Media And Pornography Essay, Research Paper

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

underling

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.

1990 Pornography. New York: Praeger.

Howitt, Cumberpatch

1975 Mass Media, Violence and Society. London: Elek Science

Harmon, Check

1988 Role of Pornography in Woman Abuse. (City

unknown).American

Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

Hawkins, Zimring

1988 Pornography in a Free Society. (City unknown). (Publisher

uknown).

331