Pornography Does Not Cause Rape
It’s no secret that the United States of America is the number one country in the world for crime and pornography. A lot of speculation is occurring whether or not pornography is the cause of rape.
Diana Russell believes whole heartily that pornography is the cause of rape. She claims that pornography shows that women are susceptible and can lead men on by thinking that rape is okay. I would love to know how Mrs. Russell figures that pornography is the primary source for molestation. Obviously, she hasn’t seen much of pornography.
Pornography is the material, whether it be pictures, novels, or movies, that shows sexual encounters with people. The porno industry has boosted its numbers close to a billion dollars, and that was in the United States alone. What makes Mrs. Russell’s argument so ludicrous is the fact that she says that ALL pornography leads to rape. How does a woman willing to perform fellatio to a man an act of rape? How does a man performing cunnilingus on a woman an act of rape?
Last I checked, rape was an act of violence; I seriously doubt that any man is going to point a gun to a woman’s head and say “Let me perform cunnilingus on you!” Of course, I would understand if Mrs. Russell would have said violent pornography. Violent pornography usually revolves around men overpowering women, or women overpowering men, or women overpowering women for that matter. Usually violent pornography has a lot of whips and chains, and a lot of nipple tortures and other clamps that are attached to any other orifices.
But can we really say that even violent pornography causes rape? Ted Bundy would say yes, but I say no. Want proof? Alright, let’s look at Japan. Japanese pornography is 80% violent, even their animation films have some sort of alien with ten thousand tentacles all forcing themselves inside a scared and terrified woman. But here is the kicker, Japan only has twenty-two hundred (2200) rapes in a single year. Want to know how many are in the United States? Ninety-thousand (90,000) in one year.
The significance of this publication is to promote awareness on the issue of sex trafficking.
"Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman: Fighting Human Trafficking." IIP Digital. U.S. Department of State, 01 Mar. 2009. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.
... pornography is just expressing ones self; to others, itþs considered an art form. But studies have shown that this þart formþ is the chief cause of many murders and rapes that occur in the United States. And it doesnþt start with þhard-coreþ. The early stages of erotica are actually the start.
Rape can happen to anyone at any time. Rape prevention strategies help decrease the risk, but the risk never drops to zero percent. In our society of rape myths, gender ideology, and exposure of sex in the media, especially in advertising, and especially when it involves violence, rape will be in our culture for a long time. Our culture promotes this brand of sexuality and we turn our cheeks to rape and any negative form of sex.
Lerner, Sara. "Human Trafficking In The U.S.: One Woman's Story." NPR. NPR, 31 July 2010. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
In addition, she contradicts her own stance on the position when she mentions that previous literature containing sexually explicit content should not be censored (Brownmiller 59). Brownmiller paints a very strong, emotional, and offensive picture when she claims that women are, “being stripped, bound, raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered in the name of commercial entertainment” (59). However, this statement is fallacious and does not provide any factual evidence. Furthermore, she makes the hasty generalization that pornography can make people think that certain things, such as rape, are acceptable (Brownmiller 59). Once again, her claim lacks support and relies solely on a faulty pathos appeal.
This paper was done by Paul J. Wright from Indiana University, Department of Telecommunications. Wright argues that although social scientific research on the effect of consumption of pornography among males may be highly debated, it might not have focused testing the feminist perspective that pornography aggravates sexual aggression against females. He posits that previous research might have addressed the use of pornography amongst males; however, they overlooked the permissive approach to sexual affairs (Wright, 2013).
More specifically then human trafficking, there is child trafficking. Child trafficking is today’s version of slavery that involves transferring a child for the purpose of abuse or illegal activities. According to the U.S. Department of State, “Child/Human Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world and is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs. Child trafficking happens in every single country, including the United States. When people think of trafficking of people, most think of women, but children are also being sold as slaves all across the world. Children who are most likely to become victims are those who come from low income homes, have limited access to education and are struggling to survive.
Sexual videos, magazines, movies and websites set unrealistic expectations for both women and men, and contribute to rape culture. Most porn videos are set up with a male-domination power theme, with the woman being controlled, sometimes even violently. Since men, and even young boys, are viewing women in these scenarios over and over, they start to believe that that’s how sex really should be, and that women are just sexual objects to look at and be played with. This has real life repercussions on how men treat and view women, affecting relationships and potentially even creating criminals, by putting the idea in some men’s heads that assaulting or raping women is perfectly fine.
“Teen Girls’ Stories of Sex Trafficking in U.S.” ABC News. 1-4, 2006. Web. 20 Jul 2010. .
Pornography dates back to the 19th century in the Roman Empire, and eventually spread to other nations leading to outlaws of it. Ultimately, it was abolished, but pornography still managed to be smuggled. Pornography is now legal, to an extent according to age. Presently, there are many people who believe that women are portrayed as objects as opposed to persons when exploited in pornography. Also, that this creates the false impression that these women in pornography are secretly yearning to be raped. Other people, however, would disagree with these ideals and claim that pornography does not exploit women by characterizing them as objects. Some say that there are certain extents to which women are depicted as objects as well as where this
A real life example of the link between the onset of pornography in American culture and sexual crimes includes a survey done in 1978, in which 44% of the nine hun...
Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of commercial sex, d...
When one of the children says that they resemble darkness monsters, this shows that they can feel the burden the older generations are lacing on them. The same case applies to formation of language which is done through imitation. The children pick what they feel comfortable to use so long as it is comfortable with their mothers. Mother Tongue is used to show the relationship of the child and the mother and the manner in which they influence one another (Satrapi).
She also mentions in her research that there is no casual connection between exposure to pornography and commission of violence, but this research was conducted in 1993 which is now outdated. Another point, which she emphasized, was that a greater availability of sexually explicit material seems to correlate with higher indices of gender equality. But when the sexually explicit material shows the subordination of women or women presented as sexual object who enjoy pain or humiliation, how can they be equal as men when the men are shown as the gender that enjoys subordinating women? i.e. Strossen, 550 ml. Feminist author Diana Russell notes in her book Rape and Marriage the correlation between deviant behavior (including abuse) and pornography.