Japanese Pornography
In the beginning of the semester, I have mentioned Japanese porn as seen in the Museum of Sex in New York City. The explicit Japanese pornography was also mentioned in couple of lectures. The photos provided on the museum’s website showed the rape of women as pornography and one would imagine that such imagery was rather acceptable. Ironically, Japan was rather strict about what they published and did not publish between 1960’s and 1990s. For instance, frontal nudity was prohibited to appear on film in Japan until 1986. The American college sex textbook Sexual Decisions (Diamond & Karlen, 1980) was republished in a Japanese edition in 1985 (Diamond & Karlen, 1985). Depictions of sexual positions and other images were allowed only after the book was edited to reduce the number of illustrations with pubic hair or exposed genitalia. It is rather interesting how the Japanese pornography depicting drawings of rape of women dates back to several hundred years ago but the society is conservative when it comes to displaying pornographic film and photography. Once again, this clearly underlines the fact that “pornography” is still not well defined and is subjective.
Starting in the 1990s, pornography began to be accepted in Japan and the following industries became popular: strip theaters, "love hotels" (rooms available by the hour), "adult" sex shops and "soap lands" ("massage" or "shampoo" parlors known to offer sexual services). These industries are not only popular in Japan but many Asian ladies have been trafficked to other countries, such as the United States where industries like the “soap lands” are also present. This is also interesting because in one of the lectures, Professor Halavais talked about how the United States can ban pornography on their websites but it has no control over websites in other countries. Thus, although prostitution is illegal in New York State, many of the international communities such as China town thrive in sex tourism and are a popular in the industry of “soap lands."
Also, interestingly enough with the increase of pornography exposure in Japan, the rate of rape of underage victims has decreased and the number of underage sex offenders has also dropped. This is important to note because the feminist perspective in the U.S. is that pornography does the opposite- increase violence toward women. "The incidence of rape has progressively declined from 4677 reported cases with 5464 offenders in 1972 to the 1995 incidence of 1500 cases with 1,160 offenders; a dramatic reduction in incidence of some two-thirds." (http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/pornography/prngrphy_ovrvw.html)
Add a comment April 23, 2006
Effects of Pornography
One of the lectures outlined the effects of porn, both social and cultural. Addiction to porn seems to be a popular consquence of weekly porn watching. The most interesting thing that I found about addiction and pornography is that some of the most respected professionals are engaged in child pornography and/or addicted to porn. The answer to why pornography would attract these types of people is still baffling to me. Perhaps, for those who are sexually addictive, pornography serves as a supplement to their sexual desires. It is simply an illusion. It is a way to satisfy one's fantasies. Another effect discussed was crime. I think pornography may be closely associated with crime in a sense that it is connected with prostitution and sex tourism. Violence toward women also fits in this category. Many victims of crime linked with pornography are indeed women. Pornography degrades women and objectifies them. From reading the articles and watching the lectures in this class, I gather that pornography has more negative effects than positive despite its technological innovations. Any technology developed as a result of pornography is used negatively and as a disadvantage to women and sex culture.
Add a comment April 23, 2006
Child Pornography
Child pornography can be baffling and its definition misunderstood. The definition varies between time of periods and locations. In Europe, photographs of nude children, either taking a bath or standing in a crib are considered “cute,” “funny,” and “memorable.” In the United States, this case would be considered child pornography. For instance, David Urban in 1989 took photos of his wife and 15-month-old grandson, both nude, as she was giving him a bath. Kmart turned him in and he was convicted by a Missouri court.
Interestingly enough, according to the Title 18 of the United States Code, pornography is defined as “any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct. (http://www.adultweblaw.com/laws/childporn.htm) and sexual conduct is defined as, “(A) sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; (B) bestiality; (C) masturbation;
(D) sadistic or masochistic abuse; or (E) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person.” Interestingly enough, simply taking photos of nude children does not fall under this definition. Ironically, many cases of child pornography simply exhibit photographs of nude children. The courts definitely need to further define what should be prohibited under child pornography laws. Is something pornographic that falls under the descriptions above or is it pornography when its purpose is to excite the viewers?
Child pornography does have critical effects on its victims. In addition to the exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, children may experience genital bruising and scarring, depression, withdrawal, and other psychological disorders. With the invention of the Internet, child pornography has been made easier to organize, maintain and trade. Unfortunately, many of the missing children end up in child pornography and/or sex tourism. Sex tourism and child pornography may have the following effects:long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and possibly death. (http://www.state.gov/) Sex tourism usually occurs in countries that are fueled by corruption, poverty, the Internet and the ease of travel. Many of the children trafficked into other countries come from lower economic status. In order to reduce sex tourism incidents, the economy of the country must be improved, people have to be educated about the effects of sex tourism and child pornography and stricter laws must be enforced.
Add a comment April 22, 2006
HIV and Pornography
The pornography industry must take more careful precautions due to the easy access to HIV contractions and should promote safer sex. The porn star, Laura Roxx contracted HIV on set when she had a double-anal encounter only after three months into her pornography career. Not only did Laura Roxx was of an illegal age to consume alchohol but she shouldn't have even had sex. However, the state of California did not find this as serious issue nor held her boss accountable because this was simply part of the job. Although according to some porn starts, STD's are not a serious problem in the industy, it can certainly accumulate to that being that only 17% of the porn actors are condom users. Although nowdays, most porn stars do have HIV testing, HIV tests do not show the results until 60 days after. When people have sex several times a day with multiple partners, it is hard to detect how and from whom the person contracted HIV. The porn companies hire 18 year-olds whom they lable "independent contractors" so they don't even have the workplace safety protections that Burkey King workers do. A lot of these porn company giants do not have proper safety precautions necessary for the workplace and the government should put more stricter regulations upon these businesses in order to protect the workers.
Add a comment April 9, 2006
Making Money off Porn
Here is a website I've found whose porn producers are looking for affiliates: http://affiliates.eroticy.com/pressRelease.asp?release=22
Starting your own porn business may not be as easy as it looks. With the high number of porn sites (smut glut) and, thus great competition, it definitely takes hard work to attract visitors to your sites. Online porn giants rely on ma-and-pa operations to feed traffic to their sites through a web of banner ads and affiliation programs. However, the problem with this is that these business pay our more in the affiliate programs for traffic than they make in one membership. Now these large businesses are dependent on new sites, constantly to become affiliated with these paid sites and the challenge is that so much content is free nowdays, why should they pay? With an abundant amount of free explicit material, it is difficult to attract subscribers to pay for these sites.
Add a comment April 9, 2006
Frontline’s “Sex Slaves” hits close to home
The documentary, "Sex Slaves" that appeared on Frontline is a great investigative report and seems to be quite accurate. This past summer, I've been to both Spain, and Odessa, Ukraine. In Spain, I've met this student from Turkey who asked me where I was from. When I told him that I am Moldovian but live in the U.S., he told me that if I ever go to Turkey not to ever reveal that I am from Moldova because people will automatically assume that I am a prostitute. After my trip to Spain, I went to Odessa, Ukraine with my sister and my brother-in-law because that is his native country. Odessa exhibits a wide gap between the rich and the poor. In one city, you can witness BMW's and cellphones and feel sorrow from the poor teenagers selling watermelons on the streets. It is a city and yet a small village. After seeing this documentary and seeing the streets I've walked on and the port I took photographs at, did it really hit me that this place is a perfect location to transport humans to Turkey, being that it is right across the black sea. We also had a friend from Moldova visit us in Ukraine because we couldn't visit our native country because we were scared that we might get killed in return for money these people might rob us off. She told us about several women from our village who were trafficked. People know about it, she explained to me as I asked her if everyone knows what is happening in Turkey, then why do people fall for it?; but the economy is so bad and they don't understand how bad the circumstances can become, they agree to go abroad. They agree to go abroad in hopes of helping their families and putting food on the table but in reality, they may never see their children again. Reading the comments on the website for the documentary, I was absolutely disgusted by one viewer who said that most of these women go to Turkey voluntarily. They go to Turkey on their will but they are tricked into why they are being imported there. They think they will be waitressing there and they have no idea what awaits them. Even when I was living in Moldova, my parents and many parents went to countries such Poland, Italy, Romania to sell goods and to work because the pay in Moldova is not enough to feed the entire family. This is a popular method to make money and I had no idea that human trafficking took place there since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many of these people may indeed, not know. They may not be educated or have a choice to go to school because money is needed more than education.
4 comments April 7, 2006
Is pornography really a choice or force?
Lecture 12 discussed pornography as a form of prostitution and intertwined it with human trafficking, asking us whether pornography is a choice or is it force? Unfortunately, with the increasing cases of human trafficking, the line between freedom of choice andcoersion is blurred. The story told to us in the lecture about the 19 year-old girl from Nigeria is one of many ordinary examples in today's society. Many of these women who are being trafficked to industrial countries are promised education or a career but are actually fooled into prostitution. Upon arrival into the industrial countries, these women are beaten, raped, and have their passports taken away. Their families are threatened if these women attempt to run away. The women who are victims of human trafficking are clearly prostitutes not by choice. These women do not even get paid for having sex. The money they are promised to make actually go to pay the so called travel and document expenses. As human trafficking increases, the feminist concept of pornography encourages violence against women must increase as well. Interesting enough, in my social psychology book, I've read that not all pornography encourages aggression against women. Non-violent pornography elicits a pleasant emotional response and low levels of sexual arousal. Pornography and violence are only associated when men who have been predisposed to sexually offend- thus, sexually abused, most likely during their childhood. This has been also pointed out in the lecture. Only then are these men most likely to be affected by pornographic exposure. Violent pornography on the other hand is associated with aggressive thoughts. However, according to social psychologists,Paik and Comstock, violent pornography only affect heteresexual relationships.
The pornography actors we witness on our televisions today who make $600-$3,000 per scene did not choose this career by choice because if they had other options, they would've chosen another field. It is most likely that these porno stars come from low-class, poor families where they were not able to receive adequate education. In the Talent, part II lecture, some of the women reveal the reasons behind joining the industry: economic survival and insecurity. Many of these porn stars work in the industry because they were never able to go to college and this is an "easy" way to make money and an opportunity to pay for school and go to college. However, one of the things these porn stars make a mistake in is that after being porn stars, it will be more difficult to get a good job. Thus, whether these actors are trafficked or are so called volunteers, they are in the industry by either physical force (trafficking) or circumstantial force.
Add a comment April 7, 2006
Legalizing Prostitution
Although many people in U.S. think that prostitution is a victimless crime and should be legalized, I completely disagree for a number of reasons. First, the number of STD cases is increasing on a regular daily basis and mainly among minority groups. Many women involved in sex tourism are from ethnic groups because these women often are promised to be “rescued” from poor conditions in their native countries. Many women involved in prostitution in industrial countries such as the United States are trafficked from foreign countries and are forced to work here against their will. Their passports are taken away the minute they arrive to their destinations and are treated inhumane. They are beaten, raped, pissed on and sometimes even killed if they attempt to escape. Those who support sex tourism, support prostitution and support rape and violence against innocent women whose economic status is taken advantage of.
Is pornography prostitution? To an extent, it is. Today, many of these women who are trafficked into industrial nations are forced to have sex on camera and these tapes may be sold. In this case, I believe pornography should be outlawed. However, there are people who perform these sexual acts on camera willingly, who want to earn their living doing pornography. However, these people like Jenna Jameson are very rare. Based on research, most people involved in pornography are doing this unwillingly or out of desperation. Prostitution and human trafficking is a result of corruption in a society. If these underprivileged countries were given the education they need, the money and resources necessary for survival, women would not seek out such opportunities as a means to make money. However, the capitalist countries have always taken advantage of poor countries and for years, have been exploiting them for resources. The big giants such as U.S. will not stop prostitution although it may seem like they are taking action against it because pornography brings in millions of dollars each year. It is one of the top 3 largest sources of income for our nation.
1 comment March 22, 2006
Tijuana Bibles
Tijuana bibles which were little underground comic books that were illegally published during the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s and featured pornographic drawings were not only a beginning to print pornography but the demeaning depiction of women. However, the comic books offended not only women but also political leaders and legends. From this I conclude that the comic books portrayed the people with power, the power of the leaders in the society as well as the sexual power women think they have. For many years, women have been treated as property whose selling point was their sexual attractiveness. Women have been objectified and men were threatened by this sexual attractiveness as it was used as a tool to control their minds. This is why women believe that their sexual attractiveness empowers them and will get them farther than those women who are less sexually attractive. Some women think that good looks will get them far or at least assist them achieving a successful career and they maybe correct because the sexual power given to the women in the media shows just that. There are two ways to look at women being portrayed sexually in the media during the 1930′s when the Tijuana bibles were published and today- sexual portrayal of women is demeaning or the portrayal of sexual attractiveness gives women power over men. Today however, women want to be seen for more than just looks but for what they think and what they do and not how they look.
It is interesting that the Tijuana bibles gave rise to the pornographic magazines and pornographic photographs and content in them yet are similar now to the computer-generated pornography today. We thus transitioned from fictious pornography to real pornographic photography and now back to fictious pornography, which unlike the images in the Tijuana bibles look more believable due to advanced technology we have today. Once again, technology and pornography are intertwined. It is also interesting how in the early cartoons; pornography consisted simply of nude cartoonish dolls unlike now where pornography is made up of sexual acts performed by the subjects.
1 comment March 22, 2006
Hack Production
In Lecture 9, Professor Halavais showed hack production during which images are taken from certain photos and are attached in various places of other photographs. There are many nude photographs of celebrities and sometimes we may detect them as unreal and sometimes we may find them funny. However, I think hack production is a huge problem, especially when the target can be someone we know or even ourselves. During my RA years on a freshman floor, I had couple of boys who would play around with Photoshop and the Flash program to create “funny” photographs and even action clips of people they knew. I personally feel that this is a huge problem because someone’s jokes can turn into another person’s sufferings. With the new and approved technology, sometimes it may be very difficult to distinguish unreal from real photographs and such photographs can jeopardize the victim’s reputation and future. Although I am extremely happy that pornography has spurred new technology and allows individuals to explore their uniqueness and creativity, it can cause eternal harm. Unfortunately, there are no restriction with these software that can prevent us from using the technology in negative ways. However, I think it is very important for parents, teachers and any person in leadership to talk about pornography and technology to kids and prevent hacking production from taking place.
Add a comment February 19, 2006
