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Sex education in the united states essay
Sex education in the united states essay
What are public schools teaching in gender education
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Women today have made strides in narrowing the gender gap with men, beating them in college admission (Francis), and reducing the pay-gap between the sexes by about 17 cents on the dollar over the past 20 years (United States). Despite noticeable advances for women, the notions of sexual female taboo and misogyny still remain ever present. Gender roles and sexuality are a major conflict in American politics today. In the race for the republican nomination for president, Rick Santorum has stated that "America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography (Friedersdorf).” A self-described crusader for family values, he has also detailed in his writing that "In far too many families with young children, both parents are working… Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism (Santorum)." Santorum in his platform targets a split in the female political interest, where pornography and feminism currently brush heads. It is time for the anti-pornography feminists to realize that what Santorum calls “obscenity” is a major front in the culture war for women’s empowerment.
Pornography is an engine for female empowerment. At its core pornography is explicit artwork meant to communicate explicit ideas. It is a means by which society is sexually educated, liberalized, and empowered. While some pornography today has many negative archetypes, as societies acceptance of pornography has liberalized, so to have women as a whole reaped the rewards of greater equality. Pornography has been, and still is, a means of education, communication, and role-playing which allows for taboos to be broken beyond the bedroom. Pornography has been a source of sexual empowerment for women, and a front in the culture wars over women’s place in today’s cult...
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...: What the 'Experts' Really Say." Feminist Review 36 (1990): Pp. 29-41. Print.
Strossen, Nadine. Defending Pornography : Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women's Rights. New York: New York UP, 2000. Print.
Taormino, Tristan. "Political Smut Makers." Village Voice. 06 June 2006. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
Tjaden, Patricia G. "Pornography and Sex Education." The Journal of Sex Research 24 (1988): 208-12. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. .
United States. U.S. Department of Commerce. Economics and Statistics Administration. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009. By Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica Smith. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010. Print.
Williams, Linda. Porn Studies. Durham: Duke UP, 2004. Print.
Susan Brownmiller is a feminist, the founder of Women Against Pornography, and an author of several books (57). The essay “Let’s Put Pornography Back in the Closet” comes from the book Take Back the Night, published in 1980 (57). She clearly wants to inform and persuade the audience of this essay to believe that pornography is degrading to women. In her introduction, Brownmiller tries to gain the reader’s sympathy by stating, “Free speech is one of the great foundations on which our democracy rests” (57). However, she does not think that pornography should be protected under the First Amendment. Her reasoning is biased and based on her own moral beliefs.
A pornographic world [What is normal] by Robert Jensen takes an inside look at the culture of masculinity and what role pornography takes in shaping that culture. Jensen describes how he was forced to play a “macho” role as a child out of fear of being bullied and ridiculed for not being manly enough. Pornography use started for him and his friends in grade school – they would steal magazines and hide them to share in a group later. He talks of how he learned of a social concept, called the “ideal of prostitution” (the notion of men “buying” women in various forms of undress, solely for their pleasure), at a young age. While there has always been a stigma around pornography, whether stemming from moral or religious reasons, Jenson continued to use porn until his 30s.
Wendy McElroy in “A Feminist Defense of Pornography” argues that degrading is subjective to each women and it’s up to them to define it. As much as that is true, does it mean that there shouldn’t be a standard to the word “degrading”? Take for example, pain is subjective, the same papercut can feel painful to me yet not to another person. There are even people who suffer from congenital analgesia (the inability to feel physical pain), But does this mean that it is right to inflict physical pain on those people? The law is the standard for defining physical pain and so the term “degrading” should also has its standard as it will cause harm to others.
Pornography is considered by many to be an unwelcome and distasteful part of our society. However, I argue that it is necessary to voice the unpopular viewpoints, under the Constitution. This paper is a defense of pornography as a constitutional right of free expression, under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. In illustrating this argument, I will first define pornography as a concept, and then address central arguments in favor of pornography remaining legal and relatively unregulated – such as the development of the pornography debate throughout modern US law, and how activist groups address the censorship of adult entertainment.
The influential feminist pro-censorship movement threatens the women’s rights movement it professes to serve. It is led by law professor Catharine MacKinnon and writer Andrea Dworkin. The feminist movement thinks that sexually oriented expression-not sexist concepts of marriage and family, sex segregated labor, or pent-up rage is the cause of discrimination and violence of women. Their solution is to suppress “all” pornography. These are not the beliefs of Nadine Strossen, President of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is an organization that is famous for defending the rights of U.S. citizens in the First Amendment. She is claiming that pornography is a way to strengthen womens rights. I don’t see how displaying women as objects, and putting them in films portraying the abuse of them in a sexual manner is helping to protect their rights(Faigley & Selzer, 540).
As a society, we are confronted daily with pornographic images, they feature in our newspapers, on our film screens, and even in our novels. This voyeuristic obsession the media holds has for a long time been desensitizing us to depictions of violence and sex, but has it also disabled us in being able to see the difference between what is carefully constructed satire and what is merely pornography?
A review of the contemporary research on the negative effects of pornography is replete of scholarly and anecdotal evidence and opinion about the damages associated with viewing it. But the evidence is limited when it comes to criticism of mainstream media’s damages to certain groups, particularly young women with their romantic comedies.
Downs, Donald A. The New Politics of Pornography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. Print.
Kristol’s article writes that pornography and the pornographic industry has always been dominated by men (491). Throughout the history of the United States, men have taken precedence over women in many aspects. Men were considered the workers of the family while women stayed home and acted as housewives or catered to the men. The idea of feminism and women’s equality, however, is growing throughout the nation. With feminism and women’s equality at large, society must progress toward eliminating male domination and allowing the extension for women's opportunities; therefore, pornography and the male-dominated industry should be limited by the government. Aside from men and the power statuses they hold in pornography, Gail Dines in her article “Facts and Figures” discloses information about the male tendencies after watching pornography. Men have been reported to support female rape, have aggressive behavior toward women, have a decreased sex drive toward wives or girlfriends, and desire forced sexual acts after viewing pornography (1). Despite America’s best effort to protect all citizens, in reality, females are typically victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and pornography is a cause of such violence. Although it is a key factor that plays a role in causing violence and aggressive behavior toward women, Americans are able to easily access videos or films instantly because of modern technology and the lack of pornography censoring. Because of the tendency to cause abuse in the real world, pornography must be censored in order to ensure that women are granted equal amounts of safety and
“Newsroom: Income and Wealth: Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010.'.” U.S. Census Bureau Homepage.
When deliberating over whether access to pornography should be prohibited, four areas of contention must be elaborated upon and evaluated critically to provide a sensible basis on which a judgement can be made. Firstly, it must be concluded whether pornography can be classed as a form of speech, and whether it enjoys the same protections as art and literature under the principle. Secondly, works such as those of Catherine MacKinnon can be drawn upon to offer a feminist perspective of the effects of pornography on the treatment of women within modern democratic society. Moreover, the principles of Devlin and Feinberg offer relevant acumen regarding the criminalisation of pornographic media. Overall, this essay will argue that whilst access to pornography should not be entirely prohibited; publications that depict ‘extreme’ situations should be subject to regulation and restriction.
...gument against pornography is claiming that intercourse is an act of rape, the argument immediately seems outlandish and almost laughable, and it surely seems that way to the average person. People see these examples of radical feminism and attribute those isolated incidents as representative of the entire feminist movement as a whole. Therefore through complexity, the feminist movement lost a substantial amount of its genuine credibility due to perceived extremist views on female sexuality. This, among many other incidents, seems to be the cause of this great reversal in female sexuality in our current day society. Instead of putting an end to pornography, it flourishes. Instead of bringing an end to female objectification, it is often nowadays encouraged. This reversal of feminist ideals is the main cause for the damage to female gender roles in the 21st century.
Again, there are different ideas of what is considered pornographic from artwork, movies, and books. While one may look at a painting that depicts nude forms or read a book that includes sexual acts may not see this as a form of pornography while others would find it morally offensive. Feminist would argue that the morality of porn is it is degrading and humiliating to those involved, not of its sexual nature. Their concern is that it promotes sexism and violence against women or children. “What is objectionable about pornography…is its abusive and degrading portrayal of females and female sexuality, not its content or explicitness” (Rodgerson & Wilson, 1994) However, others may feel that it is sexually liberating and in no way degrading to those involved. Those women feel in control of their sexuality and choose to participate in acts as a way of expressing themselves while feeling it has no barring on their moral character. While others would argue that it promotes immoral behavior which would lead to criminal acts or an unhealthy obsession with sex. “The most commonly feared adverse effects of pornography include undesirable sexual behaviors (e.g. adultery), sexual aggression, and loss of respect for traditional family structures and values, loss of respect for authorities, and a general nonspecific moral decay.” (Hald & Linz,
Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2010. Us Department of Justice Census Bureau website. N.P. November 3, 2011.
To some, pornography is nothing more than a few pictures of scantily clad Women in seductive poses. But pornography has become much more than just Photographs of nude women. Computer technology is providing child molesters and child pornographers with powerful new tools for victimizing children. Pornography as "the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, Sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials. No one can prove those films with graphic sex or violence has a harmful effect on viewers. But there seems to be little doubt that films do have some effect on society and that all of us live with such effects.