Posted on 12/09/2004 1:16:14 PM PST by Lindykim
Pornography is Anything But a 'Victimless Crime' 12/8/2004 By Cheri Pierson Yecke How many more expert studies do we need to convince ourselves of this fact?
Jud Fry -- one of the characters in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! lives in a shack that is papered with pornographic images. He is a loner, lacks social skills, and is feared by his neighbors. He is clearly capable of murder. This insight into the character of a porn addict hit the Broadway stage in 1943.
Fast forward to 2004. A sexual assault and several attempted abductions of girls in the St. Paul, Minnesota, area are allegedly the work of 19-year-old Ryan Mely, who has been charged (for starters) with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He apparently was a loner who was feared by his neighbors. Jud Fry is a fictitious character who bought his porn from an itinerant peddler. How did Ryan Mely get his start? Apparently, pornography was a family pastime. While some dads bond with their kids by fishing or playing hockey together, it appears that Mely and his father (a convicted sex offender) shared an interest in pornography. It was reported that sexually explicit material was found at the family home and on their computer.
Is anyone really surprised that pornography is involved here? It has been 60 years since a Broadway musical portrayed what social scientists and criminal analysis have now found to be true -- addiction to pornography can lead to violent sexual behavior. Dr. Victor Cline, a clinical psychologist and expert on sexual addictions, has identified four stages of progression among his patients.
The first stage is addiction, where the attraction to porn is overpowering and the viewer keeps craving more. The next stage is an escalation to more shocking and deviant images, as the earlier ones have lost their power to stimulate. Third is desensitization, where anything earlier seen as disturbing and repulsive becomes viewed as commonplace. Finally, satisfaction cannot be reached unless the perpetrator begins acting out the activities witnessed in the pornography. In effect, fantasy must become reality.
The events in which Mely was allegedly involved appear to follow this pattern. Perhaps the same is true for Alfonso Rodriguez, the man who allegedly abducted and murdered Dru Sjodin. Rodriguez apparently had an infatuation with Dru, who worked at Victoria's Secret, an upscale lingerie shop. On several occasions he allegedly called the store where she worked, asking for her by name.
Victoria's Secret is well known for its racy, soft-porn "fashion show" where voluptuous young models strut the runways in revealing lingerie. The liberal National Organization for Women called it "exploitative" and the conservative Concerned Women for America condemned it as a "high-tech striptease." Regularly protested by both sides of the political spectrum, the company announced in April that it will no longer air this event
The last Victoria's Secret "fashion show" aired on network television November 19, 2003. Dru was abducted three days later. Could it be that Alfonso Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, watched the show and was propelled into Dr. Cline's fourth stage of sexual deviance? This is a question his judge and jury may consider.
In an interview the night before his 1989 execution, serial killer Ted Bundy revealed the influence of pornography on his life.
A case study for Cline's four stages of addiction, Bundy started his descent into sexual deviance and murder with magazines he found in the neighbor's trash. His addiction escalated until he felt compelled to act out his desires in more than 30 murders that were accompanied with violent sexual acts.
He warned Americans: "There are those loose in [your] towns and communities, like me, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled, day in and day out, by violence in the media, in its various forms -- particularly sexualized violence ... . There are lots of other kids playing in the streets around the country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, because other young people are reading and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today."
Abundant evidence has demonstrated the tragic impact of pornography. How many more expert studies do we need to convince ourselves of this fact? The elections of 2004 have sent politicians the message that morals matter, so now is the time to focus on the impact of pornography -- the so-called "victimless crime."
Cheri Pierson Yecke is a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Education and Social Policy at the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative think tank in Minneapolis. She is a former Minnesota commissioner of education and is author of The War Against Excellence. This article first appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Used with permission.
Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 E-mail: mail@cwfa.org
LOL!
You're beginning to sound like a kook. All I did was post USDOJ crime figures and divorce stats to counter false claims by social scientists.
As another poster used to say, "Pesky facts."
Kook?
Hmmm.
You're beginning to sound like you just do not want to connect the dots. Maybe it does not serve your agenda in continuing to have unfettered access to your 'stuff'.
Pesky facts? Your posts did nothing to undo what I am saying--in fact, I took it to the next connection....ie, less marriages, women deciding to have childen sans the man, teen suicide etc. Cultural breakdown.
What about all this?
I can dig up the stats but they are so well known, is it necessary?
I notice you mostly ignore the tough questions in my posts anyway--so I guess calling me a kook is your final coup?
Rather weak.
You're the one who's been offering detailed and graphic descriptions of the most depraved sorts of things, right?
less marriages, women deciding to have childen sans the man, teen suicide etc. Cultural breakdown. What about all this?
Well, if you're asking for my opinion on the root cause, I'd say much of the blame lies with 40+ years of socialist programs which subsidized sloth and fatherless children with taxpayer money. Radical feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin, didn't help either.
"Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of suicide."
-- Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington, D.C., 1993.
"Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent."
I notice you mostly ignore the tough questions in my posts anyway--so I guess calling me a kook is your final coup?
The only question you asked in the prior post was:
So why marry when you are focused on shallow pursuits with available virtual sex and have decided the family is an overrated, too 'sacrificing of yourself', concept?
Seems like a character flaw to me. Are you asking me to believe such a person would be a responsible family man if only virtual sex were not available?
I would say that the porn threads bring the utopian/libertarian/hedonist porn addicted mental 14 year olds out of the closet.
She sounds like a typical asexual woman to me.
Uh, botox is used to remove wrinkles...it is not injected into lips.
Collagen is used to enhance lips.
Is this statement supposed to be making a point?
99.887% of all rapists, sex offenders, serial killers, and child molesters have eaten corn flakes at some time in their lives. It's not a victimless breakfast.
Sure, if we as a society decided that 16 year olds could consent to starring in porn, then that would be the law and I would have to live with it, though I would certainly not be in favor of such a change
We aren't okay with that, of course. So I'm not sure what your point is.
In what way does a morality that says private consensual activity is okay in any way affect you?
A lot of people commit suicide. Not just porn actresses. However, I know of three right off hand (well two acresses, and one actor). The most famous was Savannah. Then there was Cal Jammer, husband of Jill Kelly. And Shauna Grant. I can think of three other actresses off hand who also killed themselves, but I can't remember their names.
However, in all cases, these were people who had trashed their lives not just with porn, but with drugs (Savannah dated Greg Alman while he was a heavy heroin user).
Mark
All that is because your son is a Good Man, which in turn is a reflection on you. ;O)
The chances of overturning Roe v. Wade anytime soon (i.e. slim and none) are substantially higher than outlawing porn anytime soon.
P.S., [peeking head out of hermit cave], who the hell is Jenna Jamieson?
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