Pornography….

1. Pornography…. Who does it hurt?

2. What does pornography entail? • Writing • pictures/cartoons • Videos/animation • 3-D forms • Phone conversation • Live-person presentations • Computer games • So when does art cross the line into porn?

3. What is pornography? • When is the line crossed? • Representation of any sexual behavior with the following characteristics: • Primary purpose: is stimulation of sexual interest or excitement • Degrading portrayal male/female as merely a sexually object to be exploited and manipulated sexually • Barbara MacKinnon, University of San Francisco

4. Legal Definition • Depictions or works that are : • Patently offensive to local community standards • That appeal to prurient (aka lust) interests • And that taken as a whole lack “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” • So what about medical textbooks? Sculptures? What about the David? Songs of Solomon?

5. Art vs. Porn • Nude in fine art: • The word “nude” in fine art represents a “balanced prosperous and confident body NOT a defenseless body • The naked in porn • To be naked is to be deprived of our clothes & to be embarrassed in that condition

6. Art vs. Porn • Art: • Nudity employs the unclothed human body to express order, energy, despair, detail and perfection • Pornography: • Porn uses naked people for lust, shock and greed

7. An industry of exploitation • The largest consumer of Internet pornography is the 12-17 age group.Internet Pornography Statistics.  Internet Filter Review, 2004. • Child pornography generates $3 billion annually. • Among the child molesters incited, the study reported that 53 percent of them deliberately used the stimuli of pornography as they prepared to offendInternet Pornography Statistics.  Internet Filter Review, 2004. • LAPD found that in 10yrs. Pornography was involved in 2/3 of child molestation cases

8. Pornography's Relationship to Child Molestation • In a study of convicted child molesters, 77 percent of those who molested boys and 87 percent of those who molested girls admitted to the habitual use of pornography in the commission of their crimes. • Besides stimulating the perpetrator, pornography facilitates child molestation in several ways. For example, pedophiles use pornographic photos to demonstrate to their victims what they want them to do. They also use them to arouse a child or to lower a child's inhibitions and communicate to the unsuspecting child that a particular sexual activity is okay: "This person is enjoying it; so will you."

9. Replicated studies have demonstrated that exposure to significant amounts of increasingly graphic forms of pornography has a dramatic effect on how adult consumers view women, sexual abuse, sexual relationships, and sex in general. These studies are virtually unanimous in their conclusions: When male subjects were exposed to as little as six weeks' worth of standard hard-core pornography, they: • developed an increased sexual callousness toward women
 • began to trivialize rape as a criminal offense or no longer considered it a crime at all
 • developed distorted perceptions about sexuality
 • developed an appetite for more deviant, bizarre, or violent types of pornography (normal sex no longer seemed to do the job)
 • devalued the importance of monogamy and lacked confidence in marriage as either a viable or lasting institution
 • viewed nonmonogamous relationships as normal and natural behavior

10. Divorce & Pornography • At a 2003 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, two thirds of the 350 divorce lawyers who attended said the Internet played a significant role in the divorces in the past year, with excessive interest in online porn contributing to more than half such cases.

11. How does Pornography (even casual use) affect Men? Women? • MEN • Same as the women • Portrays sexual activity outside of marriage as acceptable without the dire consequences of STI’s, infertility and without the responsibility towards conceiving a human life • WOMEN • Teaches that women enjoy “forced” or perverse sexual activity • Advocates prostitution as normal behavior • Regards women as sex objects to be used for one’s self-gratification http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/27/police-people-watched-gan_n_334975.html

12. Effects of Pornography • First phase– Addiction • Second phase– Escalation • Third phase– Desensitization • Fourth phase– Acting out Sexually Dr. Victor Cline, PhD

13. First Phase- Addiction • Characteristics of this phase: • The addiction effect, the consumer gets hooked. • The material provides a powerful sexual stimulant or aphrodisiac effect. • The sexual stimulation is followed by sexual release through masturbation. • The higher the I.Q of an addict the more vulnerable they are, this is due to a greater ability to fantasize. • The person develops an obsession and compulsion to pornography.

14. Second Phase--Escalation • Characteristics of this stage: • The escalation effect, the addicted person requires rougher, more explicit, more deviant, more “kinky” kinds of sexual material to get their sexual “highs”. • The compulsion and the deviant factor begins to have an effect in marital relationships.

15. Third Phase-- Desensitization • Material (books, magazines, videos) which was originally perceived as shocking, taboo, illegal, repulsive, or immoral, in time came to be seen as acceptable and commonplace. • This is the legitimization effect.

16. Fourth Phase– Acting out Sexually • Characteristics of this phase: • A. An increasing tendency to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography. • B. Compulsive promiscuity and exhibitionism. • C. Voyeurism, prostitution, inflicting pain. • D. Crime: illegal activities, rape, illicit sex. • At this phase the addicted person only gets deeper and deeper into the addiction, if no help or treatment is sought.

17. Moral and Spiritual effects of Pornography • Addiction • Self-destructive behavior • Inability to sustain healthy relationships • Divorce • Objectification of women and the human body. • Deviant behavior • The dehumanization of human dignity and the exploitation of the individual person. • Crime • Separation from God’s friendship in this life and the life to come.

18. What is the Church’s stance on Pornography?? • 1) pornography offends against the virtue of chastity (living out a respect for our own human sexuality) • 2) Pornography dismisses the respect for marriage and its conjugal love and is not simply limited to any physical expression • 3) Pornography offends the dignity of the participants . Each one is exploited or exploits others in some way for personal pleasure or gain • 4) those who engage in porn immerse themselves in a fantasy world, w/drawing from reality …genuine love involves self-giving of oneself for the good of others…porn entices a person to withdraw into a selfish world of perverted fantasy