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Sociological perspectives on pornography
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Statement of Scope
Are erotic art and pornography the same? Is a controversial topic. Sometimes the concept of pornography is well accepted and also can be even conceived as an artistic expression of erotic pleasure. On the other hand, it can be characterized as sinful and obscene. But the topic of whether erotic art can being categorized as pornography gets into this worldwide debate. What are the factors that can affect their distinction? The Museum of Sex located at New York has caused polemic among the people who know about it. Can the exhibition pieces be pornography and as a result do they have a negative connotation? Can the Venus in a Mirror painting have a negative pornographic meaning? Can it be conceived as positive art of cultural nourishment? Similarities and distinctions between art and pornography are needed in order to eradicate their negative effects and to assimilate their positive benefits.
Armstrong, Elizabeth. “Identity And Competence: The Use Of Culture In The Interpretation Of Sexual Images.” Sociological Perspectives 49.3 (2003): 411-432. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
The main thesis of this empirical and theoretical essay is about how the categorization of something between the concepts of art and pornography depends of morals and aesthetic criteria. The essay was made base on a study applied to three hundred college students. An image of a couple masturbating was presented and different concepts a human classifications were created based on student responses. The relation of art being pornography or vice versa was testes among the student sample. Their answers and interpretations gave the distinction of something being porn, art or both in one. Those concepts that have been very debatable about their difference and similarities now are questioned in a different way. The idea of individuals giving their own point of view about a masturbating image, allowed to come with a human classification of: No artistic Conservatives, No artistic Liberals, Artistic Liberals, and Artistic Conservatives. Basically, the answer of something being porn or art comes from the background and personality of the individual experiencing a certain situation where sexual content is presented.
Blair, Leonard. “Ex Porn Star Vanessa Belmond Confesses Horrors of Seductive Porn Industry; Brings Porn-Loving Men Close to Tears With Story” CP Entertainment. The Christian Post, 23 October 2013. Web. 15 November 2013.
The main argument behind this article is to show the horrible experiences and consequences gained by a female ex porn star.
To sufficiently take a side in the ever-growing debate of pornography, one must first define the concept around which this discourse surrounds itself. A working definition for pornography is a piece of material that has the object purpose of arousing erotic feelings. Radical feminists, however, strictly define it as “the act of sexual subordination of women” (Dworkin 1986).
The poem “An Opinion on the Question of Pornography” is a comparison of intellectual intercourse and sexual intercourse. At times, Szymborska finds intellectual pursuits more worthwhile than sexual ones. When regarding sexual intercourse, she has a consistently negative tone and constantly uses words with a negative connotation,
In the article “An Anthropological Look at Human Sexuality” the authors, Patrick Gray and Linda Wolfe speak about how societies look at human sexuality. The core concept of anthology is the idea of culture, the systems of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors people acquire as a member of society. The authors give an in depth analysis on how human sexuality is looked at in all different situations.
Pornograhy consumption has increased markedly over the last few decades, primarily due to the advent and popularity of regular, affordable, and high speed internet connections (Eberstadt & Layden 13; "The History of Modern Pornography."). While pornography has been around for thousands of years, never has porn been as used or abused (8). Porns’s vivid and explixcit imagery causes healthy pereceptions of sexuality to be skewed, causing true intimacy to be lost amidst a desensitized sexual libido (Struthers 1; “What’s Wrong With Pornography?” 1; Dubinsky 1; Zillmann 27). Pornography as defined by the United Methodist Church promotes “violence, abuse, coercion, domination, humiliation, or degradation for the purpose of arousal”, all being obvious negatives (1). Porn has been linked to higher divorce rates, sexual violence, sex trafficking, brain chemistry changes, relational problems. Porn affects both the church culture and the society as a whole. These high reaching problems call for the high impacting changes that new regulations can bring. Strong regulation will provide a stopgap to the national epidemic in it’s tracks.
Chapter Six deals with the image of pornography being reflected in today's society. A large part of this is how the body is treated and portrayed in the world. The internet has grown substantially
Nude in art can show the beauty of the naked body, and that can be appreciated by men, women, children, the elderly and so forth, depending on how it is presented of course. For instance, the "David", by Michelangelo can be looked at as a work of art and can be admired as art. It was not created to be erotic or to be presented as sexual, it was created to show the beauty of a naked body as a whole and while it clearly shows all parts of the body it does not focus on the genitalia. Nude in art is absolutely different then pornography. Pornography exists to arouse and it is strictly presented as sexual material, it usually focuses on the sexual act, not the nude body or its beauty as a whole. Pornography in any form, such as film and magazines cannot be appreciated as art because it is not art; pornography is produced and sold for arousal purpose not artistic purpose.
During the 1980’s many people debated about the feminist attitudes toward sexuality and their attitudes toward pornography. Many different views were expressed. Some said that all erotica depicting women as sexual objects is demeaning. Others argued that pornography was bad but erotica could be good, that “although pornography is demeaning the protection of civil liberties is a greater good which requires the toleration of freedom for pornographers.
Whether pornography is an excuse to make acts of violence public? A big number of famous scholars, no matter men or women, have given their opinions. Each of them has their own view, but we can sort them into two groups, which are against to serious censorship and willing to convict and uproot pornography. Because of pornography, women’s status can never be equal to men’s. Recently, a revolution about the perception of moral values comes out in the world, which refers to how deep the changes of the method people think and act. Media have continuously played a big role in processing those changes in the revolution. Whereas, a lot of changes have been much worse. New violations of human dignity and Christian ideals have taken place. Within here, the media is also important. In the media, widespread pornography and wanton violence have increased in these years. Books and magazines, recordings, the cinema, the theater, television, videocassettes, advertising displays and even telecommunications regularly present a representation of violent behavior in sexual activity, which has been openly pornographic and morally offensive.
Sexuality is a part of our life. It creates many industries, like sex toys, prostitution, and pornography. This paper will focus on exploring the truth of the pornography's impact on women. Some people see porn as a sexual education, self-exploration, but some research showed that pornography is affecting women in different ways. In this paper, I will focus on three areas: objectification, sex crimes, and women’s rights, which pornography influences on women. The following, I will use the word, ‘women’ frequently, it refer to most of the women, not all of the women.
Looking at the art of the past, we see many images depicting nude women. From Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus to Ingres’s Grande Odelisque, many artists like the idea of painting a woman in the nude in an interesting pose. Even modern images in contemporary magazines depict nude images. Yves Saint Laurent’s advertisement of their fragrance Opium depicts a nude woman covering her breast. Her pose is a symbol of the iconography, while beauty serves as the iconology. The understanding of the iconography and iconology of this image by contemporary society comes from the fact that the nude image was depicted in the great art of the past; however, the fact that society has become contemporary also serves to hinder their understanding of nude images.
To some, pornography is nothing more than a few pictures of scantily clad Women in seductive poses. But pornography has become much more than just Photographs of nude women. Computer technology is providing child molesters and child pornographers with powerful new tools for victimizing children. Pornography as "the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, Sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials. No one can prove those films with graphic sex or violence has a harmful effect on viewers. But there seems to be little doubt that films do have some effect on society and that all of us live with such effects.
Cante, R., & Restivo, A. (2004). The cultural-aesthetic specificities of all-male moving-image pornography. In L. Williams (Ed.), Porn studies (p. 142). London, England: Duke University Press.
Sex culture in modern day Japan has demonstrated to be an integral part of their cultural identity and is more progressive than any other countries. Japan’s sex culture has surpassed boundaries that are standardized in other countries. The West sees the Japanese as emotionless, controlled and even sexless. Publicly they are shy, reserved and terribly proper, however Japan is an extreme contradiction. If we examine the surface of their culture, the private life of these Japanese people can be a real eye opener. The role of sexuality and more specifically the role of pornography in women’s lives is perhaps the biggest debate among the people from the West. This paper will examine how pornography is gendered in Japan and the effects of this to
“Pornography is sexually explicit material designed to produce sexual arousal in consumers that is bad in a certain way.” (Malpas) It provides people more opportunities to access sexual content, also gives people some unhealthy and unrealistic orientation of sexual behaviors. With the advent of Internet, the dissemination of pornographic films has become more rampant. Through downloading and Internet-based technology, more and more illegal pornography got distributed and propagated, which leads to increasing censorship by the government.
It is difficult to define a porn-addict without laying down boundaries that have been previously forbidden, so this paper will use the simple definition of “one who views pornography on a regular basis, and either suffers from or regrets his or her actions.