roshan

Actually like I mentioned in my post it is precisely because porn encourages sex that it should be banned.

roshan

And this has nothing to do with "fear of sex" it has to do with understanding the damage that premarital and extramarital sex does to the society. Lots of people are obsessed with preventing rape, preventing divorce, preventing stds, preventing abortions, however these people are stupidly attacking the symptoms instead of treating the disease. Its like taking cough medicine to cure a bacterial infection of the throat instead of taking antibiotics. THE DISEASE IS SEX, EVERYTHING ELSE IS JUST A SYMPTOM OF THIS DISEASE!!!

List

Since abstinance education only makes things worse, the next best solution is accurate sex education. Infringing on people's sexual rights for something as abstract as the "good" of society would be extremely regressive. It would also fail horribly.

He takes issue with Rushdie's quote, I do not. As there seems to be a 100% correlation between developed nations and legalized pornography, I don't see why linking the two is necessarily bad. Obviously there are countries that have pornography, but not freedom/wealth, but that isn't Rushdie's point.

You're joking right? You have to be trolling. If not, I'll write a real response.

The Japanese love porn, but due to their antiquated anti-obscenety laws, they have to blur certain things out. It's still porn. Ever seen Hentai? The point is that Japanese society accepts porn enough not to ban it. They're just not pro-porn enough to change the laws. I've been to Japan, and I saw an issue of Japanese penthouse, it was cool.

Norway has some law about the offensive depiction of sexual acts, as do some other developed nations. Of course, what is offensive is largely debatable and varies from nation to nation. In Norway I believe it's quite strick, and they're required to put bars over "offensive" material. Again though, they have plenty of porn in Norway.

roshan

Abstinence education is stupid. People follow whatever they see in the media, not what they learn in school. If they see people having sex in a movie, they will also want to have sex regardless of what some teacher in class tells them.

So, the disease known as sex has to be eradicated by controlling the media. Lewd sex scenes should not be allowed in movies, sex jokes should not be allowed in comedies, newspapers should not publish stories promoting sex, channels like fashion tv and anything that shows nudity should be banned. It is only by controlling the media that sex can be cured.

Confed999

I wouldn't buy a car without test driving it first.

__________________
No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

Ironduke

"Wild horny sex" should be part of a normal, healthy relationship. Perhaps you mean promiscuity?

mostlymad

tarek, thanks for suggesting I look at the entire article more closely.

What do I think of Miranda’s suggestion that "emotions," "emotional bonds" and physical gratification are not deeply connected? She acknowledges that there is a connection (“However, that is not to say that pornography itself leads to emotional dysfunction. Rather that pornography to the exclusion of all else can. So what if pornography is used to compliment, rather than supplant, the development of emotional relationships with others?”) I agree that using porn at the exclusion of sex with a live person where some caring emotion is shared could be very destructive, leading someone to view people as objects to be used for pleasure. We learn to associate certain things with pleasure through our experiences. Sex, through porn exclusively without an actual partner cannot teach someone the emotional bonding that should exist in a healthy, loving relationship. Porn as a means of adding excitement to the sex life of a healthy, sexually active adult - who cares? That is their business, as long as it harms no one else.

I don’t agree with Rushdie’s statement that “when it comes into societies in which it’s difficult for young men and women to get together and do what young men and women often like doing, it satisfies a more general need.” I don’t think porn alone satisfies, not in societies where sexual interaction is taboo except within marriage, and often controlled, even there. Waving porn in front of people who aren’t allowed to have sex is saying - see? Isn’t this fun? Can you imagine what this must feel like? - then telling them that they can never have it. Without softening up restrictions on what people can and can’t do sexually with another consenting adult, porn, in my opinion, can create dysfunctional behaviour.

Porn will always be around. There's too much money to be made from it, and many societies link it to freedom of expression. Educating people on healthy sexuality and lifting restrictions on what two consenting adults are allowed to do will minimize the harm porn can do. I also see a difference between erotica and porn. Erotica tends to show the beauty of healthy sex, while, in my opinion, porn promotes tends to debase it. Could just be my interpretation, though.

tarek

Mostly

You may find Mr. Haider's expose of Ms. Husain's auguments (and yours) open to the charge of being "tautologous":

"Ms Husain refers to that fact in passing when she admits that pornography itself does not lead to emotional dysfunction, but then goes on to aver that pornography to the exclusion of all else does. The assertion “to the exclusion of all else” is tautological because that can be said of anything including washing one’s hands obsessively. Nothing in a relatively normal human being’s life can happen to the exclusion of all else. When it does, we smell an abnormality and that’s what Rushdie is pointing at. Yet, to the extent that it is society’s way of protesting against repression, it denotes freedom. It’s easier to fault pornography than the social conditions that lead to an emphasis on it to the exclusion of all else"



Mostly, you say: "I don’t agree with Rushdie’s statement that “when it comes into societies in which it’s difficult for young men and women to get together and do what young men and women often like doing, it satisfies a more general need.” Please elaborate, expand and allow me to bring to your attention, that the demand for porn, may have a relationship with satisfying a general need in a repressive society -- See, no one is waving the porn before these people and saying that they can't have any, DEMAND for the product (porn) is in response to some general need is not being satisfied.

See, the proposition is limited to repressive societies, (and ofcourse that is a relative term, but we can all agree that no one thinks as European and/or Western societies as being those "repressive" societies - we all know which societies are being referred to.

mostlymad

tarek, you will not let me get away with anything, will you?

I meant porn at the exclusion of healthy, normal sex, as in repressed societies where sex is pretty much only allowed between married people, and even limited in some of it’s aspects in the marriage bed.

I agree. It is ONE way of protesting. It would be far better, however, to protest against laws that limits rights of consenting adults to be sexually active.


The demand for porn is in response to some general need not being met, perhaps, especially where sex i s restricted by law; my objection was that porn does not satisfy this need in repressed societies. Only sex with another human being will satisfy the need for sex with another human being.

Maybe we are saying the same thing, but using different words?

roshan

Do you prefer used cars to new ones?

roshan

Yes, I meant promiscuity.

Wild, horny sex is great - as long as its with your wife.

List

Well, my morals are clearly superior to yours. Last night I had sex with a manikin, or maybe it was a college chick, it's hard to tell the difference.

Asim Aquil

everyones really fixated on the wild horny sex bit eh?

Dude there are bigger social ills than porn, related to sex.

Rape. Heck, what about Prostitution n all? Prostitution is something I'm against.

roshan

Asim, pornography encourages people to have sex and makes them horny. When this happens people cmmit rape, visit prostitutes etc. So all these things are interrelated.

Asim Aquil

No dude, rape is pretty rampant in villages in the sub-continent for example, and I doubt they have access to Playboy or the Internet (oh well this is changing, but still). At best I guess Porn would help reduce rape. If it makes them horny, they'd go and fap.

It is a social ill, given the porn industry. Pornstars are pretty much exploited people. So in no way is it good.