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Violence And Pornography

Violence and Pornography


Pornography -- Sex or Subordination?

In the late Seventies, America became shocked and outraged by the rape,
mutilation, and murder of over a dozen young, beautiful girls. The man who
committed these murders, Ted Bundy, was later apprehended and executed. During
his detention in various penitentiaries, he was mentally probed and prodded by
psychologist and psychoanalysts hoping to discover the root of his violent
actions and sexual frustrations. Many theories arose in attempts to explain the
motivational factors behind his murderous escapades. However, the strongest and
most feasible of these theories came not from the psychologists, but from the
man himself, ÿas a teenager, my buddies and I would all sneak around and watch
porn. As I grew older, I became more and more interested and involved in it,
[pornography] became an obsession. I got so involved in it, I wanted to
incorporate [porn] into my life, but I couldnÿt behave like that and maintain
the success I had worked so hard for. I generated an alter-ego to fulfill my
fantasies under-cover. Pornography was a means of unlocking the evil I had
burried inside myselfÿ (Leidholdt 47). Is it possible that pornography is
acting as the key to unlocking the evil in more unstable minds?
According to Edward Donnerstein, a leading researcher in the pornography
field, ÿthe relationship between sexually violent images in the media and
subsequent aggression and . . . callous attitudes towards women is much stonger
statistically than the relationship between smoking and cancerÿ (Itzin 22).
After considering the increase in rape and molestation, sexual harassment, and
other sex crimes over the last few decades, and also the corresponding increase
of business in the pornography industry, the link between violence and
pornogrpahy needs considerable study and examination. Once the evidence you
will encounter in this paper is evaluated and quantified, it will be hard not
come away with...