"Maybe aliens made them do it" (or would you consider 'porn'?)

[bloom]

Experts are atwitter about that gang of St. Louis first- and second-grade schoolboys who sexually assaulted an 8-year-old female classmate. These boys are 6-8 years old. How could they get such an idea? I mean, it’s not like we live in a rape culture where women are assaulted every day and the victims of gang rape are typically depicted as sluts who asked for it. It’s not like the men who commit gang rape are routinely defended as fine upstanding young men just having a good time.

St. Louis school superintendent Creg Williams, who is here as part of a job-exchange program with the Andromeda Galaxy, asked, “How is it this kind of thing is even in the minds of young men?”

Well, Creg, it is hard to understand. Sexual assault is exceedingly rare here on planet Earth, and cases where groups of males attack lone females are almost unknown. But a number of people are offering theories on where the kids may have gotten the idea....

Okay, if that seems a little far-fetched, another theory is that kids act out the sexual abuse they themselves receive at home. That would make sense, except that experts say that a lot of young kids who act out sexually nowadays really aren’t the victims of abuse. Paul Tamiseiea, director of Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault in Kansas City, says:

“I’ve been with MOCSA for 17 years. When I first started out, the natural, logical assumption was that kids who acted out sexually were likely to have been victims themselves … but you can’t make that blanket assumption anymore. We’ve dealt with kids acting out and saying they saw it in Dad’s porn.”
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14549589.htm

http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=258

More from "Sex assaults by children set off experts’ alarms":

They even have a term: sexually reactive behavior.

“The fact that a group of kids would get together and sexually assault another child — that is alarming, but it is happening more,” said Joseph Beck, director of therapy services at Spofford Home, a Kansas City nonprofit that treats young children with severe emotional problems.

....But experts now worry about some children “acting out” because of the proliferation of sexuality on the Internet and in graphic video games, on cable TV and in their parents’ stash of explicit DVDs.

“Things are getting crazy. How’s that for a psychological assessment?” said Paul Tamisiea, director of treatment and intervention services at the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault in Kansas City.

Others recommend that parents –– besides talking to their children about good touching and bad touching –– monitor their time on the Internet, in front of the TV and at the video game console. The more exposure to sexual violence, many believe, the less apt children are to view it as abnormal.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/14549589.htm

[the other one]

1. I blame porn. Actually, I don't.

Um, every boy I grew up with had an intimate knowledge of porn by the time they were ten years old. Interestingly, not one of them ever committed rape.

So, does porn create sexuality, or does sexuality create an appetite for porn?

[bloom]

3. Some porn is more problematic

than others.

Some would "teach" gang rape for instance - some would not.

Like the article said - some of the boys just come out and say that they saw this in their dad's porn. The idea is that rape is being seen as something that is normalized through multiple exposures.

I also don't think the argument that "well - it didn't cause ME to do anything" is valid.

[Katherine Brengle]

31. Remind me again what sexuality has to do with rape?

Last time I checked, rape/sexual assault was an act of violence which uses sex organs as a weapon.

Using sex organs as a weapon has nothing to do with sexuality.

[Warpy]

2. Someone back in the early 70s did a study of children

in some of the more freewheeling 60s communes and found that sex play started by the age of five with penetration of some description happening at the age of eight or so for both sexes. I don't have the journal now, just relying on failing memory, sorry.

Certainly the depiction of females as prey in everything from soap commercials to sitcoms is one of the messages these pint sized rapists have internalized, I just don't think porn is the culprit. I think the larger culture may be.

In cultures were females are respected, rape is statistically negligible. We certainly don't live in such a culture.

[bloom]

5. I am sure that there are multiple causes

But - from the people working in the field who see that there is a large increase in this type of behavior - and the kid's themselves mentioning porn - I think it's a problem that parents, esp. should be concerned about.

It might be one of those things too, where the parent of a child might never have any porn around, monitor the movies, etc. (think they are being conscientious and all) - but their kids see it at their friend's house.

[MindPilot]

8. I have only my own experience to apply.

Looking back on my own childhood, I engaged in some pretty weird sex play in that age bracket and it all came from my own brain. I had no outside sexual influence at all. It was a very strict, straight up classic fifties home life complete with lots of church. My mother hated anything to do with sex; sometimes even the squeaky-clean TV of the time was off-limits at our house. I was well into my teens before I was allowed to have a girlfriend, and my sex education was strictly clinical.

From a cultural standpoint, you've got consider that men are always operating in a Madonna/whore environment. We are given this idea that many if not all women harbor some kind of rape fantasy; they want to be "taken". We men see this idea in much of the media directed at women like soap operas, romance novels and magazines. (This month in Cosmo: 10 Yummy Ways to Make Him WANT you!)

I'd put the blame on those glossies at the checkout before Dad's porn.

[bloom]

11. While

I don't think that it helps anything to have the nonsense directed at women also - I don't think that that is what is "inspiring" the boys to rape. It's generally not as graphic for one thing - leaves more to the imagination - of people who know what they are expected to imagine.

And it's the boys themselves who are saying that it's Dad's porn where they got the idea.

[Warpy]

16. That was rather my point, that the larger culture depicts

men as predators and women as prey. THAT is the problem, not straight out erotica.

It has nothing to do with madonna/whore or silly guesses at rape fantasies (hint: the WOMAN is in control in those fantasies, guys). It has everything to do with patriarchal entitlement and female devaluation.

[mongo]

24. The predator/prey dynamic

in (new) sexual relations goes way beyond our culture, and into our psyches and basic drives.

Changing our culture may make overt expressions of this dynamic more subtle, hidden and less socially acceptable, but it won't make it go away.

[MindPilot]

4. I'm sure this stuff was going on long before DVDs

People haven't changed that much in the past few decades. I believe it's more a matter that these kinds of things used to be dealt with privately; now an incident occurs it is instantly reported, packaged, and proffered out to the instantaneous media.

[bloom]

6. I'm sure there has been porn

out there for decades - but not as much - not as accessible.

And it's the experts working with kids who are the ones seeing an increase - not just that the stories are making the news.

[Karmakaze]

7. Are these the same experts....

who were warning us of the proliferation of satanic ritual abuse not so long ago?

[MindPilot]

9. Yep, that one is always in the back of my mind too.

Is this the latest thing that's going to be the ruination of our youth?

When I was a kid, it was comic books. And of course TV, Rock & Roll, and reefer.

[Orrex]

19. And look what happened to you!

You turned into a Leftist! What greater proof of the ills of rock-n-reefer do you need?

[bloom]

10. I can see that a lot of people

don't want to take it seriously. Too close to home?

Does this sound like an extremist? I don't think so.


"Paul Tamisiea, director of treatment and intervention services at the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault in Kansas City." Who said:

“I’ve been with MOCSA for 17 years. When I first started out, the natural, logical assumption was that kids who acted out sexually were likely to have been victims themselves … but you can’t make that blanket assumption anymore. We’ve dealt with kids acting out and saying they saw it in Dad’s porn.”

[Karmakaze]

20. Actually...

in a way, yes it does sound like an extremist. Why? Because extremists make assumptions and act like they are TRUTH. Some kid says he saw something in porn and did it - well porn must turn kids into molestors! Its a "natural, logical assumption". Of course Lots of kids see the exact same kind of porn and are NOT turned into molestors. But that is conveniently ignored in the race to find a culprit.

The fact is, some kids are just bad. They know something is wrong and do it anyway because it makes them feel good. Not because of porn, not because they were abused, but because they WANT TO.

[MindPilot]

12. Right, but there also more experts out there and they are more involved

As I mentioned these kinds of incidents would've been handled privately, probably between parents. No police, no counselors, maybe a teacher or assistant principal who under no reporting requirement would just let the parents deal with it.

I remember a segment of COPS where the police were called because a young boy had "touched" a girl slightly younger. From my childhood, I couldn't imagine the police being called for something like that.

I have my doubts if the number of occurrences have increased as much as the number of reports and the people to report them to have.

[bloom]

14. I suppose I am mostly comparing

to my own days at recess - at that age.

Boys and girls chased each other. Nobody was getting assaulted that I ever knew of.

Teachers are also seeing an increase. That wouldn't account for there being more experts. And there may be more experts - BECAUSE there is an increase.

"Teachers are hardly blind to the problem. In Kansas City, for example, at least one grade school recently ruled that pupils could no longer go to restrooms unattended after some children were discovered in bathrooms acting out sexually and, in some cases, forcibly."

[Karmakaze]

21. Not to mention the overblown cases...

such as children being accused of sexual harrasement because they tried to kiss someone. What used to be considered a natural sign of affection is now considered a sign of deviant sexual behaviour.

If ANYONE or ANYTHING is turning kids into molestors, it is the "experts" who reclassify natural behaviour of children into some sort of sign of sexual abuse or sexual deviancy.

Sometimes, a kiss is just a kiss, not rape in the making.

Interestingly, I must say I have never heard of a little GIRL being accused of sexual harrasment because they tried to kiss someone. Its seems only BOYS can be "sexual deviants" at a young age.

[lukasahero]

22. Anecdotally, I can offer you your scenario that you have "never heard of"

A young girl on my nephew's school bus tried to kiss him and she was reprimanded - justifiably so. She made him uncomfortable and he was becoming afraid to go to school on the bus because of her. She was punished.

[Karmakaze]

26. Ok, I stand corrected.

BUT was she accused of sexual harrassment?

[lukasahero]

27. Yes.

[Karmakaze]

28. It's good to know the authorities...

are fair, even if the media is not.

I still stand by the rest of my post though. :)

[boobooday]

13. I can testify to this

Literally.

[mongo]

15. If it's all porn's fault

They why has sexual assault decreased (in adults) as porn has become more mainstreme?

Feminists for Free Expression counter the argument that pornography promotes violence against women by stating that, "Studies in the U.S., Europe and Asia find no link between the availability of sexual material and sex crimes. The only factor linked to rape rate is the number of young men living in a given area. When pornography became widely available in Europe, sexually violent crimes decreased or remained the same. Japan, with far more violent pornography than the U.S., has 2.4 rapes per 100,000 people compared with the U.S. 34.5 per 100,000". People who say that porn is responsible for the many violent attacks that take place on women every year are probably the same people who claim that rock music makes kids shoot their classmates. There are evil people in this world who are going to do these things whether or not porn exists and, in this modern 'blame culture' of ours, some people are just determined to find someone or something to take the flak for it.

------------------------------------------
What if you went looking for the harmful effects of the very worst kinds of pornography -- and they weren't there?

That's what happened to Canada Customs when it paid researchers to study customs officials who spend up to 15 hours a week reading and viewing material that goes well beyond erotica or even so-called hard-core porn.

Noted the researchers: "Their work most often focuses on materials of an extreme nature which deal with clearly unacceptable sexual activities such as incest, children in a sexual context, necrophilia, bestiality, and sex involving violence, bondage and degradation." Their study of 90 officers found:

* repeated exposure to such graphic pornography had little or no measurable harmful effect on the officers, 40 per cent of whom were female.

* only half of the customs officers who regularly review graphic pornographic books, magazines and films support banning sexual materials featuring violence and degradation -- the current Canadian law.

* one in six of the customs officers use pornography in their private lives; nearly half have in the past.

---------------------------------------------------------

Of course, if porn really is such a danger to society, the effort might be worth it. The problem is, the research doesn’t support the worry. And if recent studies by Danish psychologist Gert Martin Hald of the University of Aarhus stand up, it’s not likely to.

Hald recently conducted a yet-to-be-published study on the usage of porn by men and women in Denmark that showed porn has become a part of the sexual lives of most people.

In a representative sampling of 688 young people aged 18 to 30, he found that 98 percent of men and 80 percent of women had viewed porn. About half of those women used it at least once per month. Men used it much more often. About 38 percent of men used it three times per week or more, which makes you wonder what these guys do for a living.

We’re not talking Playboy, either. Hald didn’t count such images as pornography. For the purposes of the study, porn included “any kind of material which aims to create or enhance sexual feelings or thoughts in the recipient and, at the same time, (a) contains explicit exposure and/or descriptions of the genitals and (b) clear and explicit sexual acts such as vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, oral sex, masturbation, bondage, sadomasochism, rape..." (Interestingly, this is pretty close to the definition used in many obscenity statutes.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The "Danish experience" is often held up as good example.

In 1969 Denmark lifted all restrictions on pornography, and sex crimes declined. For example, between 1965 and 1982 sex crimes against children went from 30 per 100,000 to about 5 per 100,000. Similar evidence was found for rape rates.

----------------------------------------------------------------

[bloom]

17. Hald:

"But it didn't, of course, and some lab studies did show that exposure to especially violent or degrading porn beefed up male aggressiveness toward women, though a link with actual crime was tough to prove.

But Hald...says, “I strongly believe social context norms are factors influencing the effects of pornography and consumption rates.”

_____

So that really isn't proving your point. He may be suggesting the porn is part of the larger society - which I agree with. That doesn't mean it doesn't contribute to the rape culture - or that it doesn't become instruction videos for little boys.

[Orrex]

18. A question

Is it possible that, in addition to the rising visibility of porn in our culture, some other offsetting factor has diminished? That is, how independent is the rise of porn as an influence on child behavior? Is there an economic/geographic component that might aggravate the absorption of violent pornography?

To me, the issue isn't just "I viewed porn as a kid and yet didn't rape anyone" but rather "why do two children, exposed to the same pornography, demonstrate such drastically different behavior thereafter?" Porn in a vacuum seems insufficient to explain it, though it strikes me as a likely contributor to the problem.

In addition, I can't help feeling that this breed of sexual assault is a spectrum phenomenon, and though all sex assaults are assaults, they are not of equal intensity (just as "regular" assault can mean putting your hand on someone's shoulder or kicking their teeth down their throat).

My workplace filters won't readily condone an intensive search for details on the case in question--does anyone know the nature of the assault? I'm not asking for specifics, but was it verbal, physical, etc.?

[bloom]

23. News story account:

St. Louis schoolboys to be charged in sex assault
Wed May 10, 1:12 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A dozen schoolboys aged 6 to 8 years old will be charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a female classmate during recess and a teacher who was supposed to be supervising them has been fired, authorities said on Wednesday.

In the Friday incident, the boys surrounded the 8-year-old girl on the school playground and poked at her with their fingers while she fought to keep on her underwear, local media reports said. Another student alerted teachers.

Most of the boys involved were expelled and the girl removed from the 400-pupil school, Columbia Accelerated Community Educational Center. One teacher was fired and another was suspended, the school district superintendent said.

Police referred charges of sexual misconduct and assault against the boys, and prosecutors could bring additional charges, said Kathryn Herman, an administrator with the juvenile division of the St. Louis court system.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060510/ts_nm/crime_school_dc

---

I think a lot of these cases do NOT make the media. I know of a similar case to a little girl that I know and the police didn't want to get involved. The mother wanted to take it to the media - because the school wasn't doing anything. I don't think she did though. So it makes sense to me that it's the therapists and teachers who would have more of a clue about any increase in this sort of thing.

TO your question - I'm sure there are various factors - but it's my impression that porn is quite widespread and available independent of economic/geographic components - and that with the internet, videos and such has become quite a bit more widespread in the past 10 or so years.

If anything - I would bet that it's the wealthier type of schools, etc. that are MORE likely to cover up and hide such things - wouldn't want to hurt their image or anything.

[mongo]

25. Maybe you can consider the real statistics and science

This is from a long article about a proposed law in the UK last year.

<snip from middle of article>

For example the eminent Berl Kutchinsky who is a Professor of Criminology at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Science at the University of Copenhagen said in the conclusion of his report based on his research of the subject: “ The aggregate data on rape and other violent or sexual offences from four countries where pornography, including aggressive varieties, has become widely and easily available during the period we have dealt with would seem to exclude, beyond any reasonable doubt, that this availability has had any detrimental effects in the form of increased sexual violence.” (http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/proceedings/14/kutchinsky.pd) It’s interesting to note that Professor Kutchinsky is continually updating his research and every year the figures confirm his previous research.

Other research goes further saying that pornography can have beneficial effects on society like that undertaken by Milton Diamond of the University of Hawaii - Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Reproductive Biology, Pacific Center for Sex and Society in Honolulu and Ayako Uchiyama from the National Research Institute of Police Science Juvenile Crime Study Section 6, Sanban-cho, Chiyoda-ku in Tokyo (published in 1999) who concluded that “ In sum, the concern that countries allowing pornography would show increased sex crime rates due to modeling or that adolescents in particular would be negatively vulnerable to and receptive to such models or the society would be otherwise adversely effected has not been vindicated. It is certainly clear from our data and analysis that a massive increase in available pornography in Japan has been correlated with a dramatic decrease in sexual crimes and most so among youngsters as perpetrators or victims.” (http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/pornography/prngrphy_rape_jp.html)

<snip>

Am I the only one that is getting the message here that porn isn’t quite the demon its made out to be ? To be fair we must look at the opposing view and for that there is none better than the world renowned Dr Victor Cline. Dr Cline’s research was undertaken amongst a group of sex offenders and attempted to prove the link between pornography and their offences. It is noteworthy that he is a fund raiser and cheerleader for the Lighted Candle Society, a right wing religious censorship group that is trying to prove that pornography is addictive by using MRI scanners. He is also an active member and missionary for the Church of the Latter Days Saints (Mormons) and is active on their censorship committee. Some of his work may be seen online at http://www.ldsr.org/info/drcline.phtml. His view is that anyone who masturbates is a ‘sexual deviant’. And he further notes that even ‘frequent reading of the scriptures’ cannot cure this deviancy. His most fervent acolyte in the UK is Lord David Alton who frequently quotes his work when discussing the banning of all porn (something he is fervently in favour of – he once organized a survey amongst a group of evangelical Christian women about their views on porn then tried to pass the results off as representing the views of a general cross section of society, the scallywag) and so we can be assured of Dr. Cline’s professional credentials and unbiased viewpoint as Lord Alton is rightly famed for his due diligence and open mind.

<snip>

The acid test of course is the international crime figures which will give an indication of how the countries that take a rather frigid attitude towards adult material (i.e. the English- speaking ones) and those where they are more laid back approach (the rest of the free world) fair vis a vis each other. Well, the available international data on sexual crimes shows unequivocally that countries where pornography is legal show a marked decrease in sexual assaults, whereas in the most censorious regimes the number of sexual assaults is increasing dramatically. For example in the US the FBI crime figures showed a steady year on year increase until 1996 when the Supreme Court made their landmark ruling on freedom of expression at which point they down turned sharply and stayed down, that is until the FBI backed by the Christian right got in on the act and started to crack down, at which point they started to increase again (The USA is now back on top in the international league tables – you see Landslide was a success after all - America always has to come first in everything, as over 1% of their citizens can testify to after being attacked last year, and Landslide inevitably played its part in this meteoric rise back to the top). In the UK incidents of serious sexual assault show a depressing year on year increase of 4.3% and were standing at 8,593 (in the year 2000) or 1.4 per 1,000 people, which puts us in 6th place in the international league table (in 2005 up from 11th in 2000) and we top the table in Europe (a position we’ve held for many years). The countries with the most relaxed regulation regarding pornography on the other hand show lower incidents: Germany was 7,499 (0.9/1000), Netherlands 1,648 ((less than1/1000) and Denmark 497 (less than1/1000). Contrast those with Australia 15,630 (7.9/1000) and Canada 24,049 (7.4/1000) who are, of course, proud members of that club of censorious nations. In fact our dynamic grand coalition takes nearly all of the top 10 slots.

more http://www.inquisition21.com/article132.html
Worth the time if you are more interested in the science than making broad accusations based on ancedotal evidence, and can read "a bunch of studies done by men".

[bloom]

30. "Does Pornography Affect Attitudes, Values, and Behaviors?"

It would be unethical to do a study of the effect of porn on children.

Probably criminal.

Don't expect one will be done.

The effect of porn on children is the issue with THIS story.

-----------------------------

Meanwhile:

http://www.enough.org/sharks.htm

Does Pornography Affect Attitudes, Values, and Behaviors?


Regular users of pornography are more likely to think of women in stereotype, (1) as "socially non-discriminating, as hysterically euphoric in response to just about any sexual or pseudosexual stimulation, and as eager to accommodate seemingly any and every sexual request." (2)

Regular users of pornography are more likely to have sexually callous attitudes and accept the rape myth (that when a woman says "no," she means "yes.") (3)

Regular users of pornography have increasingly hostile and aggressive sexual fantasies. (4)

Regular users of pornography are less likely to convict for a rape, and less likely to give a harsh sentence to a rapist if in fact convicted. (5)

Conversely, individuals who do not use pornography are more likely to convict an accused rapist. (6)

Areas with pornography outlets and sexually oriented businesses experience significantly higher sexual offenses and property crimes than areas without such businesses. (7)

Some "adult" bookstores derive significant income from peep show booths, some with "glory holes" to provide anonymous sexual encounters. According to Dr. Stephen Joseph, former Health Commissioner of New York City, "The proprietors are essentially operating an AIDS breeding ground, with profit being the driving force." (8)

Clinical research shows that pornographic images create chemically encoded messages on the brain that can remain through adulthood. Human memory is formed in part by the release of the chemical epinephrine which, upon emotional arousal, leaves behind an imprint on the brain. (9)

Advertisers know how compelling images are, especially to children, and spend billions of dollars each year to influence individual decisions. Images affect attitudes and thinking, and images affect behavior and choices. Are people susceptible to advertising, but immune to pornography?



1 Allan, K., & Coltrane, S. (1996). Gender displaying television commercials: A comparative study of television commercials in the 1950s and 1980s. Sex roles, 35 (3/4), 185-203.

2 Zillman, D., & Bryant, J. (1984). Effects of massive exposure to pornography. In N. M. Malamuth, & E. Donnerstein (Eds), Pornography and Sexual Aggression (pp. 115-142). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

3 Allen, M., Emmers, T., Gebhardt, L., & Giery, M.A. (1995). Exposure to pornography and acceptance of rape myths. Journal of Communication, 45 (1), 5-26; Saunders, R.M., & Naus, P.J. (1993). The impact of social content and audience factors on responses to sexually explicit videos. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 19 (2), 117-131.

4 Malamuth & McIlwraith (1988). Fantasies and exposure to sexually explicit magazines. Communication Research, 15 (6), 753-771.

5 Garcia, L.T. (1986). Exposures to pornography and attitude about women and rape: A correlative study. AG 22 (1853) 382-383.

6 Zillman & Bryant, (1984). Effects of massive exposure to pornography. In N.M. Malamuth, & E. Donnerstein (Eds), Pornography and Sexual Aggression (pp. 115-142). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

7 National Law Center for Children and Families (1997). NLC summary of "SOB land use" studies.

8 New York Times, 1988.

9 McGaugh, J.L. (1983, February). Preserving the presence of the past. American Psychologist, 161.

[mongo]

33. Don't have time today to go look up and post

links to pages that discredit much of the info above. So I will leave this link for anyone that wants to see both sides of the story.

http://libertus.net/censor/fallacies.html

But wow -- your sources. A study of TV commercials in the 50's & 80's?

Zillman and Donnerstein - same old discredited studies that bear little resemblance to real life.

And secondary effects? A study in Charlotte, NC showed that a McDonalds "caused" more crime than a SOB in a similar economic area. Let's also remember that in most places SOB's are confined to bad, high crime neighborhoods.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

34. I'm with Mongo.

I don't have the time to get the links to discredit you, but as someone who personally knows people (male & female) in the porn industry, I have to say.

They respect women, believe rape is a heinous crime and as for whatever their fantasies may be (I don't know what they are)...

A fantasy is a fantasy. Just because someone has a sexual fantasy that is completely out of societal norms, does not mean they will act on it, and if they do choose to act on it, for every kink/fetish, there's probably someone else out there into it. Hostile/aggressive sexual fantasy? There is nothing wrong with that. There are adults out there to act it out with in a safe, sane and consensual manner.

[bloom]

29. "PORNOGRAPHY AS A CAUSE OF RAPE"

http://www.dianarussell.com/porntoc.html

by Diana E.H. Russell, PhD.

This version of "Pornography As a Cause of Rape" has been excerpted from my book, Against Pornography: The Evidence of Harm (Berkeley, California: Russell Publications, 1994). In addition to the material in this essay, this book includes over a hundred examples of pornographic pictures, each of which is accompanied by my analysis of the sexism and misogyny revealed in the photograph.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What is pornography?

Inconsistencies in definitions

The content of pornography

The circulation of major pornography magazines

Pornography as violence against women

Males' propensity to rape

A theory about the causative role of pornography

The meaning of "cause"

I. The role of pornography in predisposing some males to want to rape

II. The role of pornography in undermining some males' internal inhibitions against acting out the desire to rape

III. The role of pornography in undermining some males' social inhibitions

IV. The role of pornography in undermining potential victims' abilities to avoid or resist rape

Further empirical findings on the causative role of pornography in rape

[mongo]

32. Correlation does not equal causation

"There is a correlation in Germany between the decline of the stork population and the falling human birth rate. That does not prove that storks bring babies."