To counter this argument, it is asserted there is little or no connection between pornography and rape. Pornographic videos may not have effect on male or have negative attitudes for raping. Straus and Baron in 1983 found that “rape rates correlated positively with rates of readership of eight popular male’s sex magazines”. But more recently, it is concluded that intervening variables were responsible for the correlation and that policy toward rape should focus on issue like sexism, economic inequality and social disorganized rather than pornography.6 The finding explain the rape is not always a business of pornography. In a word, it is not all people are sex offenders who are viewers of pornography. The violence emotion is from personal quality of psychology, self-cultivation and surrounding in society.1
In refutation, the relationship between pornography and rape is positive in fact.
Professor Cass Sunstein, writing in the Duk law journal: “the liberalization of pornography laws in the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries that has been accompanied by a rise 7% per year in reported rape rates. In countries where pornography laws have not been liberalized where has been a less steep rise in reported rapes. And in countries where restrictions have been adopted reported rapes have decreased .7 it is no wonder that the relationship between pornography and sexual assault is stronger than the relationship between smoking and lung cancer. The effect for nonviolence pornography should be zero, and the effect for violence pornography should be positive”.
Secondly, the impact of pornography on female is also serious. Pornography lowers status and dignity of female in society because of being portrayed largely as sex objects. Pornography makes some male believe that female seek for being raped and encouraging females to get into high rape-risk situations. Jeff Olson defined in ‘THE DANGERS OF PORNOGRAPHY’ in 2000: “Pornography is responsible for spreading the lie that women re available and willing at a moment’s notice fulfill a man’s sexual demands.8 ”In addition, a large number of male who devour pornography with their eyes compare their wives to what they have seen. And no wife can live up to the youthful, flawlessly shaped. One wife said in ‘An affair of mind’ by Daina Russell in 1993: “although I was careful with my clothes and figure, I found that my husband was increasingly critical of the way I looked… I was not attractive enough to compare with the models…in the end he lost all interest in me and this had a devastating impact on my view of my worth as a woman…9 ”As a result, pornography is gender violence that violates the civil right of women and pornography also is damaging to marriages.
As a counterargument, a small number of people consider pornography as a special form of education on female and adult films are not only negative outcomes. Individuals take pornography as a source of information about sexual behavior. ‘In fact, pornography is sometimes used in the treatment of orgasmic dysfunction of women.’10 The typical case involves a married woman unable to experience orgasm, the use of a film provides a model, encouraging the female to relax (the therapy usually has the husband present while viewing the material). Conversely, pornography could, under some conditions, promote the learning of prosocial behavior if linked to the proper circumstances.
To refute this, although pornography is not bad always, it is still harmful to female. Some females who are victims are forced to do action in the used of pornography by sex offenders, they get beat and even dead in sexual crime. Gebhard P Gagnon reported in 1996 in ‘Sex offenders: “An Analysis of types’: 57 percent of acknowledging that they tried to reenact a pornographic scene during the rape”. And Diana Russell recorded a female describe a case in a man in 1994 in ‘PORNOGRAPHY AS A CAUSE OF RAPE’: “he brought pornography magazines and books and paraphernalia in to the bedroom with him and told her that if she did not perform the sexual acts in the “dirty” books, he would beast her and kill her.11 As the result, males can learn hoe to rape, beat, sexually abuse and degrade females from pornography. The source of negative affects the violence or aggression in the material, many pornographic material use rape or coerced sexual scenes. ”
Finally, pornography is detrimental to users. As minority, was negatively effected individual with psychological problems by pornography as the result of corruption of mind by pornography, if its viewers. ‘As pornography pollutes the mind, it often turns into an enslaving sexual addiction where there is a “continual lust for more”.12 ‘72% of the males were reported to be incentive to try some sexual experiment or sexual behavior that they had seen in their initial exposure to X-rated material.’13 Pornography give a stimulus on mind to all users, especially on teenagers. ‘Nearly 70% of the junior high students surveyed reported that they had seen their first R-rated film before they were 13.’14 Clearly, the effects of pornography on young male viewers that is more serious than the adult viewers, it will affect their life when they are adult. Because of emotionally and sexually exciting images set off a physical chain reaction, which burns images that can remain etched in a mind for years. Therefore pornography is violence for all viewers almost always.
In conclusion, whether or not pornography causes rape, as well as other forms of sexual assault and violence, the answers is pointed out clearly. Pornography actually makes viewers to produce evil intention usually and mainly the relationship between pornography and rape that is positively. Pornography can leads to negatively attitudes and behavior that like male viewers tend to be more aggressive toward female. In fact, it has been related to the big social issue ‘Feminism’ between male and female. It is harmful to users, female and even all of people. In other words, pornography is an inducement to rape.
1 Kerby Anderson, ‘The Pornography Plague’, Probe Ministries 1996-2000, London, 2001,p86.
2 Caitlin McMahon & Maggie Seaton(Ed), English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, Third edition, p874.
3 Kaye Healey (Ed), ‘what is rape’, Sexual Abuse, Vol.57, The Spring Press, Australia, 1996, p16.
4 Diana Russell, Against women, 1993,p147.
5 Beneke Timothy, 1999, Men on rape, New York: St.Martin Press, p 237.
6 Charles winick, ‘ the relationship between noneforcement of state pornography laws and rates of sex crime arrests’, Archives of Sexual Begavior, vol.25, iss.5, 1996, p439.
7 Thomas J Gerschick, Debating Sexual correctness: Pornography, sexual harassment, Date rape anf the Politics of sexual equlity. 1995, p57.
8 Jeff Olson, ‘ THE DANGERS OF PORNOGRAPHY’,WHEN A MAN’S EYE, 2000, P76.
9 Diana Russel , An affair of mind, 1993, p76.
10 Attorney general, Report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, 1999, p 349.
11 Diana Russell, PORNOGRAPHY AS A CAUSE OF RAPE, 1994, P 62.
12 Mayall, Alice; Russell Diania, ‘Racism in pornography’, In Diana Russell (ed), Making violence Sexy: Feminist views in Pornography, 1999, p96.
13 Malamuth Neil & Check James, ‘ The effects of aggressive pornography on beliefs in rape myths: Individual differences’, Journal of Research in Personality, 1998,p 365.
14 Malamuth Neil & Spinner Barry, ‘A longitudinal content analysis of sexual vioence’, 1999, p77.