Poll: Does pornography contribute to violence against women?

[MazrimTaim]

In response to a question earlier about the mathematically certainty of the presence of rapists - this is based on the normal curve. If we view rapists as being two to three (or more) standard deviations above the mean (average) with regards to whatever characteristics dispose a male to rape, then we see that it is an absolute that there will always be these types of predators (because there will always be those that fall at these places in the normal curve - just like there will always be people with IQs in the 140s etc.).

And to the knucklehead who believes that male apes rape female apes, you have been watching too many nature shows. Animals (other than humans) can not rape other animals. What next? Tigers are murdering antelope? Dogs are assaulting cats? Good grief - I read a story about a bluejay who held up a Robin's nest of eggs on Cnn.com. What is the world coming to?

 

[MazrimTaim]

In response to the comment about "causality", when you ask if something "contributes" to something else, are you not asking whether it is the "cause" or one of many things that "causes" something else? If all you are asking is porn related to rape, then the discussion would have ended hours ago. As someone else mentioned, rapists also tend to like mashed potatoes, not sure how informative that is? (i.e. how informative is it that rapists watch porn? says nothing about the sickness of these men - unless the porn is the most depraved, illegal kind.)

 

[Elledan]

<< Animals (other than humans) can not rape other animals. >>

Wrong. It's a well known fact that many species, and not only Primates are familiar with rape.

If you'd get your head out of your @$$, you might be able to see that rape isn't limited to Humans but serves some purpose in life. Which purpose? That's what we should find out.

 

[Aihyah]

well they showed new dolphin behavior on national geographic(i think thats what it was). 2 males kidnapped a female and took turns raping her

 

[KaBudokan]

<< In response to the comment about &quot;causality&quot;, when you ask if something &quot;contributes&quot; to something else, are you not asking whether it is the &quot;cause&quot; or one of many things that &quot;causes&quot; something else? >>


Well, many people are assuming that &quot;porn contributing to violence against women&quot; means that someone watches porn and immediately decides to go rape someone. As others have mentioned, it is more subtle than that, and it certainly isn't the sole factor. Saying there is a &quot;relationship,&quot; as you put it, is similar but not quite the same. I understand it is a tricky question, and maybe I just want to make people think. As I mentioned early on, I don't have a solution. Basically, I take issue with the idea that &quot;Pornography is harmless fun.&quot; I think it helps lead to attitudes that are dangerous to women - not just with violence, but also, as someone else said, with the perception of women as objects and &quot;less than a man.&quot;



<< If all you are asking is porn related to rape, then the discussion would have ended hours ago. As someone else mentioned, rapists also tend to like mashed potatoes, not sure how informative that is? (i.e. how informative is it that rapists watch porn? says nothing about the sickness of these men - unless the porn is the most depraved, illegal kind.) >>



So, in your professional opinion, how is porn related to rape? Just in that rapists watch porn, or is there more?

Just for reference, I was the one who said rapists eat mashed potatoes. You guys keep citing someone's brilliant point, when I was simply pointing out a fallacy associated with saying that rapists use porn. (Although it probably is significant if you look at the numbers.)

As I said a few posts up, I am really wondering right now if people think porn affects the attitudes of those rapists who are not the &quot;weird loner&quot; type - the college students, high school football players, etc...

 

[syzygy]

certainly jane goodall has written about both individual and group sexual assaults among
the chimpanzee communities she has studied for decades. i think there has been study of
similar violent behavior in bottlenose dolphins. flipper the rapist, who would've thunk
it ?

 

[MojoJojo]

<< Ok, you win the Anandtech Dumbass of the Day Award. So, if your girlfriend comes home and says &quot;Honey, guess what I did at work today? I did a Double Penetration shot and then seven guys shot their load on me!&quot; your reaction would be the same as if she came home from The Gap and said &quot;I sold 12 pairs of jeans and three T-Shirts.&quot; ?!?!?!?! >>



You don't have to be such a prick.

I was simply saying that all jobs would be considered bad in some way using that formula.
I never said that I wanted anybody in my family working in porn and I also would not want them working in retail. What part of that did you not understand?
You should read the post for what it was.
You are obviously very young or maybe just ignorant based on your reaction to my post.
Someone says something that doesnt back up what you think is right and you start with the personal attacks.

Maybe before you attack someone on a personal level you need to deal with the Dumbass in the mirror.
Give it some thought.

 

[KaBudokan]

<< You don't have to be such a prick.

I was simply saying that all jobs would be considered bad in some way using that formula.
I never said that I wanted anybody in my family working in porn and I also would not want them working in retail. What part of that did you not understand?
You should read the post for what it was.
You are obviously very young or maybe just ignorant based on your reaction to my post.
Someone says something that doesnt back up what you think is right and you start with the personal attacks.

Maybe before you attack someone on a personal level you need to deal with the Dumbass in the mirror.
Give it some thought. >>


Well, I do get pretty worked up about this, and yeah, you're right, calling you a dumbass was juvenile.

I'm not very young, and don't consider myself ignorant, though by definition I wouldn't realize it if I were.

What does seem ignorant is comparing working in retail to working in porn. It's just a huge leap of logic and extremely flawed at best. You had to realize that when you made the statement. Yeah, there are problems with every job, but not every job involves screwing people for money. (Well, besides lawyers, car salesmen, MSCE, etc etc etc...) And if you're comparing the two, then you would say that your reaction to the two scenarios (DP + 7 c** shots vs. 12 jeans and a t shirt) would be the same, because the jobs are similar enough...

It didn't really have much to do with disagreeing with what I think, it had to do with making a ridiculous comment.

 

[Noriaki]

<< Does pornography contribute to violence against women >>

No, is an attractive woman that wears light clothing on a hot day inviting sexual assault?

No, no and a lot more nos.

Violence against women is caused by disfunctional people, and porn or not they are still disfunctional.

Rape and Porn are to completely separate issues. Trying to blame porn for violence against women is yet another of society's ways to try and pass the blame away from themselves.

&quot;If I get in a car accident while driving drunk I'm going to blame the bar&quot;

&quot;If I spill hot coffee on my lap I'm blaming the restaurant&quot;

&quot;If my kid grows up to be violant I'm blaming TV&quot;

etc etc etc

Take some responsibility. If someone rapes a woman it's not Porns fault or TV's faul or anything else. It's that person's fault.

I have a very large pr0n collection, it helps release &quot;stress&quot; we will say. Yet I treasure and cherish women, and I think rapists are the lowest scum on earth. It's really not that difficult to discern between an actress does that is getting paid for this and what a real woman would want.




<< I can assure you that if a man is considering raping a woman, he doesn't go look at porn and that urge just goes away. I would say it intensifies. >>

Agreed. But that person was contemplating rape in the first place. Porn didn't influence their decision.

But that's like we don't want to let a drunk near liquor. People without alcoholism can handle being around alcohol fine. People that aren't rapists can handle being around porn fine.

You don't let a drunk near liquor, you don't let a murder near guns and you shouldn't let a rapist near porn. But for the rest of us regular people having a few beers on a friday night is fine and nothing to turn us into alcoholics, and porn isn't going to turn us into rapists.

Edit: My apologies if this angle has been covered I didn't read the whole thread.

 

[MazrimTaim]

Without resulting to name calling, (ahem), if animals can rape, then the entire animal kingdom is just raping and pillaging. Females of numerous species have no say whatsoever in whome their mates are. So if Goodall or anyone else wants to define rape in such a way as to allow for the characterization of sexual behavior of &quot;chimpanzees&quot; as rape, then fine. Interesting that these same people don't talk about incest among these species. Consider animal species where the alpha males has a group of females he mates with. He wins the females by killing his competitors, the females have no say. So think what you want, but people are always trying to ascribe human behavior to animals to suit their political views. If you want to believe that apes and dolphins rape, then you are not far from an Andrea Dworkin view that &quot;all sex is rape&quot;.

 

[Noriaki]

<< alleged rape by US soldiers in Okinawa. >>

As was mentioned several times, Rape is almost always a display of power, not sexual desire.

Soldier rapes are usually the soldiers trying to display their superiority and power over another group of people.

Edit: I'm not trying to say those soliders are guilty.

But consider a war like Vietnam or something, I'm sure there was some rape of Vietnamese women after battles in that war. And that would be soldiers displaying their power.

I killed your men (power over them), destoryed your town (power over it), and now I'm going to rape your women (power over them).

 

[RGN]

There will always be psychopaths that must take things to extremes. Porn and rape is only one example.

 

[cherrytwist]

/me grabs 10' pole

/me runs away without touching this thread

 

[RayGr]

IMHO this subject (just as many others) is about the basic law of any kind of
society. Everyone has the right of freedom(in any form) and one responsiblility:to respect other peoples' rights.So as long as I follow that responsibility (e.g I don't rape anyone) I have the RIGHT to do(watch,read) anything I want,from reading my horoscope to worshiping the Devil,believing one race is superior to the other,watching snuff films or extreme hardcore porn(whatever).
I have the RIGHT to do all that as long as my actions don't infringe on other ppls rights.For example,I may believe that women are lesser beings than men and that they should be treated accordingly,the operative word being should.If i don't actually do that,then there's no problem.
If I do it it's my responsibility and I face the consequences.
I can't accept the some ppl are not responsible for their own actions,yet they are allowed to live in out society.
However,I do acknowledge that it may be hard for someone to belive smth and not to act accordingly..but if that were to stand in courts then I could go,rob a computer store and if I got caught I could say that I am addicted to computers..so I am not responsible for my actions..
The same thing is what ppl supporting the idea that porn affects rapists say..
(sorry about the long post)

 

[KaBudokan]

I see a lot of people saying that if we (I) claim that porn contributes to violence against women, the perpetrators are not responsible for their actions. That isn't what I am claiming, and I haven't really heard anyone say that.

I agree there is a trend for people to place blame on others. Just like the twinkie defense, or the aforementioned McDonalds Crying Over Spilled Coffee Case... Of course, around here, everyone is pissed about the media claiming computer games caused Columbine...

As I mentioned immediately in the first post of this thread (which nobody is probably reading anymore), I am not asserting that anyone is to blame for the actions of the perpetrators other than themselves. Looking at what may influence someone's actions doesn't release him of responsibility. As everyone knows, there are millions of people who look at porn and don't hurt others. It is not a direct cause, per se, but maybe it is dangerous in the attitudes it nurtures.

Everyone is responsible for his or her actions. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed those people at Columbine. Doom didn't... I do think that as a society we have become desensitized to violence, etc., but that doesn't release anyone from responsibility. The men who raped the woman I know were undoubtedly (IMO) influenced by porn (it is pretty obvious from the details I know), but that doesn't make them victims. They are responsible for the pain they caused.