This discussion has not given much attention to the women and girls used in porn. They bleed and suffer considerable pain. They take muscle relaxants, painkillers and local anaesthetics in the vagina. They receive ‘money shots’ of semen from huge numbers of men at a time as in Bukakke porn, on the face and all over the body, they are penetrated by penises and hands over several hours, often by many different men since gang rape is such a staple. These are violent behaviours that would be terrifying and inconceivable to those not inured to the abuse of porn through childhood sexual exploitation or the gradual induction that some girls receive. Girls may enter porn wanting to do ‘fashion’ shots. They may be brought by boyfriends/pimps. Many of the most famous porn stars were well under 18 when they were first abused on set. They start out in the least abusive practices which then increase in severity. They are often homeless and with no resources and under tremendous pressure. Pornography needs to be understood as violence against women. It is not a private practice that people should be allowed to view in their own homes. There is a solution. Perpetrators of violence against women need to feel the force of the law. Buying sexual services is now illegal in Sweden, South Africa, Latvia. Norway and UK are likely to join this group in 2008. Unfortunately these new laws do not include paying women to be penetrated in pornography. But they could easily be extended to do so. It is high time those discussing porn stopped seeing it as a harmless form of photography. It is a practice of violence against the poor and disadvantaged, those made homeless by sexual abuse, often very young or trafficked women and girls. Much porn is now made in poor countries where it is easier to gain sexual access to girls and women who are under debt bondage and treated as possessions by their pimps. Enough already!

Christabel.

Christabel,

Would you care to consider the views of sex workers themselves in Sweden over the laws introduced in 1999?

No? Why not? Aren't sex worker's rights deserving human rights? Are the women (or men) somehow less capable of making decisions about the industry they work in?

In case you are ignorant of these considerations here's some reading for you.

http://sensuellqkonsult.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/lies-about-sexwork-in-sweden/
http://www.petraostergren.com/content/blogcategory/20/38/
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/rosswed.html
http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/kilde/jd/rap/2004/0034/ddd/pdfv/232216-purchasing_sexual_services_in_sweden_and_the_nederlands.pdf
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/swed_europap.html
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/nordicpros.html
http://www.bayswan.org/swed/livjessen.html

We live freely – not by living by sexual impulse, or by feeding our sexual desire in pornography only to find it claims our sexual freedom... for sooner or later that desire for love that was once healthy, but decomposes into self-serving satisfaction, bleeds through our whole lives. This only advances our society as a whole by teaching us to live by impulsive desire, and do what's right for you. By seeking only to serve our own desires, those we love no longer are a part and one ends up loosing the love they desired in the first place.

Historian Arnold Toynbee explained that a society's creative energy is tied to the control of sexual drives. Sexual self-control is linked directly to national strength and accomplishment; lack of self-control with national weakness and deterioration. Toynbee's research indicated that of history's twenty-one greatest civilizations, nineteen perished from internal moral corruption, not external enemies.

After ten years of relentless research of more than eighty civilizations, J.D. Unwin also concluded. "Any human society is free to choose either to display great energy or to enjoy sexual freedom: the evidence is that it cannot do both for more than one generation."

I'm so sorry to hear that so many men still think porn is healthy and good for them. You're being lied to...

And lo! It came to pass; yea verily I say unto you: God is here!! He is on OLO.

And there was much rejoicing, and stuff....

Misleading, Shelby. Nobody said porn was 'good' for people. Just like any movie, it's not 'good' or 'bad'.

There are only questions as to whether anybody should have the right to censor what others watch, if that material has not been produced using illegal practices (i.e. rape or child porn).

Given that none - not one - person who has said here, that they're opposed to porn, has shown any evidence at all, let alone credible evidence, that porn has anything to do with rape, it's pretty clear to me they're driven by rhetoric over reality.