Pornography as a Social Vice - Literature review Example

Pornography Name: Unit: Course: Supervisor: Date of submission: Introduction Pornography has widely been discussed, in many instances it has been considered as a social vice. Despite of the discussions and researches carried that relate to pornography, to date there is no operational scientific definition to pornography. An operational definition of pornography has been harboured by the various reasons that relate to cultural, political and gender issues (William 2004, p. 339). Due to such difficulties, pornography has on many occasions defined depending on its effects, for instance, pornography has been defined as harmful sexual materials and content that demeans the dignity of women. This definition has not augured well with some women who are actively involved in the activities that are considered pornographic. For the purpose of this paper the pornography will be centred on Smith (1999, p. 21) suggestion to refer to materials that are sexually explicit or the content in the internet that visually and explicitly depict the female and male anatomy and sex. This paper provides the different perspectives of pornography in advent of the new forms of technologies. The perspectives include gender and sexual harassment which have been used by many social thinkers to point to exploitation. In the paper my argument is that the new forms of technologies are vessels that have been used by individuals to depict the proliferation of moral deviance. The argument implies that the online pornography is a depiction of the break in social values and bonds that existed in the society and the new emergence of liberal culture which through pornography individuals depict their self and contemporary society. The paper discusses this based on case study of three men arrested in Alaska in connection with indulgence in pornographic content. In the case study I will concentrate on the reasons the men gave for being involved in the pornography. See the URL link for the case study http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140308/3-anchorage-men-face-child-porn-charges-separate-incidents In the 21st century, internet has become the mode of communication and interaction. With the explosion of internet, pornography has expanded and has led to changes in the content and increased the volumes of production. According to Sigel (2005, pp.629) new forms of technologies have been a contributory factor to the increased online pornography, for instance the e-commerce payments and the advent of webcams have made pornography to be readily available and has also increased the diversity of the representations of the pornography. One notable fact is that as the technologies have been on increase, and subsequently the consumption of the online pornography has increased in the media. Pornography and gender In the past, pornography was treated as a male dominated affair in which men were visual watchers of the nude women. However, there is increasingly trend of women being involved in the pornography; hence an attempt to define pornography in terms of the usage has also been problematic. With the extent of technological advancement in the contemporary society and the feminist movement that was experienced in late 19th century to date, some of the images initially considered pornographic are currently a common and considered a normal (Smith1999, p.22). Despite of the lack of clear definition, there is evident that pornography has been on the increase especially in the advent of internet. The effects of pornography continue to be experienced in the modern society and though not as in the past, pornography remains to be dominated by men. This point to the social context where the society culture is patriarchy and male dominated. There exists a school of thought that the new forms of technologies have just enlightened people on the sexual harassment in the society. The online pornography raises the issues of gender and sexual harassment, many materials being depicted in the internet are mainly about women being exploited sexually or children being harassed and sexually molested. According to Dines (2001, p.135) men are the majority consumers of the pornographic materials found in the internet even though there is an increasing trend of women being involved in the consumption of the materials. The case study incident raises the concern to the extent of moral degradation and sexual harassment. Are the new forms of technologies to be blamed? And if yes how have they impacted on our understanding and effects of the online pornography? The online pornography can be accessed by simple click on the internet sites that engage in the vices. According to Slayden (2010, p.161) pornography is an invention by the men that is geared at dehumanising the women and reduces the women to objects of sex. This explains the reasons why pornography is represented mainly by naked female body. Slayden (2010, p. 164) argues that pornography is used by men as a show of patriarchal power and ownership. However, with the emergence of the child pornography and increasing trend of females actively participating in pornography, the issue harassment crops in which gives the gender a backstage. With many cases of sexual content being found over the internet, questions linger on the minds of sociologists whether this is a new sexual culture that is being promoted by the new technologies or is it a vice that has been hidden in the society over a long time only to made clear by the new technologies. Online Pornography In relation to the case study, it is arguable that the new forms of technologies especially the internet that has eased the access to pornographic materials has increased behaviours and immoralities that has exemplified the sexual harassment in the society. In the case study, one anchorage man says that he was addicted to forms of sexual explicit had gone deep to ‘rabbit hole’ of taboo fetishes on online ; this is a pointer of moral degradation in which individuals find pleasure by sexually exploiting other people. The new forms of technologies that have led to increased online pornography make us understand the personality disorders that relate to sexual behaviour and exploitation, it is thus arguable that the new technologies predispose people to more deviant behaviour that were not experienced in the past (Jancovich 2001, p). Pornography has turned to be an enormous business in the last 20 years. This has been correlated to the upsurge of the new technologies more so the internet that has resulted to revolutionaries in communication and storage of digital content. Pornographic materials have become very common and diverse people are using the internet to access the materials (Sigel 2005, p. 637). However, authorities have raised concern on the pornographic materials over the internet and have as result blocked some site, censored and arrests have been made and charges extended to the culprits got consuming the pornographic materials assumed to be centrally to the morals. The concern for most sociologists is that the online pornography could be a pointer to a new culture of deviance that needs to be addressed from the societal perspective. In the perspective of exploitation there are arguments that the new forms of technologies have increased the exploitation of women and children as pornography has been commercialised and hence a lot of exploitation of the women. In the view of gender and exploitation Attwood (2007, p.443) departs on the issue of commercialisation and argue that pornography does not have to be based on exploitation of the female bodies. Their take is that alternative pornography can be used to offer a new framework of pornography that does not necessarily exploit or harass women or children. Even though this is an alternative, the key point that Attwood (2007, p. 251) fails to put into consideration is the individual self that gains drive and satisfaction from explicit sexual content. According to William (2004, pp.337-340) the overindulgence in online pornography has been argued to be expression of the self in terms of sexuality. The new forms of technologies have helped us to understand the linkages that exist between some sexual practices and the authenticity that comes from the practices. According to the Abelson (2007, p.241) the internet pornography serves as a discovery and at the same time a revelation of the real self and the values in the society. Attwood (2007, p 458) states that the new technologies and pornography are establishments that have always changed to accommodate each other depending on the social changes of the society. According to Jancovich (2001) people accessing the internet are at risk of being predisposed to the deviant behaviours of pornography. Jancovich argues that the new technological advancement are to be blamed for the increased deviant behaviours that threaten to break the societal moral fiber of the and hence there is need for measures to be taken to control sexual explicit materials in the online. Even though to some extent this could be valid, Abelson et al (2007, p.243) have a different perspective that aligns the individual personality to the pornography and considers pornography as a gender issue and that relates sexual harassment that has been in the society for many years and which has been aggravated by emerging cultures of free lifestyle which breaks away from the mainstream values of the society. Therefore, Abelson et al (2007, pp.237-247) contents that online pornography consumption is part of the deviant subcultures that try to emphasise on sexual freedom and personal based satisfaction of sexual drive. According to William and Azy (2001, 317) these deviant cultures impact on individual behaviour and through values that are shared, the culture spreads. The new forms of technologies are thus vessels which make us understand the social ills that have been brewing in the society. Even though this argument is centered on the deviance theory and individual behaviour, the issue of harassment and gender crops in as the people used in the online pornography include mainly children and women who are forced or lured to the deviant behaviour by mainly men. In support of the new forms of technologies boosting our understanding on the deviant behaviours that result to harassment and the increase of the pornographic related crimes, a research that relate to forcible rape found that the individual sex drive is a strong predictor of forced sex and is more prevalent in men. The study found a strong correlation between the sex drive and the online pornography (Slayden 2010, p. 167). In the case study provided, a similar correlation may be drawn as anchorage man pleaded that the involvement to the pornography was due to extreme addiction to online sex. Even though sex drive that leads to involvement in pornography is aligned more to biological characteristics and psychological factors, Dines (2010, p 127) argues that people who have had prior exposure to paid sex regardless of their gender can develop a positive orientation to pornography which could be the causal factor to engaging in visiting the pornographic sites and subsequent use of the online pornography. This argument brings a new dimension that seems to disqualify the issue of gender and harassment. However drawing back to the case study and the nature of the three men affected, the involvement in the girls’ pornographic material cannot rule the issue of gender demeaning and sexual harassment. This denotes the moral degradation and underscores the criminalisation of the explicit online pornography. There are schools of reasoning that the new forms of technologies are the driving forces to the increasing pornography. Edelman (2009, p. 211) addresses the aspect of online pornography and in relation to availability of opportunity factors. This draws the aspect of criminal opportunity theory that argues that criminality can occur due to presence of conditions that cement a favourable environment, i.e. environment that motivates the offenders. Even though in many instances this theory has been applied in the explanation of the predatory crime, Edelman (2009, p. 218) has applied it to explain and foster understanding of the reasons behind the involvement of people to various activities as pornography and prostitution. For instance, for an individual to be involved in the online pornography, such an individual most likely should be computer savvy. The level of the knowledge and capability will differ from one individual to the other and as result people with apt skills of computer will be more likely involved in the online pornography. This argument seems to negate the moral aspect and personal values. In real sense, though the opportunity may be a factor, internet has been the hallmark of the glaobalised world, and almost every person is exposed to the opportunity of being involved in online pornography, however only few individuals are involved in the vice. This again depicts to the personal trait rather than opportunity factors. A clear fact is that the internet is the leading disseminator of pornography and it intensifies the incidence and likelihood of sexual harassment and gender profiling. A study carried out by Abelson et al (2007, p. 243)shows that new forms of technologies and the depiction of pornography are pointers of weakening social bonds that can be blamed on the moral degradation and deviance of marriage and religious values hence leading to online pornography. This implies that the new technologies just make us understand the extent of social value degradation and exploitation in the society. The internet has resulted to increased number of consumers as the online pornography offers some privacy which has led to explosion of the online pornography. The main sites of pornography present heteronormative pornography and sexual presentation that is repetitive with many scripts that relate to the subject of gender and sexuality (Peasonen 2010, p.1301). Despite of the subgenres of pornography such as gonzo porn which act as alternative to mainstream pornography, there are remarkably increase in the diversity of pornography on the online that depicts women and children being harassed and exploited. There is a drive by the producers to diversify and increase the pornographic content in the internet that expands the boundaries of representation of pornography. Such extremes and ever increasing users motivate production of content that is abusive and consumer base continue to expand, hence the argument that this is a new culture which forms part of social life as those involved as the consumers will crisscross sites doing online shopping, mining information and at the same time downloading and watching online pornography. Conclusion The new technologies have increased the consumption of pornography in the modern society. This consumption ranges from the mild to explicit forms of pornography that are exploitative and demeaning. The exploitation and harassment of women and children through pornography is an exemplification of social culture that has been perpetuated by the new forms of technologies. The increasing number of the consumers who include both men and women compels us to critically think about pornography in the social context and culture. Through the new forms of technologies it is clear that pornography is inscribed in our cultures in which individual orientation is subject to the increase in the content, the technologies have just served as vessels of depicting the social traits. The usage of explicit pornography and its availability on the internet just shows a changing face of the society in that is precipitated by breakdown of societal bonds and birth of cultures that are dictated by personal lifestyles which go to any extent of exploiting other people due to personal sexual drives. References Abelson, H., Cohen, R., Heaton, E. and Slider, C. 2007. Public Attitudes toward and experiences with Erotic Materials. Technological Reports of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, 6 (1), pp. 235-247. Attwood, F. 2007. No money shot? Commerce, pornography and new sex taste cultures. Sexualities 10(4), pp.441–456 Dines, G. 2010. Pornland: How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality. Boston, Massachusetts: Beacon Press, pp. 113-156. Doogan, S. 2014. Three Anchorage men face child porn charges in separate incidents. Alaska Dispatch. Available at http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140308/3-anchorage-men-face-child-porn-charges-separate-incidents Edelman, B. 2009. Red light states: Who buys online adult entertainment? Journal of Economic Perspectives (23)1, pp. 209–220. Jancovich, M.2001. Naked ambitions: Pornography, taste and the problem of the middlebrow. Scope: An Online Journal of Film & TV Studies. Available at: http://www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk Sigel, L. Z. 2005. International Exposure: Perspectives on Modern European Pornography 1800–2000. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. 624-649. Slayden, D. 2010. Pornography, Technology, and Market Innovation. Porn.Com: Making Sense of Online Pornography. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 155-169. Smith, D. 1999. The Social Content of Pornography. Journal of Communication 26 (1), pp. 16-24. Peasonen, S. 2010. Labors of Love: Netporn, Web 2.0 and the meaning of amateurism. New Media and Society, pp. 12 (8), pp. 1297-1312. Williams, L. 2004. Porn Studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 337-341. William, F. and Azy, B. 2001. Internet Pornography: A Social Psychological Perspective on Internet Sexuality. Journal for Sex Research 38 (1), pp.312– 323. Read More