Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!cepu!ucla-cs!art From: art@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.books,net.women Subject: Re: Pornography doesn't degrade women ... Message-ID: <3328@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Sat, 19-Jan-85 16:09:45 EST Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.3328 Posted: Sat Jan 19 16:09:45 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jan-85 06:29:10 EST References: <243@looking.UUCP>, <11300010@smu.UUCP>, <4560@cbscc.UUCP> <354@ahuta.UUCP> Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 33 Xref: watmath net.books:1272 net.women:4170 --------- I strongly feel that pornographic images of women degrade everybody involved, the women that pose and the men that look at the pictures. It degrades the woman by depicting her as body to jump on top of, or a body to harm. It degrades the men who look at the pictures (and this point is made much less often) by having them futiley lust to have their way with naked women. The only winner is the slimeball pornographer who uses everybody involved and pockets the bucks. The pornographer isn't degraded because they have no values to harm, or they have turned porn into a personal philosophy like Mr. Flynt or Mr. Hefner. Porn is mainly about making money. But underneath the profit motive it points to unsatisfied needs of the people involved. I venture that some women pose because they want to be considered attractive and beautiful. Our society does place tremendous and excessive emphasis emphasis on women's appearance. (Even MEN try to make themselves look like beautiful women.) Society also places a great value on men's ability to attract beautiful women. Posing for porn certainly is not a good outlet for women that want to show that they are attractive. Porn points to men's unfulfilled needs for human and sexual contact. In fact, I think that the main need is human contact. It also points to unfulfilled needs for control and power. But looking at pictures doesn't satisfy the needs at all. It simply leaves men frustrated and angry. Rather than banning porn, we should be looking for ways to address these legitimate needs. The real social revolution will be to find better ways to satisfy the needs that porn indicates, hopefully without joining Rev. Falwell. Arthur Goldberg art@ucla-cs