For one, he notes that the Miller test is no longer a viable means of identifying obscenity, point I completely agree with.  The changes in both technology and society that have taken place within the past 30 years have made the standards of yesteryear completely obsolete.  (That's why we have this class, isn't it?)

Mr. Felton goes on to state, "It looks like we’re stuck with more of less the current situation — limits on porn access by kids, implemented by ugly, messy law and/or technology — for the foreseeable future."  My thoughts exactly.

It's almost as if Ed Felton has taken this class already.  His thoughts and arguments are carefully researched and backed up by hard facts and court cases, etc. and his articles definitely show insight.

Personally I thought it was nice to find out that there is intelligence out there in the blogosphere, and not everyone with a blog is a middle school student who throws asterisks and tilde’s around like it's their job.

 What is your position in regards to straight men acting in gay porn?  Do you believe it cheapens the gay community to have straight men 'act' with a gay partner just so they can make a quick buck?

My initial reaction to hearing the testimony was one of disbelief and outrage.  We hear everyday of children unwittingly duped by pedophiles and the like online who are subsequently assaulted, abducted or worse.  Then a story comes out about a thirteen year old boy with a webcam who solicited himself willingly online.

The fact that this kid didn't become an amber alert is astounding.

The fact that a few years later he testified in front of Congress is equally astounding.

I'm not saying that Congress doesn't need to be aware of the fact that predators are out there in cyberspace, and that the victims are indeed very real, it just seems to me that if a case were to built about the perils of children surfing the internet that an ex-cam whore with a pang of conscience combined with a sense of remorse from what he actually was doing to be the one to present the case to our representatives.

A more convincing case could be made by hearing testimony from individuals actually affected by online predators – the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, etc.  I believe it would be much more convincing than hearing from a kid who used to dance in his underwear for strangers of their own volition.  

Like I said, I'm not trivializing the fact that there are victims out there, I just have no tolerance for people too stupid for their own good. 

Obviously someone should be thinking of the children.  Those people are called parents.  I believe that it is the responsibility of the mothers and fathers in America to consider what to let their children see or not see.  In my opinion, there is no use for agencies such as the FCC to prevent a nipple slip on television (did anyone ever think of the fact that one of the first things a child sees is a nipple?).  Prohibiting the distribution and communication of adult material under the auspices of protecting the children just makes it seem as if this nation is filled with Helen Lovejoy's hell-bent on pushing a Right Wing Christian Agenda.

Like I said it should be up to the parents to decide what is deemed acceptable for their children to view, not the government.  The generalizations made by the government are too broad and too fuzzy to accurately determine what is appropriate for developing children to view.  Only parents truly know what is best for their children.

Exactly.

I cannot agree more with Don Pember's statement. Just because the subject of pornography is met head-on in opposition by reactionary, almost Puritanical forces does not mean that its producers, authors and distributors should be treated as lepers, and placed outside the boundaries of the Constitution.

Dr. Halavais raised the point that we should be concerned with the fact that Federal courts have mandated that there are certain subjects and topics that we simply cannot talk about.

It's a slippery slope. One day the government says we cannot have porn or erotica, the next day we're told we can't have Cable TV and before you know it we have zero civil liberties and Big Brother will be watching over all of us.

Maybe I'm being overdramatic. My point is that for such fuzzy logic to dictate public policy with little to no bearing is an infringement upon our right as Americans to view and read the materials we desire, so long as they are not illegal. In a perfect world, illegal materials would be found as such by the courts based upon actual study and research.

]]> http://acdorofy.wordpress.com/2006/04/21/obscenity-and-you/feed/ 0 acdorofy http://acdorofy.wordpress.com/2006/04/14/i-couldnt-think-of-a-good-title-for-this-post-so-im-gonna-start-writing-now/ http://acdorofy.wordpress.com/2006/04/14/i-couldnt-think-of-a-good-title-for-this-post-so-im-gonna-start-writing-now/#comments Fri, 14 Apr 2006 03:03:01 +0000 acdorofy https://acdorofy.wordpress.com/2006/04/14/i-couldnt-think-of-a-good-title-for-this-post-so-im-gonna-start-writing-now/ ]]> In lecture 24 Dr. Halavais said that he "truly doubts that men are no longer interesting in physcial, real life women.'

I'm not here to burst a bubble, and what I have to say kind of goes against my belief that pornography has adverse effects upon people…but I've had more than a week to think about it.

I agree with Dr. Halavais that most men in our society can distinguish the difference between the women on the screen and women in real life, but I also believe that porn lays out a sort of foundation as to what a man looks for in a woman or what he finds attractive.  Obviously, through one's own experience with porn they know what traits in a women they find most desirable and what turns them on the most.  It's possible that as a result of pornification a person's judgement could be clouded.
Case in point:  I had a girlfriend back in the day and my friends told me that face-wise she looked like Jill Kelly.  I stuck with her as long as a I could (and probably longer than I should have) based solely on the thought of 'Hey!  My friends think my girlfriend is hot.  Im gonna keep her around.'

It sounds stupid, I know.  But that pretty much epitomizes what I'm trying to say here.  I'm not holding out to date only women who look like pornstars, and I recognize the fact that they are actresses on a screen and not 'real life' women, but a guy can dream, can't he?

I wholeheartedly endorse the Porn Myths website. The evils of pornography bombard us everytime we log onto the internet. We're not safe. Our children are not safe. Thank God there is a website out there to offset the misinformation and repair the psychological damages caused by prolonged exposure to pornography.

The incidents reported within the site are not isolated.  They are not the stories of the minority.  These are simply the accounts of brave individuals who have come forward, and shared their story with the world.  

The belief that porn is basically harmless and has no effect on people's lives or relationships could not be further from the truth.  Everyday we hear about sex-crazed maniacs abducting children or raping women.  Undoubtedly if the adult industry was shut down these crimes would decrease tenfold.

The stories of wives neglected by their husbands due to online pornography are just heart wrenching.  Marriage is one of our most sacred institutions, deeply rooted within the bible.  Pornography is the serpents tongue, whispering into the ears of the husbands and fathers of this nation.  It is against God, religion and all this is holy and sacred.  Kudos to this website for spreading the truth.

This is the 'find three blogs you like' entry: 

BigPetis said they like my work, how flattering. Allow me to boost a few more egos.

I chose to look at the blogs that had interesting titles.

Blog one:  A Porn A Day Keeps the Doctor Away I love the way this person writes.  You can tell that they are very passionate about their viewpoint, and they aren't afraid to use bold and italics to amplify their points and positions.  The titles of celatzen's entries are also as eye catching as the title of their blog.  Good work.

Blog two: I…Love…Porn? Good name. It exemplifies the reason I'm sure many of us joined the class. It's evident within markymark22's posts that a lot of thought goes into them.  This post in particular.

Blog three:  I didn't pick this one based upon the name, though it gets points for not being 'Cyberporn and Society' celebrity*SKIN always writes a ton, has lots of interesting things to say and without question has an A in my book.

It's actually incredibly difficult for me to verbalize all the things I find
wrong with their mission without getting myself expelled or possibly arrested
for obscenity.

As a member of this class I'm aware of both sides of the pornography
argument, but I think at some point it can be taken too far. 
XXXChurch.com seems to be where the sidewalk ends.

The cause just seems to be laughable.  Even fellow Christians do not
support it.  Moreover, the two pastors have not won any converts within
the adult industry, begging the question of 'why bother?'  It doesn't take
a genius to see that they are barking up the wrong tree.

I laughed hardest when I heard one of the young preachers say, "We're
two guys going to a place where Jesus would be."

For some reason picturing Jesus at a porn convention was hysterical to
me.  This is why no one takes the religious right seriously. 

I read recently that the average penis size in America is six inches, but most
women believe the average size to be around eight inches and 90% of them
believe 'average' men are ill equipped to satisfy their needs.

A student of COM497 this got me to thinking of what could cause such a
misconception.

It's my theory that pornography may play a key role in creating such a
belief.

For the most part, the women I know have seen more penises in pornography
than they have in real life, and it goes without saying that the male talent in
pornographic films is particularly well-endowed.

So, if women are seeing an abundance of large penises, they may be more
inclined to believe that is the average size is larger than it truly is.  

I don't think it's that hard to believe, especially since the advent of the
internet it is very difficult not to be confronted with porn on an almost daily
basis.  This just seems like an unintended effect of the spread of porn
via the internet.

I don't know, maybe I think too much about porn :-/