The author uses 'suppositions'
are likely to have,
they might have been,
they could have seen,
What if?

How does the author know that boys/young men who access internet porn have looked at what she portrays as violent porn? The answer is she doesn't.

Does she know what their responses were to exposure of violent porn? I would suspect that perhaps the vast of young men who view internet porn would be revolted by graphic portrayals of violence and would turn away from those images.

then she switches to "this is what men will do to women." Sexual Behaviours that are classified as perverse have been around perhaps since the day of Adam and Eve. Psychiatry has volumes of books on this very subject.

All those still interested in this topic should take a listen to what was an extremely timely and very relevant interview from last night's Hack program on Triple J with Professor Alan McKee about Australia's porn habits... and the correlation between porn and certain other activities:
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/s2173707.htm

5 million Australians watch porn, eh?

Chade, unfortunately the link to the interview is broken.
The link you provided did give enough info to find other material though.

Some provisional findings from the study are at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/perspective/stories/s858008.htm

An extract from that "There's no sexual violence against women in mainstream Australian porn videos - which is unsurprising because that's a legal requirement. What's more surprising is the women in these videos aren't objects in any sense we can pick up. We've measured how much the different genders talk, how often they're in control of situations, and how much attention is paid to their pleasure. On every count it seems that porn videos place women in the driving seat. "

Some library info on the report http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an42395490

A Daily Telegraph write up on the book with some quotes http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23278782-5001021,00.html

"Curiously, the new female porn consumer is more likely than her male counterpart to want to see idealised body types featured in pornography.

There's strong evidence that for a lot of male consumers it's looking at 'real' looking women that turns them on," Lumby says.

Interestingly, more women preferred 'fantasy porn', which is the glossy, Penthouse style porn, in which women are more likely to have fake breasts and toned bodies and the men are more likely to be the handsome hunk.

However, women who consume pornography share a strong aversion to pornography showing violence, abuse or rape.

It's definitely fair to say from our survey and when we looked at all the other literature that there's a strong movement against violence or sexual violence, Lumby says. "

Some mention of the opposing point of view at http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1178524.htm
from Clive Hamilton from the Australia Institute

Some general discussion on research at http://libertus.net/censor/studies2.html - the site appears to be an advocacy site for reduction is censorship but the material looks worthy of consideration.

R0bert

Rambo is due for another installment of gratuitous appreciation for human life.

Horrible to think that lm gonna have to walk the streets contemplating everyone elses cheap view of my life.

Oh, the horror of possibile perception.

Quick, ban the internet, ban media and put everyone on lie detector machines, just in case the sky is falling.

Chicken wittle wost its head.

Whitty

I re-read the article again to make sure I had not missed anything. The studies quoted at the beginning of the article refer to young men and boys. I don’t get the impression tht the author is arguing that all grown men and all young boys are weak uncontrolled beings and I am certainly not arguing that.

But we cannot deny that our experiences shape the people we become and there are many factors at play eg. the values taught by family, positive and negative experiences with the opposite sex, teachers and peers. Violent porn would not seem to be a positive experience to add to this mix and it adds to the desensitising argument in my last post in relation to the development of young people. The fact is violent crime (sexual and non-sexual) has increased as studies have shown.

In the bigger picture what does it say about a society that approves of this depiction of (mainly) women? Some men are able to compartmentalize women such as described in Anne Summer’s book “Damned Whores and God’s Police". Prostitutes are targetted by some men because of this compartmentalising phenomenon ie. good women vs bad women (in their mind).

Over the last few years we have seen in the media – TV, advertising, music videos etc – an increase in the sexualisation of children. There was a great show presenting all sides of this argument on ABCs ‘Difference of Opinion’ in 2007. The reason I raise this issue is that society is failing its children for the sake of the dollar and increased access to violent porn is another aspect of this failure

JamesH

‘A few years ago some feminists came out and claimed that Cassanova hated women. The great seducer who put the womans pleasure above his own and spent large sums of money in order to seduce a woman, was in fact a woman hater.’

This kind of seduction is an act of power, not pleasure - and certainly not love. Cassanova was an infantile narcissist, who used women in much the same way that George Bush invades countries. In the eighteenth century, the worst thing that could befall a woman was disgrace – so he would also have ruined many lives.

Because patriarchal societies place a high value on polygyny, its underlying pathology has been actively ignored until recent times. If Cassanova lived today, he’d be seen for what he was – a sad sex addict. But I doubt if he’d have the sense to get treatment.

Whitty

“I think some women's objection to porn is a deep fear they are being made redundant, and losing their traditional female power over men. They lose sex as a bargaining chip, as their partner can see other women naked and enjoy his own fantasy that doesn't involve her.’

Try flipping your comment around thusly:

“I think some men's defence of porn is a deep fear they are being made redundant, and losing their traditional male power over women. They lose infidelity as a bargaining chip, as their partner can see other opportunities in life and enjoy a sense of self worth that doesn’t depend on his approval.’

pelican

I admire your attempts to bring attention to what porn says about us as a society. To me, it’s not only about how porn affects society, but how society affects porn.

Another issue that most porn discussions overlook is why so many people don’t use it or need it. They can’t all be prudes.