Thursday, March 5, 2009
The basic definition of pornography, according to Merriam-Webster, is any material depicting erotic behavior intended to cause sexual excitement. But for professor Robert Jensen, the definition of pornography includes a few more adjectives.
“The content of contemporary pornography is relentlessly sexist and overtly racist,” Jensen said.
In his book, “Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity,” Jensen discusses what he describes as a “porn-saturated society” that greatly influences how men and women are socialized.
Jensen, associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas, will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the Big 12 Room at the Kansas Union. His lecture, “Pornography and the End of Masculinity,” will be followed by a documentary screening of “The Price of Pleasure: Pornography, Sexuality and Relationships.”
Pooya Naderi, graduate student in the department of sociology, said Jensen was the first graduate student sponsored lecture for the department. Naderi said Jensen’s talk was the beginning of what he hoped would become a series of lectures.
One of the graduate students’ goals in the department was to invite speakers who were critical of society because it was important for engaging in academic scholarship, Naderi said.
Naderi thought Jensen was a good choice to speak at the University of Kansas because he wasn’t afraid to discuss controversial things.
Jensen said he had dedicated 20 years to anti-pornography activism and research.
“There tends to be a lot of porn in this world and a large amount of college-aged men consume it,” Jensen said.
One of his many concerns about pornography’s influence on society is the way it presents relationships and gender equality.
“If porn was presenting healthy relationships and gender equality, maybe there wouldn’t be a reason to care,” Jensen said.
Jensen said pornography was affecting the quality of relationships for both men and women.
“Men should care because this is profoundly unhealthy,” Jensen said.
Jensen said he visited with young men who told him they could no longer enjoy sexual interaction with their partners the way they did before porn.
Christian Crandall, professor of social psychology, said people tended to create expectations about how certain people should look depending on the types of media they were exposed to. He said fashion magazines often gave women visual representations about how the average woman should look and the same was true for pornographic material. If people are exposed to enough pornography, they begin to believe their sex lives should mirror those in porn.
According to the Lighted Candle Society, a society of concerned citizens dedicated to the eradication of pornography, 67 percent of young men and 49 percent of young women thought viewing pornography was acceptable. The study was printed in a 2008 edition of the Journal of Adolescent Research.
“For women, I hope the argument I present helps them understand their discomfort with pornography,” Jensen said.
He said he hoped his lecture would also point out the underlying hierarchical relationships between genders and between races.
— — Edited by Heather Melanson
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Comments
Professor to preach on porn
I don't understand why people would look at this. Don't they have a gag reflex? They really should do a study of those who have no interest in the subject and could live happily without any kind of sex at all. Maybe do a comparison study of them and the ones who look at porn a lot.
Professor to preach on porn
Pornography creates unrealistic expectations in men. Romance novels, “Chick flicks” and television shows produced for women create unrealistic expectations in women. Of these, it is the wife’s unrealistic expectations that most often lead to divorce.
Nationwide, women file over two-thirds of all divorces. Only a very small percentage are the result of the husband’s infidelity, drug/alcohol abuse, or physical or verbal abuse. Most are the result of unrealistic expectations built on the above sources.
The women seeking divorces honestly believe their lives are not perfect because they married the wrong man. I am not going to absolve men of all responsibility. Certainly, men can be insensitive, abusing their traditional roles as head of the household. However, too often, women believe the husband should always be sensitive and romantic. He should work all day and provide as much income as the wife wants to spend, then come home and sweep her off her feet, pausing only long enough to do half the housework and take care of the children, so she can have evenings and weekends free to do as she pleases. Of course, the husband should always be submissive to and obey the wife, because she is obviously smarter.
The reality of housework, dirty diapers, and screaming children is in such conflict with the lives these women imagined, that they are convinced they would be happier with someone else. And their happiness is paramount.
Mothers who work outside the home present another problem. Even if the wife had always planned to work outside the home, she frequently resents not being with her children during the day. This is obviously her husband’s fault, because he is not a good provider.
For the record, I have been married to my first and only wife for over 27 years. I started reading the UDK on-line when my eldest child started attending KU. My wife and I have dealt with many of these issues. My wife blames her expectations on the romance novels she read growing up. But my point of reference is as an attorney who has handled several hundred divorces.
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