Australian Article on Porn and the Internet

The following article comes to us from Australia. It opens with the story of the sentencing of a 20-year old man for a horrific rape committed after consuming massive amounts of violent pornography, once again reinforcing the causal connection argued by many feminists between pornography consumption and violence against women. It also discusses the popularity of pornography amongst Australia's youth--and I surmise that the rate here in Canada would not be too far off in either direction--finding that nearly 2 in 5 Australian males ages 16 and 17 consume pornography, accounting 95% of teen pornography use. It then concludes with a look at the mainstreaming of pornography, and how people are allowing porn to filter into their lives, affecting their outlooks and nudging them to perform acts that they would not otherwise know about or want to do. It is an excllent read, one which will hopefully generate a lot of discussion not only in Australia, but in all circles where it is read.

The Internet and the Rise of Porn
Maree Crabbe and David Corlett
January 3, 2008

ON THE Thursday before Christmas, a judge sentenced a Melbourne man convicted of raping a woman to 11 years' jail. The judge, Damian Murphy, said the perpetrator, Andrew Bowen, 20, had used the internet to access hardcore pornography and to learn how to avoid leaving evidence at a rape scene. Judge Murphy said Bowen had "sought to depict a (sexual) fantasy" seen in downloaded material from the internet.
Bowen stalked his victim before he broke into her house, tied her hands together and repeatedly raped her.
The case highlights the link between pornography and violent attitudes and behaviour towards women.
Pornography is not new, but the development of the internet has contributed to a marked shift towards more extreme and more violent sexual imagery. Materials that would not pass Australia's film and television classification system are freely available — to young and old — on the internet.
Images of rape, coercion and abuse are commonplace. Even when the acts portrayed are not so abusive, the images are degrading and humiliating. The vast majority of portrayals are of men doing things to women for men's indulgence.
These are more than just pictures on a screen. They are images that are ripe with meanings about men and women, what they like and about how they ought to treat each other. They are images that impact on the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours of those viewing them.
Research suggests a clear link between exposure to or consumption of pornography and male sexual aggression against women. This connection is strongest when the imagery is violent. But it is also relevant to non-violent pornography, particularly for frequent users. Exposure to sexually violent material increases male viewers' tolerance of sexual violence and reduces their empathy for victims of violence, including rape.

MUST-READ Article on Porn and Rape

For those not intimately familiar with the Internet's wide collection of truly amazing anti-porn and anti-violence against women feminists, there is one name that you should all know. Her name is Biting Beaver. Hers was the first feminist blog I read, one that I enjoyed for many months until one day she stopped writing. The reason? A number of men began threatening and harrassing her, making death threats and stalking her, after she went through a hellacious ordeal to obtain an emergency contraceptive--an ordeal made so hellacious because several doctors in her region refused to fill her prescription. You read that right. There are still many places in the United States in which a doctor/pharmacist has the right to refuse to fill out a prescription based on religious or self-imposed ethical beliefs. Not coincidentally, I've never heard of a pharmacist refusing to fill a Viagra prescription, or one for eyedrops. If anybody doubts the extent to which abortion is a major issue in American politics--and BB's was not even a genuine case of abortion--this story and many others like it should erase those doubts.
Yet BB's writing lives on. The following is an excerpt from an amazing essay written on the subject of pornography and its intimate connection to violence against women. The full essay can be read here. It is, as the title suggest, must read material.

It confuses me that someone can place so much value on a titillating picture. That a living, breathing human being who is part of the same race as I am, the race of humankind, can so completely ignore the screams of the innocent for something as mundane as an orgasm. It falls beyond my capability to understand, I ask my partner all the time, "How? How can they know the numbers, how can they know the abuses and continue to watch? Continue to go to their favorite website, or eagerly rip open that new copy of Penthouse knowing that THAT publication has used children. Has photographed the RAPE of children? How?" And my voice cracks and my eyes grow cloudy as my mind seeks to grasp the mechanism by which they rationalize it.
It also occurs to me that, in these people, these people who continue to watch Pornography even after knowing the statistics there is a more insidious implication there. Something that is grotesque in its honesty.
In believing that there are Acceptable Losses in the making of Pornography (and they do believe it, they prove it each and every time they look at it) they are also, by default, saying that rape is also acceptable. How? Why? It's simple. Nobody denies that there are honest to goodness sex slaves that are used to make pornography. They may dance and say that it's not in their porn, they may build walls and insist that THEY don't fuel a demand for pornography when they look at it, but they won't deny that it exists. Even they can't deny this fact. In accepting the idea of sex-slavery in pornography they have accepted the idea of rape in Pornography. When they acknowledge that a 15 year old child starred in 77 movies by well known Pornographers they are admitting that there is rape involved on some level in the making of mainstream porn. And Tracy Lords' porn WAS mainstream porn. A 15 year old child is unable to legally consent to sex, therefore, it's rape.

Porn Shown in Halifax Bar Directly Leads to Sexual Harrassment

The story below, which appears in today's Chronicle-Herald, goes a long way in demonstrating the immediacy of the negative effects that porn can have on men when it comes to their treatment of women. A study conducted in the 1980s by Dr. Diana Russell was the first major research conducted into the causal relationship between male pornography consumption and violence against women. You can read the results of that study here.

Woman ‘disgusted’ by porn on bar TV
Cheers regular says couple of male patrons tried to force her to watch
By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter
Mon. Dec 31 - 5:36 AM

A 24-year-old Halifax woman says she felt sexually harassed when male patrons of Cheers Bar and Grill tried to force her to watch pornography on one of the bar’s television screens early Saturday morning.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she’s a regular at the Grafton Street establishment.
"Around 2 a.m., they thought it would be a good idea to put porn on the television," she said.
"I saw a crowd of people around the TV screaming. I went over to talk to one of my friends and this guy, who I didn’t even know, grabs me and tried to force me to watch it. When I was disgusted, he started saying really vulgar things to me. It was pretty bad sexual harassment that ensued because of the porn that was on TV."
The woman said she tried turning her back to the screen, which was showing a man and a woman having sex.
"One guy, who was very into it, grabbed my shoulders to turn me around."
The woman said she told the man he was acting inappropriately, but he didn’t stop. So she decided to get out of Cheers.
"But even as I decided to leave the bar, on my way out two other guys grabbed me and tried to force me to watch it, too."

The story clearly highlights that pornography results in forms of violence against women. Sexual and physical harrassment is completely unacceptable, and those who were responsible for the porn being shown on the bar's TV and those responsible for ensuring the personal security of patrons should be held accountable. I would encourage readers to lodge a complaint with Cheers and let them know that their actions were unacceptable and that they have contributed to the problem of violence against women.