PORNOGRAPHY

[JOEBIALEK]

On this 50th anniversary of Playboy Magazine, perhaps a discussion of pornography is appropriate. Pornography is defined as
sexually explicit pictures, writing, or other material whose primary purpose is to cause sexual arousal. Those who promote it believe they are exercising their right from the first amendment of the United States Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The delicate question before us goes beyond the legal justification for allowing anyone to speak or write about anything they choose to. It speaks to the moral and ethical ramifications of such an enterprise. Our society today is inundated with references to sexuality in any medium we experience. The often quoted justification is that "sex sells" and therefore if marketing outlets can somehow equate a material purchase with sexual gratification, then some hidden unmet need will be satisfied. This is Freudianomics at its worst. Sex is promoted today as a means to an end and not the expression of love between consenting adults. Pornography portrays sex as some lustful hedonism with little regard for the potential outcome of such an experience. Still, millions of people purchase it for their own sexual stimulation. They believe that since those being filmed are consenting adults there is no harm to anyone. Assuming there is mutual consent among the actors, what is the difference between paying them to have sex with each other and paying a prostitute to have sex with you? Whether you favor or oppose pornography, it is this country's obsession with sex that is the root of the problem and the unfortunate consequences it produces. Until we as a nation can collectively mature out of this sexual pre-occupation we will be trapped in our own national adolescence.

[AngelsRWorldChamps]

I am sorry what is so wrong with men and women either together or by themselves looking at playboy.

Yes I have looked at it and it is how I learned about the female body without clothes I'm am not embarasseed about it as long as it is done in a room that an outside world can'nt see into.

[Billary2004]

Quote[/b] (JOEBIALEK @ Dec. 02, 2003 -- 6:56 pm)]Assuming there is mutual consent among the actors, what is the difference between paying them to have sex with each other and paying a prostitute to have sex with you? *Whether you favor or oppose pornography, it is this country's obsession with sex that is the root of the problem and the unfortunate consequences it produces. *
Sorry Joe, but I think you are a little out of your element here. Assuming that there are consenting adults portrayed in the video or magazine or website? Please. I know kids get used in porn, but the "adult entertainment" industry, or at least the larger companies, have made an effort to stop underage participation and I hardly think anyone is not consenting to having sex. Adults are free to do as they please in private and free to dispense whatever material they want in private. America's obsession with sex is NOT ruining this country. I don't know how you define an obsession with sex, but somehow I feel that you might lump the family man who enjoys a dirty movie with his wife, fetishes with her or strip clubs to be equivalent to the degenerate that cheats on his wife with escorts and talks dirty to pre-teens on chat lines. To equate buying or renting a sex flick to picking up a hooker is a pathetic attempt at misplaced rhetoric. Moral equivilancy displays a lack of effort and is a tool used by liberals to make invalid points seem superficially valid. Using your logic I could come back and say, "...well to even think of pornography or to knowledgeable about the subject matter is to be a reader of pornography is to be a lover of it and a sadistic, mysoginistic person." Libs love to equate wealth with greed with racism with whatever -ism. Weak. Sex isn't ruining this place.....Procreatio n among narcisistic, hateful people that are not mentally, morally, ethically willing to take care of there children are part of what is ruining this country. Yes, pornography is a tool used by deviants and morally repulsive men and women, but people that are selling their children for sex, abuse their children, have out of wedlock children are the reasons; not Hugh Hefner or that a-hole, Larry Flint. NAMBLA...that's a purely illegal interaction. Go after all the parents that hate or abandon their children. Demand more from them, vote to end welfare and force Planned Parenthood to answer as to why their charter doesn't allow them to sterilize adults, but allows them to perform abortions. And read Finding Fish, the autobiography of Antwoine Fisher, to find out how people are ruined without any pornography in their lives.

[Charie]

Sorry, Billary, I think you're wrong. Pornography isn't either/or.

Quote[/b] ]. I know kids get used in porn, but the "adult entertainment" industry, or at least the larger companies, have made an effort to stop underage participation and I hardly think anyone is not consenting to having sex.

This is just plain silly. "Or at least the larger companies, made an effort to stop underage participation?" I don't believe the effort had paid off. This is a billion dollar commodity from what I've read. And to reply to the the last part of that sentence, have you never heard of Linda Lovelace?



Quote[/b] ]man who enjoys a dirty movie with his wife, fetishes with her or strip clubs to be equivalent to the degenerate that cheats on his wife with escorts and talks dirty to pre-teens on chat lines.

Pornography is a turn-off to a lot of women and any man that needs to watch dirty movies with his wife to "get in the mood" probably needs a doctor more than a dirty movie. Also, those "escorts" are called prostitutes and 5 will get you 10 that the man talking dirty to pre-teens is a pornography watcher, too. Also, if my husband brought pornography into our house, what he'd hear from me would probably melt the cassettes.

Quote[/b] ]. Sex isn't ruining this place.....Procreatio n among narcisistic, hateful people that are not mentally, morally, ethically willing to take care of there children are part of what is ruining this country.

This may be a surprise, but sex is what leads to the birth of children to these "narcisistic, hateful people that are not mentally, morally, ethically willing to take care of there children." I have to ask you how many local stories can you cite in which a child or children were injured or killed by some man who a woman let into her bed because of sex? I can name at least 5 right around here.



Quote[/b] ]Go after all the parents that hate or abandon their children. Demand more from them, vote to end welfare and force Planned Parenthood to answer as to why their charter doesn't allow them to sterilize adults, but allows them to perform abortions

I'm not sure what this has to do with pornography. You seem to be saying that this is worse than pornography but it looks like a red herring being dragged across a trail to divert attention from the issue of pornography.

My point is that sex isn't a spectator sport to any practicing Jew or Christian. The sex industry (?) itself is a perversion of sex. Our whole culture has become awash in sex. Which leads to more illegitimate babies by those bad people that you spoke of. And to young people (and those not so young)thinking they have the right to other people's bodies. Why do we hear so much about date rape nowadays? I never even heard of such a thing when I was a teen-ager. I knew of rape but not date-rape.

When women and men are promoted as being mainly sexual objects, sex is cheapened. And thereby, made free to all.

I couldn't disagree with you more.

Quote[/b] ]. Until we as a nation can collectively mature out of this sexual pre-occupation we will be trapped in our own national adolescence.

I couldn't agree with you more, but at the same time I don't think this will happen because when the lowest common denominator is pandered to, then that's where the norm is.

[Billary2004]

Charie-
You have it right....you are on the path to righteousness and I see no reason why you should change your views to fit mine. Your road to salvation lies within. You find pornography of any sort (?) to be wrong and to demystify and cheapen sex. I trust that you have lived an ethical life and have not been opportunistic towards your fellow man. And I trust that if you have had children, you instilled the same values in them as in yourself. That is all a libertarian like myself can hope for and I commend you for living a live of morality. You and your kin will thus probably refrain from ever viewing or engaging in pornographic acts and I find no fault in that. I imagine that if more people were like you, more children and young adults would not be drawn to pornography, nor would they make the self-hating decisions to do drugs or have sex at a young age and possibly get pregnant.
Like you, I find that peoples' actions are manifestations of who they are morally. I find the chicken and the egg theory to be that the immoral actions of some are simply symptoms of a larger problem that exists within the individuals. Having children out of wedlock or as a teenager is a symptom of PORNOGRAPHY? Or pornography is a symptom of having sex at a young age or out of wedlock? I prefer to think that sex at a young age or out of wedlock is proof that this child didn't have good parents like yourself to serve as models and moral compasses. Date rape (a obtuse word like HATE CRIME) is a symptom of pornography or pornography is a symptom of date rape? I prefer to believe that RAPE is a symptom of a person so consumed with self hate that they want others to feel the pain they feel and this is probably because they didn't have parents that loved and sacrificed for them, like you have done.

Unfortunately, in a free society people are free to hate and destroy their childrens lives at will. Maybe if everyone had good parents that were ethical and loving, the porno business wouldn't have many people knocking on its door for a job or maybe people wouldn't want to look at it, as they would choose to spread their love instead of spend time examining a centerfold-I doubt it though. As a fan of Playboy and a self professed ethical person, my hobby of checking out naked women has in no way perverted my outlook on life, respect for others, responsibilities to myself or view of sex. I have no children and work hard and pay more than my fair share of taxes for a middle class kid. So if looking at pornography makes me a bad person, well then, it looks like there are many many people that you probably won't want to be friends with because they fall along the same lines as I. I understand you have people that believe the way you do, but what I don't understand is if rape is connected to pornography, then did Saddam, his sons and the rest of his army have an entire base full of porn and sex toys because they sure must have fueled up on smut before raping hundreds of people during his reign. And what about the female rapists.........too much Playgirl putting them over the edge???

[Nanasay]

Porn isn't good for anybody.. The more you look at the baser you become..

It isn't healthy.. It doesn't help it only hinders..

And everything that Charie said is true..

This sexualizing of a nation will do the same thing to us it did to the Romans and the Greeks.. We will cease to exist..

Rationalize it all you want.. Blame whom you will.. It's a distructive pasttime and brings nothing good to the participant..