CANDY, CANDY, CANDY...Children like their candy. They don't realize that it can rot their teeth, produce hyperactivity and sometimes over time transform them into the personification of Jaba the Hut...of course, when they are told about the dangers of candy...they don't care. They pout and stomp their feet because, hey, candy tastes pretty good.In a widely cited experiment, Zillmann and Bryant explored the consequences of continued exposure to pornography on beliefs about sexuality in general and on dispositions towards women In this experiment, 80 male and 80 female participants were randomly selected into one of four conditions. In the massive exposure group, participants watched 36 erotic films (roughly 5 hours of film) over a six week period. In the intermediate exposure group, participants saw 18 erotic films and 18 non-erotic films. The no exposure group saw 36 non-erotic films, and finally there was a control. All pornographic films shown were deemed nonviolent. After exposure, participants were introduced to a rape case and asked to recommend a prison sentence for the offense. Participants were also asked to indicate their support for the female liberation movement on a 0 (no support) to 100 (maximum support) scale.
The massive exposure group was found to have recommended significantly shorter prison terms for the rape case than all other groups. This was the case among both men and women. From this, Zillmann and Bryant conclude that "such exposure, it seems, made rape appear a trivial offense." The massive exposure group was also found to be significantly less supportive of the women's liberation movement.In the Donnerstein and Linz desensitization study mentioned earlier, participants attitudes towards rape were also measured. After exposure, participants saw a documentary reenactment of a real rape trial, and were then asked to asses the female victim. Participants who had seen the R-rated slasher films found the victim to be more responsible for being raped, more worthless, and her injury less severe. Results were largely the same for participants who had seem the X-rated violent films. However, unlike Zillmann and Bryant's finding, participants exposed to nonviolent pornography showed no effects.Two other studies done by Malamuth and Check explored the relationship between pornographic rape stories and attitudes about rape in general. In both studies, male participants were randomly assigned to listen to short stories about a victim aroused by being raped, a victim abhorred by the rape, and a mutually desired sex story. In the first study, results showed that those men exposed to the aroused rape story believed that the woman had experienced less trauma than those in the other conditions. In the second study, results found that men who heard the aroused rape story were significantly more likely to believe that women enjoy rape.Related to the idea of arousal is the idea that exposure to pornography leads men to greater levels of aggression towards women. Bandura (1973) hypothesized that emotional arousal would intensify aggressive behavior. A number of experimental studies have tested this hypothesis.Results found that nonangered males who viewed the positive-aggressive film increased their aggression against the female. Among angered males, both the aggressive-positive and aggressive-negative films produced an increase in aggression towards the female instigator. From this, Donnerstein and Berkowitz conclude "that aggressive pornography can directly influence aggression against women (cited in Malamuth and Donnerstein)."Using a similar design, Donnerstein attempted to gauge the effect of aggressive pornography relative to non-pornographic aggressive material. Male subjects were first angered or treated neutral by a female accomplice, and were then assigned to watch one of three films; aggressive pornography (similar in content to those used in previous studies), aggressive non-pornography (woman is tied up but no nudity or sex), and finally a consensual sex film.Results found that the combination of angered subject and aggressive pornography produced the highest aggression levels. Significantly, the study also found that the aggressive non pornographic film produced higher levels of aggression than did the purely sexual film. This leads Donnerstein to again conclude that violent pornography is related to aggression against women, but that this may be a factor of the violence in the film, not its sexual content: "Again we see that aggressive pornography is a strong contributor to violence against women. The main factors in this aggressive facilitation, however, seems to be the aggressive nature of the film (Malamuth and Donnerstein, 1984)Closely related to the desensitization studies, are experiments attempting to see if exposure to pornography leads to antisocial attitudes about women. These studies can be classified into two types, those looking at nonviolent pornography and those looking at violent pornography.There are some more interesting topics posted on a group site that I'm a moderator of called: http://groups.myspace.com/pornification If you have the gumption to find contradictory evidence for my posting etc. feel free to post it...I'm an open minded guy.So who am I....I could put up a bunch of flowery crap and try to appease everyone's interest, but I won't. I'm in my 30s (well I'm 30). I'm politically incorrect. I love the USA however, I believe the U.S.A is becoming something our forefathers never intended it to be. More and more I see Americans becoming self-centered, self-indulgent, undisciplined, apathetic, rude and immoral. I believe that women should be respected, cared for, loved and not viewed as sexual objects. I believe that men should 'MAN UP' and be lead by honor, integrity and virtue, not their penises. I believe that just because it feels good you don't necessarily need to do it. I believe that people should be self controlled and not lead by their emotions. Our emotions often lie. I believe everyone should be loved, EVERYONE...This includes everyone from pastors to pornstars, prostitutes to politicians, murderers to moviestars. I believe that we should realize that there is a bigger picture. There is more to life than what we see on the surface.
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V3.6 !
