Flawed Theory and Method in Studies of Prostitution

RONALD WEITZER
George Washington University

In no area of the social sciences has ideology contaminated knowledge more pervasively than in writings on the sex industry. Too

often in this area, the canons of scientific inquiry are suspended and research deliberately skewed to serve a particular political
agenda. Much of this work has been done by writers who regard the sex industry as a despicable institution and who are active in
campaigns to abolish

In this commentary, I examine several theoretical and methodological flaws in this literature, both generally and with regard to

three recent articles in Violence Against Women. The articles in question are by Jody Raphael and Deborah Shapiro (2004),
Melissa Farley (2004), and Janice Raymond (2004). At least two of the authors (Farley and Raymond) are activists involved in the
antiprostitution campaign. Continue Reading…

השפעת צריכת פורנוגרפיה על תפיסות סקסיסטיות ואלימות של הצופים

מקור : הבלוג “הומו סאפיינס” של גיל גרינגרוז.

בפוסט קודם נתתי רקע לגבי מה שאני חושב הוא ההסבר השלם ביותר לצריכה המאסיבית של פורנוגרפיה בימינו. כמובן שאם לפורנוגרפיה יש בסיס אבולוציוני, תוצר לוואי של אדפטציות שהמין שלנו עבר במשך מיליוני שנים, אין זה אומר שהצפייה בה היא משהו טבעי ורצוי, או שאין לה השלכות שליליות. מעבר לעניין ההתמכרות שהיא תמיד לא רצויה, לפורנוגרפיה יכולות להיות השלכות שליליות רבות על הצופים והיא גם מתקיימת בעולם חברתי מסוים. השאלה אם כן, היא מהן אותם ההשפעות של צפייה בפורנוגרפיה על הצופה?

התחלתי את הדיון בנושא בבחינה של הטענה שהתוכן המוצג בסרטי פורנו משפיל נשים. המידע שהתקבל ממחקר בנושא לא מצא לכך תימוכין. כמובן, העובדה שפורנוגרפיה כשלעצמה אינה משפילה נשים לא אומרת שאין לה השפעות שליליות על הצופים. הרבה נכתב על ההשפעות ההרסניות של פורנוגרפיה. ישנם כאלו שמאשימים אותה בעידוד אלימות נגד נשים. אחרים מבקרים את הנזק שהיא גורמת ליחסים בין גברים ונשים, לזוגיות ויחסי מין בכלל. נטען שהיא הורסת נישואין, שגברים באים בדרישות לא הגיוניות מבנות זוגן כמו גילוח שיער הערווה או תנוחות מיניות שהנשים אינן מעוניינות בהן או נהנות מהן, שהיא מייצרת ציפיות לא ריאליות מאנשים בזמן סקס, שהיא פוגעת בתפקוד המיני של הגבר שלא יכול להתגרות מזוגתו אחרי שצפה בפורנו, ועוד ועוד. הבעייה עם הטענות הללו היא שיש מעט מאוד מחקרים אמפיריים על הנושא, ורוב המסקנות מתבססות על עדויות אנקדוטיות, אם בכלל. יחסית לתחומים אחרים שמרכזיים לחיי אנשים, המחקר בנושא מצומצם מאוד וניתן בהחלט להצטער על כך (יש סיבות רבות לכך, למשל החשש של חוקרים לגעת בנושאים שנויים במחלוקת שיגרום לכך שיותקפו ויוקעו על ידי אחרים). למרות זאת, בשנים האחרונות יש כמה מחקרים מעניינים שאני מעוניין לסקור בפוסט הזה.   המשך לקרא…

Pornography: Beneficial or Detrimental?

Published on January 21, 2010 by Gad Saad, Ph.D. in Homo Consumericus

For the past several decades, a debate has raged as to whether or not pornography yields deleterious effects at the individual and/or societal levels (e.g., increased negative views toward women; increased rate of sexual crimes against women). In many instances, those who have sought to link pornography to countless ills have been ideologically motivated, as the aggregate scientific evidence hardly supports such conclusions. See chapter 6 of my book The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (p. 228-235) for some relevant references on pornography. Continue Reading…

Self-Perceived Effects of Pornography Consumption

Gert Martin Hald
Neil M. Malamuth

The self-perceived effects of “hardcore” pornography consumption were studied in a large representative sample of young adult Danish men and women aged 18–30. Using a survey that included the newly developed Pornography Consumption Effect Scale, we assessed participants’ reports of how pornography has affected them personally in various areas, including their sexual knowledge, attitudes toward sex, attitudes toward and perception of the opposite sex, sex life, and general quality of life. Across all areas investigated, participants reported only small, if any, negative effects with men reporting slightly more negative effects than women. In contrast, moderate positive effects were generally reported by both men and women, with men reporting significantly more positive effects than women. For both sexes, sexual background factors were found to significantly predict both positive and negative effects of pornography consumption. Although the proportion of variance in positive effects accounted for by sexual background factors was substantial, it was small for negative effects. We discuss how the findings may be interpreted differently by supporters and opponents of pornography due to the reliance in this study on reported self-perceptions of effects. Nonetheless, we conclude that the overall findings suggest that many young Danish adults believe that pornography has had primarily a positive effect on various aspects of .  their lives.

Continue Reading…

More Than a Body: Mind Perception and the Nature of Objectification

Kurt Gray
University of Maryland
Joshua Knobe, Mark Sheskin, and Paul Bloom
Yale University
Lisa Feldman Barrett
Northeastern University and Mass General Hospital/Harvard Medical School

According to models of objectification, viewing someone as a body induces de-mentalization, stripping
away their psychological traits. Here evidence is presented for an alternative account, where a body focus
does not diminish the attribution of all mental capacities but, instead, leads perceivers to infer a different
kind of mind. Drawing on the distinction in mind perception between agency and experience, it is found
that focusing on someone’s body reduces perceptions of agency (self-control and action) but increases
perceptions of experience (emotion and sensation). These effects were found when comparing targets
represented by both revealing versus nonrevealing pictures (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or by simply
directing attention toward physical characteristics (Experiment 2). The effect of a body focus on mind
perception also influenced moral intuitions, with those represented as a body seen to be less morally
responsible (i.e., lesser moral agents) but more sensitive to harm (i.e., greater moral patients; Experiments
5 and 6). These effects suggest that a body focus does not cause objectification per se but, instead, leads
to a redistribution of perceived mind. Continue Reading…

EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF HETEROSEXUAL AND HOMOSEXUAL PORNOGRAPHY

*Catherine Salmon
Department of Psychology, University of Redlands

Amy Diamond
Department of Psychology, Loma Linda University

This study focuses on the relative frequencies of various sexual activities and the ways in
which those activities are portrayed in homosexual and heterosexual pornographic films.
Many anti-pornography arguments are based on the alleged oppression and degradation
of women in pornography. Others (Salmon & Symons, 2001) have suggested that the
main focus of pornography is not about contempt for women and that if it was, gay
pornography should differ dramatically from heterosexual pornography. This paper tests
that hypothesis. Sixty films that ranked amongst the most popular heterosexual and
homosexual DVDs were examined with regard to the types of sexual activities that occur
and the interactions between the participants. We found few major differences in
pornography aimed at a homosexual versus heterosexual male audience, other than those
that reflect the different anatomy involved, and none that reflect an anti-female agenda.

Continue Reading…

The War Against Boys

This we think we know: American schools favor boys and grind down girls. The truth is the very opposite. By virtually every measure, girls are thriving in school; it is boys who are the second sex

CHRISTINA HOFF SOMMERSMAY 1 2000, 12:00 PM ET

It’s a bad time to be a boy in America. The triumphant victory of the U.S. women’s soccer team at the World Cup last summer has come to symbolize the spirit of American girls. The shooting at Columbine High last spring might be said to symbolize the spirit of American boys.

That boys are in disrepute is not accidental. For many years women’s groups have complained that boys benefit from a school system that favors them and is biased against girls. “Schools shortchange girls,” declares the American Association of University Women. Girls are “undergoing a kind of psychological foot-binding,” two prominent educational psychologists say. A stream of books and pamphlets cite research showing not only that boys are classroom favorites but also that they are given to schoolyard violence and sexual harassment…. (Continue Reading)

 

Camille Paglia: A Feminist Defense of Masculine Virtues

The cultural critic on why ignoring the biological differences between men and women risks undermining Western civilization

‘What you’re seeing is how a civilization commits suicide,” says Camille Paglia. This self-described “notorious Amazon feminist” isn’t telling anyone to Lean In or asking Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. No, her indictment may be as surprising as it is wide-ranging: The military is out of fashion, Americans undervalue manual labor, schools neuter male students, opinion makers deny the biological differences between men and women, and sexiness is dead. And that’s just 20 minutes of our three-hour conversation.

When Ms. Paglia, now 66, burst onto the national stage in 1990 with the publishing of “Sexual Personae,” she immediately established herself as a feminist who was the scourge of the movement’s establishment, a heretic to its orthodoxy. Pick up the 700-page tome, subtitled “Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, ” and it’s easy to see why. “If civilization had been left in female hands,” she wrote, “we would still be living in grass huts.” (Continue Reading…)