Let them read porn
By Libby
You've got to be kidding. I didn't know about this rule, but I couldn't think of stupider one if I tried hard.
Is there a non-lascivious way to depict sex? I think not. But apparently the self-appointed morality police of the fringeright are now demanding that Playboy and Hustler be pulled from the shelves at the PX. Nothing short of a total ban on nudity and sexual thoughts will satisfy that crowd. Maybe they think they're all products of immaculate conception.
Incomprehensibly, we now have military lawyers spending our tax dollars to review material in order to determine it's explicitness. What foolishness. Why the hell shouldn't soldiers be allowed to buy porn on a military base if they want to? We ask our soldiers to fight and die and like men. What possible justification is there to treat them like ten year olds?
You've got to be kidding. I didn't know about this rule, but I couldn't think of stupider one if I tried hard.
The Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996 bars stores on military bases from selling "sexually explicit material." It defines that as film or printed matter "the dominant theme of which depicts or describes nudity" or sexual activities "in a lascivious way."
Is there a non-lascivious way to depict sex? I think not. But apparently the self-appointed morality police of the fringeright are now demanding that Playboy and Hustler be pulled from the shelves at the PX. Nothing short of a total ban on nudity and sexual thoughts will satisfy that crowd. Maybe they think they're all products of immaculate conception.
Incomprehensibly, we now have military lawyers spending our tax dollars to review material in order to determine it's explicitness. What foolishness. Why the hell shouldn't soldiers be allowed to buy porn on a military base if they want to? We ask our soldiers to fight and die and like men. What possible justification is there to treat them like ten year olds?
posted by Libby Spencer at 2:06 PM
14 Comments:
Justification? All I can think of is that porn might interfere with the proselytizing which seems to be the military's sideline these days.
We seem to have the notion that porn leads to sex crimes as well and there is, I think, a problem along those lines, but of course when we look at places where porn is as available as it is in Holland we see that it seems to be inversely proportional rather than a cause.
But of course making someone into a killer doesn't offend the way the playmate of the month does.
I don't think that porn leads to sex crimes Fogg. Sexual repression leads to sex crimes.
It astounds me how Americans freak out about nudity, much less sex.
Er ... three studies in three decades on three continents prove that sex crimes (and especially assaults on children) decrease in direct proportion to the availability of porn.
But that wasn't what I wanted to note. What I wanted to note was that I guess when they push an "abstinence only" agenda, they aren't kidding.
EW, I think the Meese Commission during the Reagan administration concluded the opposite, a conclusion they just as quickly wanted to bury because they did not like the results. Cite your studies, SVP.
As someone who was slimed by the Meese Commission, I am well aware of its factual failings.
As I said, the citation of studies wasn't the major point: Denmark, USA, Japan, 60s, 70s, 90s. The information is readily available, but you'll have to do the work.
I already have a job. ;-)
I have a vague recollection of seeing studies that the availability of porn leads to a decrease in sex crimes. It makes sense because it provides an outlet for the fantasies.
But I think you guys are right that it's part of the proselytizing for Christianity and abstinence only crowd that's driving this whole complaint cycle.
Perhaps I was misunderstood if it seems like I was saying that porn leads to crime - I was saying the opposite.
I did misread that. Reading it again I see what you meant.
Libby, most of the studies I have seen show an inverse relationship between the availability of porn and molestation-type crimes, the opposite of EW's statement. In Japan, pornographic comic books are commonplace. Commuters read them on the train out in the open on the way to work. In Denmark, consumers basically lost interest in porn, and the shops closed for lack of business.
Er ... I thought that I said that the studies showed an inverse relationship between the availability of porn and molestation crimes. I understood what Capt. Fogg said, and was just tossing out some backup info.
Are we all agreeing strenuously?
But, in case any of this is controversial, here's a direct citation. (Swampcracker, I welcome your comments AFTER you've read it):
HERE
"The concern that countries allowing pornography and liberal anti-obscenity laws would show increased sex crime rates due to modeling or that children or adolescents in particular would be negatively vulnerable to and receptive to such models or that society would be otherwise adversely effected is not supported by evidence."
Are we all agreeing strenuously?
I'd say yes. :=}
Hi Ed. Indeed, we are agreeing strenuously. Here is the problem phrase: decrease in direct proportion
Assuming "x" is the independent variable, and "y" is the dependent variable:
A direct relationship suggests that as "x" increases, "y" increases.
An inverse relationship suggests that as "x" increases, "y" decreases.
The phrase “direct proportion” is what threw me off. One of my bugbears about statistical reporting: It requires some skill. Another common error, some people report statistical findings as if they were deterministic and certain. In fact, they are not. Statistics are about probabilities. The words “tendencies” and “trends” connote the correct usage.
Yes.
My bad. I meant something in the neighborhood of "Y decreases in inverse proportion to the availablity of X," but typed the wrong word, anyway. Syntactical typo.
Might I offer the following lame excuse? Long night. (I fear I need to mental floss.)
Ed, no apologies necessary. Not every day is a good blogging day or a good commenting day. It happens to me all the time. Get some rest, my friend.
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