Kyle Karpowitz

11.3.2014
Lab 3
Harmfulness of Pornography
I chose to do my Lap on the article title Is Pornography Harmful? I chose
this topic due to the ever increasing interest it draws on hot button issues such as
its harmfulness and its addictive power. As I read I found my self-drawing more
and more of an opinion on such a vastly debated subject this opinion combined with
personal experience gave me a greater understanding of why people say it does, and
why others say it doesnt.
What Evidence is there that pornography is harmful?
I found a hard time with this question and how it was argued in the article
that was assigned. I feel as though a lot of their arguments had flaws and broad
generalizations one that stands out to me is where they are discussing
predisposition of pairing sexually arousing stimuli with portrayals of rape, they
state If you assume that your child can learn from Seasame Street how to count one,
two, three, four, five, believe me, they can learn how to pick up a gun. Presumably
males can learn equally well how to rape, beat, sexually abuse, and degrade
females. I find this to be a very far leap and a desperate grasp to connect points
they continue with this vague leap stating Male subjects can learn to become
sexually aroused by seeing a picture of a womans boot after repeatedly seeing
womens boots in association with sexually arousing slides of nude femalesThe
laws of learning that operated in the acquisition of the boot fetish can also teach
males who were not previously aroused by depictions of rape to become so.
I feel as stated above these statements over exaggerate the role of
pornography plays in the violence of men towards women. However, I do agree with
some statements they made later on in their argument, those statements where
based on a study preformed by Zillmann and Bryant where they examined the
impact on male subjects of what they referred to as mass exposure, after three
weeks of this study the males were found trivializing rape. This conclusion came
when after the study the male subjects were placed as a jury and asked to hand out
sentences towards violent sexual assault cases in this more often than not the jury
was giving out lesser punishments even to those crimes that were more serious in
nature and involved children as young as twelve.
Evidence against?
I feel as though the evidence against is strong showing that causal
pornography watching doesnt lead to men raping women and causing such heinous
crimes, I feel as though who making these accusations are grabbing at something
thats purely just not there and greatly over exaggerated In conclusion my feeling on
this matter comes from only my personal experience on the subject and from that
Ive heard from other. I feel as though that pornography its self is addicting and
does cause great harm in peoples lifes and relationships, as far as loved ones
distancing themselves away in pursuit of what would be referred to as a deviant

lifestyle, in this instance yes pornography is harmful and does cause much hurt in
peoples lives today. I also feel yes that pornography severely degrades women but
also men alike that theyd participate in such gross acts against a women is
sometimes unfathomable but that is the world we live in today where those acts are
being done all the time an no matter what we say theyll still happen pornography or
not. So in essence I do agree pornography is bad and harmful, but on the flip side I
dont feel as though its causing all these violent sexual acts in the world today, I do
agree its a stimuli that can give one ideas on how to preform these acts but to say
that its the roote say or at least the deciding cause is ridiculous and really cant be
though of as a serious notion, people arent going to watch a porno and then go out
and try the act especially violent act, just like video games I do agree that it does
desensitize people which is point in case with the jury. When all is said and done I
find my self in this particular argument of pornography standing against the yes,
meaning that I feel as though porno doesnt cause people to make acts such as these
against women, but the mental state of those causing those acts, to say that we can
learn to do these acts from porno is dumb and is a lazy cop out and doesnt do this
subject justice.