PORNOGRAPHY: Insulting or Empowering Women?

Critics claim that pornography is demeaning towards women and that it increases violence. What does the other camp think?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about pornography according to their own moral or religious beliefs. (PhotoXpress)

 

Does pornography demean women or give them power?

Some are convinced that pornography leads to rape, others that it is demeaning towards women, because it transforms them into a sexual object. They are joined by the third group blaming pornography for the male behavior, where men demand demeaning things from their partners during sex. In their opinion, pornography should be completely outlawed, because it shares blame for the collapse of virtues in the modern world.

 
Their opposition are those, who see pornography as a way of expressing secret fantasies, which can enrich our sex life. In their opinion, pornography prevents sex crime, because it gives people an option to satisfy needs some would satisfy in illegal ways otherwise. Radical feminists go even so far to claim that pornography increases female power, because in a way it enables women to shake off the social roles of mothers and wives forced upon them.

 

What is the expert's opinion?

Lately, many experts have been doing research on pornography and sexual derelicts. They found out that in places, where the availability of pornography rose, the amount of sex crime fell or stayed the same. Only a few studies managed to link pornography with sexual crimes and none could confirm a direct link. The rise in rape case numbers in the last few decades is a consequence of many complex changes of the common psychological health and in the methodology of discovering these crimes.

The connection of pornography and male demeaning behavior towards women was also not confirmed. Quite the opposite. Some research with only female participants have shown that men, who watch pornographic content, have a more tolerant attitude towards women than those, who strongly oppose pornography. Of course many women blamed pornography for the end of their relationship.

So science never considered pornography responsible for sex crimes or other anti-social behavior. The perception of pornography is, however, a private thing of each individual and thus everybody has the right to an opinion about it in accordance with their own personal, ethical, moral or religious beliefs.

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