, Research Paper
Mass Media And The Porn Industry
It started by way of messages and scribes, evolved through the presentation of
newspapers and radio, brought us together with television, and now serves us worldwide
via the ever popular Internet. It is the mass media, and even from the earliest days of
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, 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 broadcasted 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 also been
heavily criticized. The underlining concept to be debated here is that society has been
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.
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 behavior 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 sex organs and teaching feelings of shame toward human
sexuality is so common worldwide (Christenson 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 whole lives
completely naked, while in other societies women are covered from head to toe, leaving
only their eyes revealed. The media has been bombarded with criticism, overwhelmingly
from the female community, relative to the amount of sexually explicit material that
published in magazines, and that appears in 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 makeup 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 makeup and text referring to
skin care would be relevant. Clearly, society does not consider women to be beings who’s
purpose in life is to worry about makeup and skin care; but why are the complaints only
directed towards pornographic material then? The answer to the 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 sports 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 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 are all 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 there no complaints of advertisements in
magazines displaying only ears, for example, or a nose, or a pair of feet? The reason is a
simple one, our society considers certain body parts to be “shameful” or disgusting.
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 fallacious, because both men and women are very sexual (Christensen 1990:42).
Take, for instance, a recent television ad portraying young men groveling at the feet of
supermodel Cindy Crawford, practically 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 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 all
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 simple business (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 more likely to commit violent acts, such as
rape against women, more likely than men that are not exposed to pornography? It is
tempting to believe that media influences males and overstimulates them through
pornography to the point where 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 half hours in a room with a large volume of
pornographic material, as well as non-explicit material, 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
became 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. Three other
separate, but similar experiments also came to the conclusions that pornography does not
increase violence toward women, in fact, it was 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 1980’s by the Williams Committee in England,
reported that as the availability and the abundance of sexually explicit material increase,
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 in 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
(Christensen 1990:59). In addition to the above, studies in Ohio found that the amount of
violence in “G” -Rated movies was an astonishing two times more than in “X”-Rated
movies. In fact, major films such as Die Hard: With a Vengeance and Terminator 2,
contain an extreme 85-90% violence, which is primarily directed toward men. There are
however exceptions; the slasher genre of movies contain much more violence directed
toward women, possibly due to the desensitation to violence in other genres of films.
Because women are involved, violence toward them could create a true sense of horror.
However, these films do not suggest anyone to go out and kill people or to go into society
and commit any crimes, they are movies. Horror movie fans choose to watch these
movies because they enjoy portrayed violence. Needless to say, no sane individual would
wish 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, not just men, 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 about sex; just
not through pornography. In fact, most of these fantasies involve some degree of violence
or force and are largely driven by romance novels discussed earlier. Recent reports
published by Nancy Friday, show that the number of female fantasies involving rape far
outweigh the male fantasies involving rape. 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 actin 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 behavior” 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 even more stimulating than less violent consensual lovemaking scenes. This is
not to say that women want to be raped; far from it. This is to say that if women can
fantasize about forceful sex, and not want to experience it, then men can also fantasize
about it and not want to commit 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 behavior. As mentioned before, sexually explicit movies and magazines do not just
arouse, they satisfy. It is an undisputed fact that feelings of love and happiness cancel out
feelings of violence and aggression (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 suppose that pornography makes men “go over
the edge” and commit rape is as ludicrous as saying that pictures of food cause the hungry
to steal food. It has even been said 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 also 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. Two
words: Completely Absurd.
Personal Opinion-
I enjoy sex, and the other factors that go into the physical and emotion parts of
love making. But I am not a perverted person, I do not enjoy pornography nor a lot of
violence for that matter. But I like knowing that if I did enjoy these things, that I could
legally partake in them. And if we do ban pornography and violence, will it stop there? In
time will we infact try to ban provocative clothing? Where will it end? It really makes me
wonder how free this country will be in ten years.
Furthermore, as far as movies making people commit crimes, how many criminals
have you heard of that took complete responsibility for what they did? That is how our
society is, it’s always someone else’s fault, there is always a scapegoat of some sort. That
is why I think that banning certain types of movies will solve nothing, there will always be
something that supposedly makes us do bad things, there will always be something until
we as a society grow up and take responsibility for our actions.
348