Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!ucla-cs!uci-ics!rsp@PacBell.COM From: rsp@PacBell.COM (Steve Price) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: A note on Central Park Rape incident and NJ incident Message-ID: <17053@paris.ics.uci.edu> Date: 7 Jun 89 18:09:39 GMT Sender: news@paris.ics.uci.edu Reply-To: Steve Price Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA Lines: 50 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu In article <17894@mimsy.UUCP> rao@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Subbarao Kambhampati) writes: > > This is in reference to the media coverage and mass reactions to the >central park rape incident. >[Time magazine article points out how for a significant number of high-school >teenagers, their first exposure to sex is through its portrayal in "slasher >genre" movies, and how it can possibly distort their sense of values. The >standard arguments in defense of this genere, such as "there is a distinction >between fantasy and reality" may not even hold when the subjects are in their >formative years and may not have been given a fair representation of the >"healthy" side of male-female relationships. > what type of picture do >you think we are giving those in formative years???.] I think this is a vital point. The combination of suspense, violence, and sexual titillation found in much of the popular "slasher" films (and even in main stream Hollywood fare) has a powerful affect on adolescent development. I can't believe that it is a healthy influence, leading to positive sexual development for men or women. I also think that the films which peddle ultra-violence are those which ought to be kept away from children/adolescents (preferably by parents). These films should be rated in a manner similar to X-rated films and kept out of kids' hands and minds. I do NOT mind my two sons (12 and 14 yrs) watching a film showing people sharing love/sex/pleasure. I hope both sons grow up to be men who value love/sex/pleasure. (I mean as in R-rated love stories -- not X-rated films.) I mind a great deal that they could learn that sexual pleasure comes from violence and brutalization, or that domination and the power to inflict pain are the highest forms of pleasure. Apparently most Americans don't feel as I do, so most of my son's friends watch the "slasher" films and my boys silently resent my refusal to allow these films into the home. But I don't plan to budge on this one. -- Steve Price pacbell!pbhyf!rsp (415)823-1951 "'Nothing will come from nothing' without information" -- Shakespeare & Bateson -- "A man gazing at the stars is | ARPA: tittle@glacier.ics.uci.edu proverbially at the mercy of | UUCP: {sdcsvax|ucbvax}!ucivax!tittle the puddles in the road." | BITNET: cltittle@uci.bitnet --Alexander Smith | USnail: PO Box 4188, Irvine CA, 92716