some would assert that schindler's list is holocaust porn.

They've clearly never seen Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS

Sexual offending against women is far lower.

There's this as well:

The U.S. Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Survey (considered our best measure of crime because its anonymous surveys capture offenses not reported to police) reports that rape has been falling dramatically for decades...The crime surveys further indicate that the…

Children are the exception to every social rule. I think making an effort to shield kids from porn is sensible, but you needn't take it too far. If the kids are trying to see porn, then they probably…

Russell, I'd be interested to know your source for this.

I hadn't looked at the most recent numbers, but I referred to a post last year, which said:

Before we depart this topic, it's worth noting that New Zealand's record in reducing sexual offending by more conventional means…

Russell, I'd be interested to know your source for this.

FYI, in 2005 MOJ stats show there were 1823 convictions for sex offences (up on 1636 for 2004).

Over the past 14 years these figures have waxed & waned but not massively. Of 27,837…

Business-as-usual violence is just the same. I don't condemn it because I don't think it promotes violence. It just hooks into the violent streak latent in many of us, and titivates it.

I've actually come to the surprising conclusion that my boys cope with violence in games and videos (they…

Gawd, the fact I didn't even realize is kinda scary – I just thought it had a bumout mood through clever coloring...but I never did finish watching it. But the fact that I didn't like to see that, doesn't…

Because that finger's strictly for lovin'?

i've never spoken to anyone who doesn't like to scratch an itch, or have an itch scratched.

if they say they don't, they're lying.

i'd also like to see a 5-page discussion of business-as-usual violence on tv and in film. i've had sex. i've never laid a finger on anyone in anger.

Because that finger's strictly for lovin'?

other than one film in the 80s you don't see many directors making personalised and agonised protrayals of cambodia.

i'd also like to see a 5-page discussion of business-as-usual violence on tv and in film. i've had sex. i've never laid…

portrayed in full technicolor glory

Spielberg filmed Schindlers List in good old fashioned black & white :)

I found it full of full-on disgusting ideas portrayed in full technicolor glory. Far more disturbing than any porno I've ever seen.

Yep, as I was watching Bones last night, with its incinerated corpse in a chandelier at the beginning, I had to wonder why I, or anybody else for…

Neither of those examples are ever offered up so explicitly for a viewer's pleasure. You don't get the wokkita-wokkita soundtrack or the everyone's-having-a-good-or-at-least-interesting-time subtext in…

does anyone really give the proverbial rat's rectum where – or in who – Matthew Ridge is putting any part of his body?

Julie Christie might...

Who can save us from this unsavoury prospect?

Actually, I'm gobsmacked* neither of them is on Dancing with the Stars this year.

* as…

I'm not saying it's a good idea. Neither is the end of the world, or the holocaust, but I'll watch both in a movie.

Neither of those examples are ever offered up so explicitly for a viewer's pleasure. You don't get the wokkita-wokkita soundtrack or the everyone's-having-a-good-or-at-least-interesting-time subtext in any…

I cannot see how you can watch porn and not feel at guilt at enjoying the sometimes very clear expolitation of a fellow human being.

I feel bad for people who work at McDonalds but I love a Quarter Pounder now and then.

I'd say the (primarily male) consumers are already well accustomed to that…

I don't know if it's a gripe, so much as the element of consent being so dubious.

Yeah, if I was going to complain about trends in porn not being to my taste I would start by focusing on the fake nails that the actresses wear – surely they're dangerous…

Perhaps I was being a little facetious, but I still have to laugh (bitterly) at media outlets like the SST and 60 Minutes- tut-tutting about 'raunch culture' when (to pick on the latter) the rest of the show was made up with a puff-y profile of Helen Mirren, and…

I don't know if it's a gripe, so much as the element of consent being so dubious.

Apparently that's the point – it's no fun when they set out to participate willingly, according to GGW's founder.

It's only half a sexual revolution when women mainly have the power to be…

Yeah, it's a softer form of rape fetish. Not really my bag, but again, we come to this: Would anyone who didn't already think there was something hot about taking advantage of drunk…

What ever happened to a good book and a nice cup of tea?

I did enjoy the female video clerk's porn renter memoirs though, very good. Thanks to the poster who supplied that.

it's funny, i just checked out 2nd life last night — first time since a year or two ago — and i was pretty amazed — the place is one big car lot or sex club. really. i guess there are two kinds of people…

"I'm really uncomfortable with what seems like a growth in the "girls gone wild" type porn, when there's a pack mentality and also lots of booze involved. That seems pretty borderline consentual when the girls are often about to pass out."

LOL everyone's got their own special gripe.

I don't…

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/23/second-life-sketches-please-stop-doing-that-to-the-cat/
Good old Boing Boing.

Eeeew.

But interesting in a so-not-interested-in-playing-Second-Life way ...

In the late 60s and early 70s, the media was convulsed by mini-skirts and hot pants. A…

Long time reader, first time poster and all that.

This article has finally spurred me into joining the debate.

I'd recommend that anyone who is interested in a more detailed analysis of this start by reading Susan Faludi – 'backlash', and 'stiffed'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Faludi

Most of her research and writing…

LOL everyone's got their own special gripe. Mine is…

It would be very hard to frame such laws – would you…

sigh* And before the Sunday Star-Times gets too sanctimonious about 'raunch' culutre – does anyone really give the proverbial rat's rectum where – or in who – Matthew Ridge is putting any part of his body?

Actually, you could say that Ridgey's playing the classic male-in-porn role: he really is…

but, but, they said the other ones were faithless, now I'm a little confused.

The official platform of the Democratic party claims to involve strengthening America.[1] However, the Democrat voting record reveals a true agenda of cowering to terrorism[2], treasonous anti-Americanism[3], and comtempt for America's founding principles such as freedom of religion[4].

It should be noted that these scientists are motivated by a need for grant money in their field of climatology. Therefore, their work can not be considered unbiased, though no more than any scientist in any other field .[4]. Also, these scientists are mostly liberal…

Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept? Add to the explanation of what it means, and how it does not exist on other religions.

yep, putting the mental in fundamental.

For more information about searching Conservapedia, see Searching Conservapedia.

Well if that isn't denial I don't know what is.

"The administrators who monitor and control the content on Wikipedia do not represent the views of the majority of Americans, and many are in fact not American."

Not American! How dare they!

I never thought I'd see the day I defended Hi 5, but...

...as a regular vewer (my 3 yr old son loves it) I think that the producers go to great lengths to keep the girls' clothing decent. Every mini skirt has tights or leggings. Every potentially skimpy top has…

My daughter and I had an interesting debate on why Emo is banned from her school. She was for the ban, and me, well you know, I remembered Goths...

Emo is banned? Realllllllllly? Who exactly sets the definition?

1. I have a daughter and while there are things that I wouldn't like her wearing, there are also things that other parents would ban, which I have no problem with. At some levels I think I'd even see harm in restricting the freedom of the child. Should…

So, should females box, play rugby and is women's tennis just porn?

No – it still matters that Lindsay Davenport's got game and Anna Kournikova never did. But athletes of either sex can be pretty good to look at, and that is one of the reasons people watch.

There was…

They happily sing the lyrics because they think they're about milkshakes. It's adults and their broader awareness that turns those things into (inappropriately) sexy.

How about when the Pussycat Dolls sing "I know you should be fucking me"?

the most telling comments came at the end, when the interviewees were talking about how the skimpy clothing was restrincting the ability of…

Now to see if this comment will make it through the filters at work…

Best start packing up your things ...

... reality based, intelligent, left wing progressive types who wince at the exploitation of a whale construct a mental fiction about the exploitation of often the most vulnerable young women in the porn industry ...

But is gay porn different? Is dyke porn (which has existed for a long time)…

My friend Jose and I had a very interesting discussion with Dylan Horrocks (the comic book writer/artist) about his Tijuana Bibles (if you what they are, look them up on Wikipedia, I doubt…

I'm really uncomfortable with what seems like a growth in the "girls gone wild" type porn, when there's a pack mentality and also lots of booze involved. That seems pretty borderline consentual when the girls are often about to pass out.

The "Spring Break" thing? Yeah, that's pretty creepy -…

Until young men have sex they won't know what it is like. This is true whether or not they see porn. How is having no idea better than having a fantasy idea? They are the same, in fact. All your criticism leads to is an argument for better education.…

Maybe what you meant was that actual feminist theorists with something to say about contemporary culture seem increasingly underground, because domininant media voices pretty much just mock them when they say perfectly obvious things like: 'Sportscafe is kinda dumb and sexist.'

If only the paper about Sports Cafe had been…

How many people do you know who have shot someone? Or done a forensic examination on a cadaver? Or stepped through a stargate to an alternate universe?

Apart from the Stargate bit, that's just crazy talk!

The prison psychiatrist asked me if I thought sex was dirty. I told him only when it's done right.

Part of the thrill of porn (and certain other things) is the sense of transgression. Possible conclusions:
– once everything is permissible, porn will lose its savour
– in the meanwhile…

I'm even a little prudish about the likes of High 5 – their music is no more annoyingly saccharine than any other kiddie/tweeny stuff, but they way they dress, I think, is inappropriate for young kids – girls in particular.

I never thought I'd see the day I defended Hi…

that was sort of the upshot of the story

...
Indeed, the Sunday Star-Times was unable to articulate a satisfying feminist theoretical analysis of why it thought this was all kinda freaky. I don't expect much inductive feminist "political meaning" coming out of the SST. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist.…

I think one valid criticism is that it's unhelpful if young men grow up thinking the sex they're going to have in the real world is like porn. For technical and emotional reasons, that seems likely to end in tears.

Literally so.

Axis Powers

__The Axis Powers were the side that opposed the Allied Powers in World War II. The main members of the Axis Powers were Germany, Italy, and Japan. The goal of these nations was to rule the world. The end of…

Personally, I don't think porn has very much effect at all, other than perhaps leading to a decline of imagination.

I think one valid criticism is that it's unhelpful if young men grow up thinking the sex they're going to have in the real world is like porn. For technical…

For good…

... no matter how much Russell hearts Suicide Girls (um, ew) ...

Er, should make clear I'm not like a regular visitor there. But I think Posh, the famous one who goes out with the guy from Digg is quite interesting. She has a life (as a Photoshop jockey), devises…

Shush. You'll bring the Kiwiblog crowd in here with talk like that.

On a more serious note – yes, I hit those occasionally if I try hard – the whole issue bothers me, coming…

I'm even a little prudish about the likes of High 5 – their music is no more annoyingly saccharine than any other kiddie/tweeny stuff, but they way they dress, I think, is inappropriate for young kids – girls in particular.

But I'm not sure the whole thing answers to a classic feminist critique either. Perhaps we shouldn't be looking for political meaning in scantily-clad promo girls because perhaps there isn't much of it to speak of.

Hmm... if you are seriously implying that there is no political meaning (or point…

One does wonder what our so-called journalists honestly think of their reading publc.

How I long for the UK Sunday papers that used to take hours…

the trouble with raunch culture is it claims to be about women being "empowered" but is really about getting attention from boys. Look at me! Look at me! and seems like now the only way to be "seen" is to flash your…

I assume they have critical mass issues. Not enough people to have decent quality or prevent lunacy.…

Cool baby clothes are fine, but can't they at least be original and innovative?

2. I recently…

The early New Zealand population survived by growing bananas, coconuts, yams and taro, and also by raising dogs and pigs

Brilliant. Michael King couldn't have summed it up better.

It reminds me of what my girlfriend saw written in the British Museum by the Pasifika art.

The natives were happy…