Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rtech.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!amdahl!rtech!jeff
From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics
Subject: Re: A suggestion for a ground rule in any pornography debate
Message-ID: <650@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Sep-85 04:39:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: rtech.650
Posted: Sun Sep 22 04:39:26 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 10:18:07 EDT
References: <5660@tekecs.UUCP> <1873@reed.UUCP> <10285@ucbvax.ARPA> <2061@mnetor.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA
Lines: 45
Xref: linus net.women:7006 net.politics:10450

>
> Pornography
> does pause a real threat to women, and the solution to this threat
> might just include some amount of censorship...
> 
> It is one thing to object
> to things one might consider disgusting even though it poses
> no threat to oneself (such as homosexuality). It is another
> to object to things that one considers pauses a personal threat.
> I object to pornography for this reason.  It scares the hell out
> of me to know that some person might read some of that crap and
> decide to act out his fantasies on me against my will.  That
> has NOTHING to do with what other people do in the privacy of their
> own bedroom, it has to do with MY safety...
> 
> Nobody's objecting to
> people's sexual preferences here, they're objecting to hate
> literature which endangers their safety...
> 
> Gee, and I thought the right to physical safety was one of our
> society's basic rights too.  Sounds like some rights have to
> be balanced out against others in some cases, eh?
> 
> -- 
> Sophie Quigley

A man is such a simple machine.  If you put pornography in one end and turn
the crank a little, rape will come out the other end.

Pornography is not like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater.  In the latter
case, there is a direct cause and effect relationship between speech and
people getting hurt, so that type of speech must be restricted.  That is, it is
obviously nearly impossible that this behavior would not lead to people rushing
out of the theater in a panic.  In the former case, all you can say is that
someone *might* read some pornography and then try out some of his fantasies
on you.  I say that if a man rapes, he has made a concious decision to do so
(barring mental illness), and that the pornography is neither necessary nor
sufficient to produce the effect.
which *might* lead to rape or other forms of violence.
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

{amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff
{ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com