cont...

In short, porn actors are indeed pretending to enjoy themselves. It's their job to make men think their turn-on is real, and women are very good at that. On set they are fully stocked with fluffers — people ones and inanimate ones — that help the actors mimic real sexual responses. I would second Pynchme's call to listen to people who have worked in the industry. You'll find all sorts of responses, not necessarily along any party lines.

I agree with Whitty — the answer lies in amateur porn, with truly enthusiastic volunteers. Also in improving the real industry so that the actors and film-makers get *more* money, and the people who need help can get help rather than get exploited. The reality is that porn actors are probably never going to have fun at work, but they can produce material safely and without harm. Fantasy is an integral part of really raunchy sex, but people who enjoy porn shouldn't fool themselves that it's completely benign.

Pynchme having gone on about posting restrictions, you then twitter on about commas and punctuation, rather than address, in the limits of the posting allowance, the question I asked of you

Which was

““contrary to evolution of the species” - please do give us a larff, expand on that one.”

I await your explanation to the effect of porn on the evolution of the species.

Maybe you could complete the sentence by dealing with religion and the effect that has on evolution too.

Re your posted link.

Great

I particularly liked the following quotes

From an historic perspective:

“"Everything you could pervert yourself to has been available for centuries. Making more pictures of it doesn't affect an already saturated population."

From an educational perspective

"Deep Throat has brought joy into many lives in America. Not only is it art, but it is an instructional video. It should be required in public schools as instructional video in proper technique."

followed up with

"Yes I agree. Too many times in my high school youth was felletio a mediocre experience."

More

The pornography industry's revenue

Annual U.S. revenues
• Estimated revenue for pornography: $12 billion
• Box office for mainstream films: $9 billion
Annual worldwide revenues
• Estimated revenue for pornography: $57 billion
• Box office for mainstream films: $23 billion
It seems to me, if attending movies is seen as a “conventional society mainstream activity”, the only difference with porn is, it is even more a “conventional society mainstream activity”.

One of the claims, that porn is detrimental to normal relationships and with reference to the occurrence of rape within the total population; if porn were responsible for rape, I would expect there to be far more incidences of rape occurring.

That there is not, can only support the view that there is no correlation of occurance between watching porn and assaults on women.

No correlation, no basis for assuming any socially detrimental effect from watching porn.

Appropriate quotes

“The only unnatural sex act is that which you cannot perform.”

“Censorship is more depraving and corrupting than anything pornography can produce.”

Lev, Whitty and Vanilla.

Lev - it's very American in references to NOW and accusations against feminists of being misandrist. She's a strange sort of feminist if she doesn't know that very few feminists "hate" men. Probably fewer than in the wider population of non-feminists. Most of us have lovers, spouses, sons. It's bizarre to see a feminist accusing others of misandry and posing as a liberator while capitalizing off the exploitation of people who she admits may participate because of a lack of economic alternative.

Since she claims to have ivy league credentials; one assumes she started working in porn because she likes it (fair enough) but what has she done to improve the lot of people then working within it? One wonders why she's not opposing the more odious elements that characterize the wider industry. I think she might have been one producer who has ben credited with introducing safe sex actions for performers; if so that's good, whether her motive was commitment to improving work conditions or avoiding lawsuits for AIDs transmission.

Anyway, you say that my views are only my opinion and call for empirical evidence. What evidence do you have that porn does no harm?
If you think I am stating opinion from a distance, you are mistaken; but it's irrelevant - of course whatever is raised in concern or opposition must be discounted as trivial and sorta out of the loop or something.

Accusations of disrespect to the workers involved; well, since I am one of the people who work in mopping up some of the casualties, I don't see concern; advocacy; expressions of dissent or opposition as the least bit disrespectful. I have other involvements btw beyond my work. Human Rights are about the individual of course; but also about being in balance with the greater good.

Thanks for your replies btw.

I mentioned it before probably a couple of times that the lust of today was prophesied by the christians in the mid-1970's.
A time would come, Pastor Jack Burrell said in his book WHAT WILL BECOME OF AUSTRALIA 1975, when no woman would be safe anywhere, even in their homes.
Porn would be spread throughout all of western society by the media, and the porn industry, and give rise to rapist after rapist.
I guess we are seeing this prophecy fulfilled now in 2008 with the fruits of the decadence of modern male youth (porn addicted) and the media abuse of the material... all of it spoken about by The Lord all those years ago.
In Jacks book he also spoke of a day when God would allow an invader from the north also because of the sins of the people...if they failed to repent.
Want some advice girls?
Dont ever! be caught alone with a male you dont know. Even then plan to protect yourself from him. Dont ever leave doors and windows unlocked. It will probably take years before governments acknowledge what they have been part of enough to ban the foul rubbish material.

Pynchme,

Whilst the reference to NOW is contextually American, we have our equivalents here (e.g., WEL). As for some feminists being misandrists, well I certainly encountered those in Australia as well - most notoriously being Sheila Jeffreys who claims that all paedophiles are male, and that exploitation of women is derived from the act of heterosexual intercourse.

Nina Hartley is a political and practical activist for the rights of women to control their own body. She is also an advocate, both political and practical, in sex education. In the field of erotica she has worked with other women, including Candida Royale, in producing "women positive" pornography. I would consider this to be sufficient.

As for the suggestion that I claim that there is "no harm" with pornography, actually I would suggest that it is positive.

Large-scale empirical studies from Northwestern University (D'Amato, Northwestern Public Law Research Paper 2006), Stanford and Clemson Universities (Kendall, 2006), and Hawaii University with the Japanese Institute of Police Science (Diamond, Uchiyama, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 1999) indicate that an increase in the availability of sexually explicit material has correlated with a decline in sexual violence of comparable significance.This concurs with prior research from Scandinavia and Western Europe (Kutchinsky, 1985, 1991).

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=913013
http://www.law.stanford.edu/display/images/dynamic/events_media/Kendall%20cover%20+%20paper.pdf
http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/pornography/prngrphy_rape_jp.html

I am yet to encounter any empirically sound study which correlates an increase in sexually explicit material with an actual increase of sexual violence.

That poor woman. It's so awful! She's far away from being the only one to whom it's happened to.

Yes, pornography is really harmful.

Please check out my feminist website www.againstpornography.org

It contains numerous studies and testimonies, and it answers many questions.

I’m just honestly talking about the research I've made and the important books I've read. The informations I gathered on my website led me to the conclusion that pornography is indeed harmful to women and girls and absolutely infefensible.

And I know that porn apologists will disagree with me but it really seriously sickens me that some people are so fervent in defending this kind of atrociously misogynistic propaganda!