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- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!news.service.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway
- From: bob1@cos.COM (Bob Blackshaw)
- Subject: Re: Someone Convince Me
- Nntp-Posting-Host: alexandre-dumas.ics.uci.edu
- Message-ID: <bob1.727998758@cos>
- Newsgroups: soc.feminism
- Organization: Corporation for Open Systems
- Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
- Lines: 83
- Date: 26 Jan 93 00:02:41 GMT
- References: <1jf6kh$i77@agate.berkeley.edu> <1jg7e9$rmn@agate.berkeley.edu> <1993Jan19.193020.16882@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> <1993Jan23.155518.27659@wam.umd.edu>
-
- In <1993Jan23.155518.27659@wam.umd.edu> rsrodger@wam.umd.EDU (Yamanari) writes:
-
- >[Let's keep the rancor down to a dull roar, shall we? --CTM]
-
- > Wrong. The whole porn thread is INTRINSICALLY legalistic in
- > nature. The eventual goal of people who are "against porn" is
- > almost always to have porn made illegal or a lot less
- > available. Yes, there are some--in the minority--that
- > consider this wrongminded censorship and still consider porn
- > "bad"--but they are insignificant next to the number of those
- > who would like to see porn (defined by male interest, as to
- > license female-porn [romance novels]) banned.
-
- As one who contributed - and got quite a lot of e-mail - I would
- like to clear something up. When I posted that *I* saw little
- value in pornography, I was criticized for being pro-censorship.
-
- I responding to this e-mail, pointing out that I had not used the
- word censorship once in my post, the answer I received was to the
- effect that - the laws speak of community values, ergo by stating
- that I found no value, I was adding to the pro-censorship side, and
- should not say such things (rather a form of censorship in itself,
- IMHO).
-
- As one who grew up in a home where I was not denied access to the
- family library, nor was my reading material questioned ( I only
- assume that my parents believed that if I did not understand the
- content, I would rapidly lose interest. Also, I imagine that they
- had some confidence in their training and my judgement). And due
- to certain physical problems, I started reading at an early age.
-
- Certainly, this may have been a gamble on my parents part, but I
- don't know of any ill effects that resulted. Given my own up-
- bringing, it would be exceedingly presumptuous of me to set
- myself up as judge and regulator of other people's reading
- material.
-
- An earlier post wondered whether both pornography and rape were
- symptomatic of repression of sex, rather than repression *and*
- pornography leading to rape (hope I got that right). I do find
- that North America has some weird ideas about sex and they are
- getting even weirder. From not even mentioning sex (other than
- obliquely in order to sell products) we now have it rubbed in
- our noses by the talk shows. A promo for one show that I saw
- this morning had the host asking a woman what brought her to
- orgasm. I suppose that next year we can expect a demonstration. :-/
-
- Don't get me wrong, I like sex, I believe that what goes on
- between two consenting adults in private is their affair. But
- if it comes to the point where what goes on is shown on prime
- time, then I still believe we are screwed up on the subject.
- Sex, like breathing, is part of living. When was the last
- time you saw a magazine, talk show, etc. devoted to 'How to
- breathe'.
-
- One closing comment. Despite what some rapists have claimed
- regarding pornography after capture, I am not quite convinced.
- To me rape is a crime of violence, and sex used this way is
- a way of violating a woman to maximum effect (from the rapist's
- view). The after effects (commented on in another post) stem in
- many respects from 'the woman as property' concept that is still
- at large. Excessive regard for virginity is a hang-over from the
- Victorian era. Any more than we would blame a woman for breaking
- a leg because she was hit by a car that jumped the sidewalk, why
- we (well some do still) blame her for being attacked is quite
- beyond my reasoning. What should matter between a man and a woman
- is here and now, and hope for the future. Who or what came before
- and what terrible accident may befall in the future has no
- relation to our feelings for each other, simply because those
- feelings are based on 'us' (whoever your 'us' may be).
-
- After the year of disasters we have experienced in 1992, from
- hurricanes, floods, etc. I would think that there is enough
- misery to go round, without jumping up and down on each other
- over something as inane as pornography, but chacune a son gout.
-
- Bob.
-
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