Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pyuxc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxc!chris From: chris@pyuxc.UUCP (R. Hollenbeck) Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles Subject: Pornography Message-ID: <601@pyuxc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 16-Jan-85 10:39:43 EST Article-I.D.: pyuxc.601 Posted: Wed Jan 16 10:39:43 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 17-Jan-85 13:03:05 EST Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ Lines: 45 Xref: watmath net.women:4106 net.singles:5419 Yesterday, a female friend of mine confided that love had never been what she expected, that is, what it is in the movies, i.e., holding hands in a field, embracing in the moonlight, etc. It struck me that her feelings might hold the key to the debate over pornography. Is it possible that she's not alone, that many women grow up believing that love is like it is in the movies, and that they therefore resent pornography because it contradicts the movie version of love? That it is offensive because it shows sex without showing love (particularly movie love) as a prerequisite? In support of this hypothesis, I offer the following: 1. Pornography is often attacked for portraying women as "sex objects" (presumably as opposed to being shown as people in love). 2. I read an article recently that discussed pornography for women, i.e., literature whose intent was to arouse women's prurient interest. This pornography consisted largely of scenes depicting tenderness, caring, etc., with far less explicit sex than is found in standard pornography. If you add to the above the movie/television view that after love comes a marriage and a family situation similar to those in "Father Knows Best" and "It's a Wonderful Life," the objections to pornography become clearer. Pornography does not concern itself with love, or families, or with preserving the species or the social order, but with plain old sex. Exaggerated sex at that, when you consider the oversized body parts, insatiability, endless variation and stamina, etc. of the participants. Not to say that this is bad, but it does not jibe with the movie/TV view, to say the least. Could this be basis of much of the objection to pornography? I think so. The only thing I can't figure out is, if we're all subjected to the same movie/TV images, why do men enjoy pornography? Why aren't they equally appalled by it? For the record, if it's not clear from the above, I think any depiction of sex, in movies or on TV, is fine, unless it shows rape, children, or nonconsensual violence (I don't want to discriminate against sado-masochists).