Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site ahuta.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!houxm!ahuta!dls From: dls@ahuta.UUCP (d.skran) Newsgroups: net.books,net.legal,net.women Subject: Re: Pornography doesn't degrade anybody Message-ID: <351@ahuta.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 19:27:36 EST Article-I.D.: ahuta.351 Posted: Thu Jan 10 19:27:36 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 02:48:34 EST References: <4699@tektronix.UUCP> <2758@ncsu.UUCP>, <462@wlcrjs.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 30 Xref: watmath net.books:1195 net.legal:1277 net.women:4033 CC: ecl REFERENCES: <4699@tektronix.UUCP> <2758@ncsu.UUCP>, <462@wlcrjs.UUCP> The hangups American's have about sex are awesome. In the Netherlands it is AGAINST the law to REQUIRE swimsuits! Think about it. Being nude is not degrading. Having sex is not degrading. Doing these things on film/in public are not degrading EXCEPT in the eyes of those watching, who have been conditioned all their lives to view sex as a "dirty thing." There are cultures without these odd taboos. If you find films/books with nudity/sex degrading, this says a lot more about your attitudes than anything else. As for your test, I suspect a great many people would be willing to have their pictures taken nude IF there existed some assurance that the small minded of the world wouldn't lash out against them. In this utopian fantasy, everyone would have something better to do than claim that nude pictures of people/sex are degrading. This is not to say degradation cannot exist in porn, simply that sex/nudity per se DOES NOT CONSTITUTE DEGRADATION. Dale