Pornography Leads to Rape
July 27, 2013
Watching Porn Then Raping Women
There is an argument to be made when questioning exposure to pornography and the likelihood this exposure causes an individual to commit rape. The answer is not as simple as yes and no. Diana Russell and Anthony D’Amato offer two very different opinions on the matter of pornography leading to rape. Russell’s main argument centers on the violence in pornography, while D’Amato discusses the decreased occurrences of rape due to the accessibility of pornography on the internet. Though both articles provide evidence to substantiate their claims, Russell and D’Amato present a very black and white argument with their own biases included; whereas, my opinion derives from the history of pornography and rape I know, from these articles, and from my own experiences. Perhaps my opinion can be considered the gray area of this controversial topic because it centers on a person’s propensity to rape.
Russell’s Argument: The article Diana E.H. Russell was written in 1998. It begins with the notion that pornography itself is rape. Therefore, porn cannot just have a correlation with rape, porn is actually the cause of it. Russell claimed that people only pay attention to the victims of rape and not the actors and actresses of a pornographic movie. One of her sources she used in her article is testimony from the Commission hearings in Los Angeles. They provide for some compelling evidence that pornography itself can be violent. Directors and producers would make girls do things that they would not want to. Most of Russell’s argument centers on pornography which depicts questionable sexual consent, with very little mention of nonviolent pornography. Russell mentions the male propensity to rape by viewing pornography. Her source to prove her claim was from a study done in 1980, in which 25%-30% of male college student admitted that they would rape a woman if they would not be caught. The study included college
Watching Porn Then Raping Women
There is an argument to be made when questioning exposure to pornography and the likelihood this exposure causes an individual to commit rape. The answer is not as simple as yes and no. Diana Russell and Anthony D’Amato offer two very different opinions on the matter of pornography leading to rape. Russell’s main argument centers on the violence in pornography, while D’Amato discusses the decreased occurrences of rape due to the accessibility of pornography on the internet. Though both articles provide evidence to substantiate their claims, Russell and D’Amato present a very black and white argument with their own biases included; whereas, my opinion derives from the history of pornography and rape I know, from these articles, and from my own experiences. Perhaps my opinion can be considered the gray area of this controversial topic because it centers on a person’s propensity to rape.
Russell’s Argument: The article Diana E.H. Russell was written in 1998. It begins with the notion that pornography itself is rape. Therefore, porn cannot just have a correlation with rape, porn is actually the cause of it. Russell claimed that people only pay attention to the victims of rape and not the actors and actresses of a pornographic movie. One of her sources she used in her article is testimony from the Commission hearings in Los Angeles. They provide for some compelling evidence that pornography itself can be violent. Directors and producers would make girls do things that they would not want to. Most of Russell’s argument centers on pornography which depicts questionable sexual consent, with very little mention of nonviolent pornography. Russell mentions the male propensity to rape by viewing pornography. Her source to prove her claim was from a study done in 1980, in which 25%-30% of male college student admitted that they would rape a woman if they would not be caught. The study included college