FREE ESSAY ON MEDIA AND PORNOGRAPHY

MEDIA AND PORNOGRAPHY

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. 
Bibliography
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).