Peter Hume & Aristocrat, to say "I am marking" is not meant to show how important I am, geez are you guys crazy? Have you ever spent a couple of weeks marking? The last thing marking makes you feel is important. It is meant to say how it is impossible to think of other things.
So here's the deal guys: why don't you come and do my marking and then you can feel important (doh) and I can have time time to reply to you crazy chaps. Deal?

isabelberners,

I sympathise; I'm marking too; and I don't feel important either.

isabelberners,

Have just looked again at your article and it occurs to me to ask, what about women's involvement in the porn industry? There's no shortage of ladies ready to make a fast buck by indulging predominantly male fantasy in the porn trade. It could be argued that the market for degrading porn is as much manufactured as it is responsive, perhaps more so. Male fantasy is a world of cliche and commodification, and in terms of competition, merely a matter of escalation--one-upmanship--like adding more fat and sugar in an unregulated market and propagating addiction. The real offenders are the capitalists. The guys with the callendars, the miscreants, are just the dupes, no different to their brain-dead shopaholic girlfriends. And that brings me to the more important point I presume you've considered: by demonising the consumer, rather than the pusher, the capitalist (who also ultimately pays your stipend/salary), you are legitimising his/her business.
You accept the state of affairs just as they are then?
We just need to punish those whose weaknesses are successfully exploited by the market?

I've noticed that the police were involving the prostitution task force in cracking down on females showing their (.Y.) from high rise balconies during the Gold Coast 600.

I've got to wonder just how many people at a motor racing event would actually find the sight of breast's offensive. Is it pornography for a woman to show her breast's from a high rise? What if she shifts down a few floors and across the street to the beach?

I find the whole idea of a special police presence to deal with women exposing their chests so out of place it's almost surreal.

R0bert

Peter,
If I thought as you imply I would be a wowser.
I'm contending that the porn industry is competitive, fired as it is by the same profit motive as every other industry, and that like capitalism generally it is unimpeded by any ethical considerations. Novelty, as anti, says--but let's call it "innovation"--seems the only way to secure market share. Thanks to this crude dynamic a visceral form of creative destruction ensues and we get child porn, bestiality and all manner of brutal and disgusting representation that demeans all concerned and victimises and destroys many others. But it's ok--that's capitalism!
I suspect it is the competitive dynamic that drives "innovation" to "cultivate" rather than "respond" to demand.
I realise that some porn seems comparatively harmless--though it's hard to come by these days--but whether you like it or not we live in complex societies where sexuality has to be governed by regulation and codes of conduct in public. Commercial premises that are open to the public should not display sexualised images, especially if they're dominated by one sexual persuasion and the place is dripping with virility and testosterone. A woman might well feel intimidated, imposed upon and discriminated against in that she is expected to suffer it in silence. We're not just talking about a calendar, but all the intangibles (in terms of male attitude and even the "attitude" of the place) that can accumulate to make such places highly unsavoury to sensitive females. And let's not forget that a large percentage of females "have been" subjected to one form of sexualised abuse or another. So it's not simply a matter of feminist hypersensitivity or hysterics (a convenient disorder that's often been attributed to women); the offence taken could be legitimately inferred from a history of overbearing, sexually charged, patronising or belittling behaviours females are often forced to endure.
The reason we still live in societies dominated by male culture and chauvinism is because not enough women speak out! or because they're desensitised to their own degradation.
This is only a one-sided view and a great deal of qualification is needed.

Squeers

I applaud your posts regarding the 'cultivation' of demand that is a part of unregulated capitalism. I agree both men and women are complicit in the escalation of porn into something that was entertaining into a gross distortion of joyful and robust sex acts.

You stated: " The reason we still live in societies dominated by male culture and chauvinism is because not enough women speak out! "

I cannot answer for all women, but for 9 years I was in an abusive (mentally and physically) marriage and find responding to some of the supporters of unlimited pornography difficult to construct debates - bringing back past experiences I would rather forget.

I protest when I can as best as I can. And thank you for your very thoughtful posts on this topic.