Mass Media And The Porn Industry Term paper
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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...
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