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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.women
Subject: Re: Social Effects of Porn
Message-ID: <210@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Jan-85 09:02:03 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.210
Posted: Mon Jan 21 09:02:03 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jan-85 05:20:33 EST
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Re: Article <4614@cbssc.UUCP>, Social effects of porn

Dubuc's impressive citing of sources makes a case for some social
effects of exposure to pornography. Lacking immediate rebuttal sources
(time to head to the library), I will make one point:

Dubuc's literature makes a case for the connection between the aggression
that is often mixed with porn and aggressive behavior in those exposed
to pornography. This is not necessarily a case against porn, but against
the display of violence and aggression. I wonder if there is research
on the effects on aggressive behavior of aggression in media, e.g.
advertising, movies, books, etc. Does viewing, say, "Dirty Harry" or
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" *also* increase aggressive tendencies,
and if so, by the same amount? This would remove the display of
sexuality from the equation.

BTW, Playboy's losing subscriber is coupled with an increase in sales
for the more "pornographic" (relatively) Penthouse and Hustler. In the latter
case especially, this seems to be due to the aggresively lowbrow approach
of the magazine more than to its comparative pictorial content. If you
remove the photography from Playboy, it is most comparable to magazine
like Esquire than to Penthouse.

Marcel