"Consent" in pornography: an analogy with combat sports

You are right about the study. But these are the kind of findings that lean me towards the position that it does; things like reducing ability to manage aggressive emotions effectively or (in the case of Bandura-esque studies) "priming" people for violent activities.

Ultimately however, I don't think the conversation is worth having outside of pure academia, video games IMHO only seem to very marginally cause violent crime in the west. Violence is, as it stands here, a product of either economic desperation (wealth inequality is a huge indicator of violent crime) or wide-spread mental health issues; people aren't committing violent acts because we have a culture that tacitly accepts violence as an appropriate way to deal with issues.

So while I do think violent video games influence us in certain ways I don't think that it's either:

A: A factor we should focus our blame on.

or

B: A factor that can't be managed through responsible media-consumption habits and an awareness of the medium.

 

The study really has to stand in context with all the others that trace violent video game effects. The idea isn't really that people play a video game and then go "RRRRGGH, Go Smash!" more that that kind of mental exercise may make rash/violent responses more likely later on. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity

The kinds of activities people engage in help shape their brain and condition it to certain responses. For example a number of studies link to facebook as one of a number of causes of increased vanity; because people spend so much time examining the way their "page" is presented to other people and tracking how many likes/approval they get for posting stuff.

Again this is usually quite small stuff, but I think very interesting when we try and understand how things like "the internet" have impacted our personalities.

 

Hmm ... I doubt vanity is any worse since Facebook arrived.

 

This is an instant doorway to exploitation. Just consider for a moment the issues schools are facing right now with kids and teenagers sending each other explicit pictures on their phones? And now you want to make this normal?

Really bad idea.

What things?

This just sounds like you want to take your PC agenda into my fantasies. Please define sexist porn? The porn industry is all about catering to people's fantasies. It's not real.

If you really want to stop exploitation in the porn industry the only attitude that needs to change is the one that considers it shameful to work in the sex industry and forces these people to live on the fringes of society. To do that we first need to get past the idea collectively as a society that sex is entirely normal and not shameful in the slightest.

Get that done and I think suddenly we'll find porn just isn't an issue any longer.

 

Yes, because when I said "make porn ourselves" what I meant to say was: "Let's have inexperienced teenagers and children make porn".

Go read the damn thread.

Oh no! You got me red handed! But no, you are mistaken, I don't want to censor "your fantasies" (we probably have very similar fantasies. Hell, I'd wager that mine are "worse").

Read the thread. Again, if needs must.

Thanks Captain Obvious... any chance of us seeing your side-kick "Immediately Apparent" Boy?

Something which no one in this thread has argued against.

 

It sounds to me that the problem of objectification and porn is: if people watch pornography, then they'll objectify women as sex tools.
Now I guess this problem is not so much about pornography itself - I guess everyone is basically supposed to be but a sex tool in this kind of movies - but the reality outside of it. I mean, women are objectified not only in pornography -which can or cannot be a problem, even men are objectified in this respect, I think, and it depends on the kind of material anyway- but especially outside of it. If you see, all medias basically tend to represent women as objects, think for example of those pretty girls who do nothing but standing there. I think the main problem is not pornography, but the fact that all media want to give an image on women which is not very distant from that of a porn star.

 

Again your definition of porn is exceptionally limited and pays no attention to sexual dynamics

Does gay porn objectify men?
Does S&M objectify the Dom or the Sub?
Does scat porn....well you get the idea

 

I think I've said that there are lots of different kinds of porn and that many of these do have differing issues and need to be approached with their unique dynamics in mind.

The next three questions are very off-topic because they subvert the dynamics of vanilla porn but I'll give some short answer to try and clarify a bit.

Depends, it has been observed that the "bottom" is seen as lesser for no real reason but that's really an area I don't know much about and to what extent that is objectification, I'm unsure of.

Sometimes, yeah, often when an individual has their person-hood reduced to that role without the fantasy elements being appropriately contextualized you can argue that objectification has gone on.

The objectification of people in BDSM really centers on how we differ between the intentional objectification of the scene and the objectification of the players as a result of the way that scene is presented to the audience.

Are you sure you know what "objectification" means? It's not just "being in porn" it's having autonomy and person-hood reduced to the point that you are nothing more than a sex toy. That's not to say that, people don't want to do other things than have sex with you but that when people want to have sex with you they are not thinking about how you think about them having sex with you.

A classic form of objectification is in "Cat-Calling"; the person receiving the cat-call is being objectified because they are being commented on and involved in a sexual dynamic but no attention has been paid by the "cat-caller" as to whether the person might appreciate it or find it un-comfortable and un-settling. The target is nothing more than something that the cat-caller can shout sexual remarks about without any consideration for that persons feelings.

 

Maybe some developer could release a Cat Calling game, assuming Wii, XBox etc has voice recognition. There could be a male version and female version

 

I think you should consider some counselling then.

 

I know exactly what it means - and the fact someone puts their judgement on what someone else calls "stimulating" does not make it objectifying.

 

who knew this would be such a hot topic for everyone!

 

You can't understand porn unless you go to southern California.

Just had to say that because I think if we substituted the name of some ninja move for porn, this thread could easily be moved to the ninja section and no one would notice.

 

What you did there...I see it

 

Unfortunately mate, it's pretty clear you don't. Objectifying =/= titillating/sexy/attractive.

If you can't get your head around that then this conversation will have us both urinating in the wind.

 

It means treating someone as an item or thing with little respect for their individuality or dignity and it has been on that basis I have been discussing

 

Well then why are we even arguing?

 

whenever I think of video games causing violence I always think the ones who started world war 1 and world war 2 didnt have our video games.