made to show that

pornography has very little to almost no correlation with violence

against women (of course nothing is absolute in society). In order

to demonstrate this, it must be made evident that pornography is not

evil and does not cause undesirable social behaviour by displaying

nude women in sexually explicit circumstances. Thus, it is important

to indicate that women are not treated only as sexual objects through

the media. This is done in an attempt to quash any traces of evil

in pornography. Subsequently, a second point, that some may consider

to be completely bizarre, can be addressed; that pornography actually

reduces the amount of violence against women.

For thousands of years, sex itself has been considered evil

and revolting. This is exactly why the concealment of the sex organs

and teaching feelings of shame toward human sexuality is so common

worldwide (Christensen 1990:4). These same feelings of shame are the

chief reasons that sex is considered a personal and private matter.

Contrary to the beliefs of many, the mass media did not create these

settings; society creates this image. In some societies, women have

no reservations with regard to living their entire lives completely

naked, while in other societies, females cover themselves from head to

toe, only revealing their eyes. The media has been bombarded with

criticism, overwhelmingly from the female community, relative to the

amount of sexually explicit material that is published in magazines

and that appears on television and in the cinemas. A common argument

against pornography is that the media portrays women as being nothing

more than sexual playthings and objects to satisfy male sexual

desires. As before, the media once again, is not to be held

responsible for creating this image; these views are products of

society.

It would be downright absurd to assume that women in this

society are treated as sexual objects only because the media releases

or broadcasts pornographic material. A magazine associated with

make-up and skin care, for example, will quite obviously not be

concentrating on much else. Such a magazine would not display

pictures of women who mountain-climb or women who water-ski; only

images of make-up and text referring to skin care would be relevant.

Clearly, society does not consider women to be beings who s only

purpose in life is to worry about make-up and skin care; but why are

the complaints only directed towards pornographic media then? The

answer to this question may be more complicated, however, what remains

obvious is that the media does not portray women as only being able to

fill male sexual desires. To say that pictures featuring nudity, etc,

are making objects out of women is foolish. One should consider

females who pin-up posters of male rock stars or children who collect

hockey or baseball cards. Society, however, does not say that objects

are being made out of these rock stars and sports heroes; pictures of

clothed people are no less objects than pictures of naked people.

Many complaints are also made to the effect that pornography

only offers a one-dimensional view to life; that women are seen as

nymphomaniacs who are hysterically addicted to sex. It should be

pointed out that events such as hockey games, boxing matches, horse

races and operas all offer a one-dimensional view of life. One does

not attend an opera hoping to see a horse race. The underlying

problem here is that the above mentioned events are socially

acceptable; media displaying pornography is not. It is also said that

the media reduces women to a collection of body parts through

pornography (Christensen 1990:74). But why then are their no

complaints of advertisements in magazines displaying only ears, for

example, or a nose, or feet? The reason is a simple one; society

considers certain body parts to be shameful or disgusting and once

again, the media can be let off the hook .

Realistically, the only way to prevent women from being seen

as sex objects is for them to be seen as other things as well; but to

say that women are not sexual beings would be misleading because both

men and women are very much sexual (Christensen 1990:42). Similarly,

to say that women are singled out in the media is fallacious due to

the many examples of media where men are seen catering to the needs of

women; something known as chivralic sexism (Christensen 1990:42).

Take, for instance, a recent television ad portraying young men

groveling at the feet of supermodel Cindy Crawford, almost begging to

be the one to cater to her needs. There were no lineups of men

aching to announce their displeasure with the sexist ad; and this is

precisely why male stereotyping in the media often goes unnoticed.

Similarly, it is pornography in the media that is noticed and shunned

by anti-pornographic and censorship organizations because it seemingly

singles out females for their bodies. It should be well noted,

however, that paperback romance novels, which make up an incredible

40% of total paperback sales (Gerbner 1988:15), depicts males as

sexual objects, performing what is called Sweet Savagery (rape),

just as pornography depicts females as sexual objects. But once

again, this goes unnoticed.

It is fundamentally important to realize that the media does

not deliberately create images of hate or disagreement (Howitt,

Cumberbatch 1975:80). They just influence the more appealing things in

society (thus directly increasing their ratings). Although it is

obvious that pornography is largely a male interest, a noted

increase in female interest would certainly cause an increase in the

amount of pornographic material geared for women; this relates to the

laws of the business world (Christensen 1990:50).

Having discussed the untruthfulness of the claims against

pornography and showing that pornography is not evil , it is now

possible to consider the violence issue. Are men who are exposed to

pornography likely to commit violent acts, such as rape against women,

more so than men who are not exposed to pornography? It is tempting

to believe that media influences males and overstimulates them through

pornography to the point that they become aggressive towards females.

But this is completely baseless; just as pornography arouses or

stimulates, it also satisfies. The American Commission on Obscenity

and Pornography performed a study in which several college students

were asked to spend one and a half hours in an isolated room with a

large volume of pornographic media, as well as a large volume of

non-explicit media such as Reader s Digest (Howitt, Cumberbatch

1975:80). The study was conducted over a three week period over which

time it was discovered that the males involved in the experiment began

to lose interest, or become desensitized to the erotic media nearing

the end of the experiment, even if new material was added. To address

the argument that males are pushed over the brink into committing

rape because of pornography, one may point to the evidence above; to

cover the female body would theoretically only increase male sexual

desires. Four more separate experiments were conducted of which the

above was one. Three other experiments came to the conclusions that

pornography does not cause violence against women and reported that

the number of sex offenders that had been exposed to pornographic

material were smaller in number than the amount of sex-offenders that

had not been exposed to pornography (Christensen 1990:130; Harmon,

Check 1988:28-30). These results can be offered as evidence against

the claim that males become overstimulated and thus dangerous when

exposed to pornography. Other experiments conducted in the early

1980s by the Williams Committee in England, reported that as the

availability and abundance of sexually explicit material increased,

the number of violent sex crimes such as rape did not increase, but in

fact decreased in many areas (Christensen 1990:128-129).

So what is it about pornography that women and

anti-pornography organizations do not like? Violence! One of the

greatest myths about pornography is that it contains an excess of

violence against women inevitably resulting in real-life violence

against women. Anti-pornography groups release propaganda that

the media approves of violence against women through pornography. In

actuality, however, the total amount of violence in sex-related movies

was found to be approximately 6% in a study by T. Palys in the early

1980s in Vancouver, Canada. Even this material was almost entirely

composed of verbal threats and spanking (Christensen 1990:59). In

addition to the above, studies in Ohio also found that the amount of

violence in G -Rated movies was a staggering two times more than

in X -Rated movies. In fact, major films such as Die Hard: With A

Vengeance and Terminator 2, contain extreme violence 85-90% of which

is directed solely at men. There are, however, exceptions; the slasher

genre of movies contain much more violence towards women, possibly due

to the desensitization to violence in other genres of films. Because

women are involved, violence against them could create a true sense of

horror. However, this does not suggest that men should go into

society and rape a woman any more than it suggests that men should go

out and kill other men. Horror movie fans choose to watch these

movies because they enjoy portrayed violence. Needless to say, no

sane individual would wish for this violence to become a real-life

conception. Similarly, sex also excites people and because these two

elements offer the most thrills in movies, they are often combined.

It should be pointed out that women, and not just men, also

enjoy these thrills based on numerous studies. When discussing

pornography, it is scarcely noted that men are not the only ones who

enjoy fantasizing about sex. Women also enjoy pondering sex; just not

through pornography. In fact, most of these fantasies involve some

degree of violence or force and are largely driven by the romance

novels discussed earlier (once again supporting the evidence that

romance novels prove to be the female equivalent to male-geared

pornography). Recent reports published by Nancy Friday, show that the

number of female fantasies involving rape far outweigh the number of

male fantasies involving rape. What comes as a surprise to many is

that in male fantasies, the woman rapes the man and conversely, in

female fantasies, the man rapes ( Sweet Savagery ), the woman!

(Christensen 1990:66). Friday s reports also provided some

interesting reasoning for the female fantasies. Her reports find that

females fantasize about rape to show that they are not acting in

accordance with such sinful actions; to show that sex is being

forced upon them. Any other feelings towards the fantasized

rape would prove to be undesirable social behaviour and amazingly,

the media is not even involved! Actual laboratory experiments

(Hawkins, Zimring 1988:103) have shown that when groups of women were

shown erotic scenes involving rape, their reactions to the scenes were

as or even more stimulating than less violent consensual lovemaking

scenes. This is not to say that all women want to be raped; far from

it. This is to say that if women can fantasize about rape but not

wish to experience it, then men, too, can fantasize about rape and not

wish to commit it. In addition to the many other accusations against

pornography, many in society believe that there is definite connection

between organized crime and pornography. Although this may be true,

the idea is largely over-exaggerated. The reasoning behind this

theory is very simple, yet very shallow. Consider, that pornography is

created by organizations and contains sexually explicit material that

may be thought to be legally obscene in some areas. To make the

connection, these anti-pornography organizations assume that the

organizations (hence organized) that produce the legally obscene

(hence crime) material, are operating illegally. It is obvious why

pornography is attractive to criminals; just as anything that is

banned or is made illegal, there is always someone who will pay

the high black-market price for it.

Having considered the issues at hand, it can be said that

since there is no concrete evidence to support otherwise, pornography

in the media does not cause undesirable social behaviour. As

mentioned before, sexually explicit movies and magazines do not just

arouse, but also satisfy. It is an undisputed fact that feelings of

love and happiness cancel out violent feelings (Zillman, Connections

Between Sex and Aggression) and to say that pornography endorse

violent feelings fails to make sense; if it did, why would men want to

be exposed to it. To suggest that pornography causes men to go over

the edge and commit rape is as ludicrous as suggesting that pictures

of food cause the hungry to steal more food. It has even been said by

some women that rape is the fault of women who dress provocatively;

they ask for it . According to this logic, in the event that

pornography is banned, then an attempt should be made to force women

to cover their skin and wear clothing that completely hides the shapes

of their bodies so as not to provoke rape. Absurd.

As members of society, we recognize the power of the mass

media. We understand that public perception can be easily persuaded.

But it should be clearly understood that pornography in the media

alone cannot persuade men to cause harm to women; it cannot cause men

to do things that are socially unacceptable. As was mentioned

earlier, pornography only causes feelings of excitement and

satisfaction and these feelings overpower those feelings of

violence. For these reasons, it can be said that until a positive

link can be found between pornography in the media and violence

against women, it will remain that sexual violence such as rape is the

result of sexual frustration, and not of sexual arousal.

—

Reference Cited

Christensen F.M. Pornography. New York: Praeger. 1990

Howitt, Cumberpatch. Mass Media, Violence and Society. London: Elek

Science. 1975

Harmon, Check. Role of Pornography in Woman Abuse. (City unknown).

American Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. 1988

Hawkins, Zimring. Pornography in a Free Society. (City unknown).

(Publisher uknown). 1988

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Bibliography

1. Pornography, Christensen F.M., 1990, New York, Praeger.

2. Mass Media, Violence and Society, Howitt, Cumberpatch, 1975,

London, Elek Science.

3. Role of Pornography in Woman Abuse, Harmon, Check, 1988, American

Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

4. Pornography in a Free Society, Hawkins, Zimring, 1988.

5. Advertising, World Book Encyclopedia 1990, New York, Nault.

6. Pornography, Encarta Encyclopedia 1995, New York, Microsoft.

7. The Question of Pornography, Donnerstein, Linz, Penrod, 1987,

pp.152-153.

8. Pornography and Censorship, Bullough, 1983, pp.255-261.