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From: cheryl@lasspvax.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Porn and Rape: a social disease
Message-ID: <547@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Sep-85 14:27:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.547
Posted: Mon Sep 23 14:27:39 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Sep-85 23:45:47 EDT
References: <10000008@orstcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: cheryl@lasspvax.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart)
Organization: LASSP, Cornell University
Lines: 47
Summary: 

In article <10000008@orstcs.UUCP> richardt@orstcs.UUCP (richardt) writes:

>does not, in and of itself, cause violent and anti-social behavior towards
>women.  I know this because I can look at jay random current issue of Playboy,
>Hustler, Penthouse, or whatever, and have feelings ranging from "gee, she
>looks like she'd be fun to go to bed with" to "skin.  Wow.  I should call
>the president??? (:-)."  Periodically, I'll feel like this or that person
>could casually disappear with no loss to society, but that is always because
>their appearance and attitude throughout the pictorial, article, whatever is
>negative and exploitive (negative connotation intended).  No, Pornography
>does not cause violence in any sane, rational human being. I won't say anything


Oh, and the Tobacco industry has maintained for years that no causal
relation between cigarrette smoking and lung cancer has ever been medically
demonstrated.  Sure, the sociological studies have only shown a high 
statistical correlation between pornography and rape in neighborhood-
by-neighborhood studies.  But, just as doctors have not PROVEN HOW 
cigarrette smoking causes lung cancer, sociologists have not PROVEN HOW
pornography causes rape.  So the porn-mongers have a cute, technical
excuse to cover up the ill effect they have on society.   And the 
secret bombing of Cambodia was necessary for national security, and
nothing was said during those 18.5 minutes of silence on tape, and
there are no harmful side-effects of the pill, and Ronnie Rayguns is
going to whip the national deficit, and my brother is Santa Claus.

The problem is that our whole society is based on prevarication,
deep beaurocratic hypocrisy, advertizing hype, the profit motive,
and oh, I forgot to mention outright lies.  The answer is not 
censorship, but education -- real education.  I had a history 
teacher once that told us he didn't care whether we learned a single
fact all year...as long as we could figure out when we were being
lied to.  If everyone were able to think for himself, and know
a lie when he saw it or heard it or smelled it, censorship would
be silly -- nothing false or low would find a market, and thus 
die a natural death.

So I believe that our educational system is at fault, for 
teaching people to listen, see and believe -- rather than to
read, analyze and question.  It's not the sellers of porn
that are indirectly causing rape, it's the buyers who 
allow their values to be influenced by pornography.

Anyone care to disagree?


It's that Cheryl Stewart... She's BACK!!!!