HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1984-11-28, Page 7Discovering how utterly rotten pornography can be
Up until two or three weeks
ago, my knowledge of por-
nography was limited. I knew
it was bad, but 1 didn't know
how utterly rotten it was.
Then, I was invited to view
"Not a Love Story", a Na-
tional Film Board production
about pornography. To say
that I was stunned at the
obscenity and violence would
be grossly understating my
reaction. And though I would
have preferred to go back
home, stick my head in the
sand and try to forget what I
had seen, I knew that once
one knows what's going on,
one cannot return to ig-
norance. So, I forced myself
to go out and look for more
material on the subject.
The word pornography
comes from the Greek words,
"porn" meaning prostitute or
female captive and
"graphos" means writing
about. The proponents of por-
nography advertise it as
erotic entertainment, but one
who believes entertainment
consists of photographs or
video tapes showing anal, oral
and genital rape, and the
chaining and beating of
women who do not obey their
male masters is surely terri-
bly sick.
The truth of the matter is
that it is not the need to pro,
duce entertainment (or sex
education as some claim) but
the drive of greed and power
that nurtures pornography.
Canada's pornography in-
dustry rakes in *500 million a
year, part of the North
American gross of $10 billion.
It makes more money than
the conventional film and
record industries combined
and has more outlets than
there are MacDonald
sold under the counter,
described under such guises
as "sophisticated adult enter-
tainment", "eroticia", or
"sexual representation" por-
tray violence with women
bound, gagged, chained,
beaten, tortured and raped.
There is also a trend in hard
core pornography to
It seems
to me...
by Gwyn Whilsmith
restaurants. Even more
shocking is that Kiddie Porn
accounts for about $2 billion,
and it's estimated 1.5 million
North American children are
forced to perform for films
and magazines.
The fastest-growing part of
the industry is video casset-
tes. Thousands of cassettes
per hour can be cheaply
reproduced to be viewed in
the privacy of one's home.
Because it is such a recent
phenomenon, governments
have not yet established any
way of controlling the often
sadistic and usually violent
films.
More than 90 newstand
magazines, with many more
systematically and inten-
tionally attempt to condone
incest, with titles of videos
like "Lust for Little Girls",
etc.
Soft core pornography at-
tempts, more subtly, to make
pornography respectable and
acceptable by using expen-
sive, glossy photographs, and
serious articles within its
pages. It still objectifies and
degrades women, regardless
of its high quality paper,
photography and writing.
Statistics show that the pur-
chasers of pornographic
magazines and videotapes
are "white, middle-class,
middle-aged, married
males".
Section If* (subsection8) of
Canada's Criminal Code
defines obscenity as material
that shows "the undue ex-
ploitation of sex, or of sex and
any one or more of the follow -
Ing subjects, namely crime,
horror, cruelty and violence."
Stores are not allowed to sell
magazines or videotapes in
which Black or Jewish people
are degraded and tortured.
So, how is it society tolerates
such abuse against women
and children?
There are those who will
say that in a democracy peo-
ple have the right to read and
view material of their choice.
Is the right of male gratifica-
tion more important than the
rights of women and
children? Is the right of men
to read and view what they
wish more important than the
right of women and children
not be shown in situations
where they are violently
degraded?
Others will argue if por-
nography is outlawed, the in-
dustry will just go
underground. Well, I know
laws against stealing don't
prevent it, but we still don't
decriminalize robbery.
Pornography is full of lies.
It lies about men in that it
states they can only be
violent, angry and full of hate.
It promotes the lie that
women get sexual pleasure
from pain.
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Minister of Justice, John
Crosby, has promised to look
into the laws concerning pro-
nography in the new year. If
you, man or woman, are con-
cerned about the horrific
nature of pornography, I urge
you to write to him.
The Law can't do it all, nor
can it change attitudes. Only
we can do that, by starting to
teach our children and wand -
children to respect and
honour their own bodies and
those of the opposite sex; to
see themselves and all others
as created by God, good and
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no worth.
Some of you readers may
be under the impression that
pornography is the same as
those "girlie" magazines
your teenage sons sneaked in-
to the house, ten years ago.
Believe me, those magazines
are like nursery rhymes com-
pared with many on store
shelves, today.
We must be vigilant
because the advance of por-
nography is insidious . Even
some of our so called "good"
magazines use adver-
tisements that degrade
women.
It seems to me if our socie-
ty doesn't rid itself of this
beastly scourge, society, as
we know it, will not long be
here.
Women see
turning point
More than 200 women
gathered recently to recom-
mend action for a turning
point toward a better future
for agriculture in Ontario.
The women were part of the
Turning Point Conference
held November 16, 17, 18 at
the Geneva Park Conference
near Orillia.
Parity pricing for farm pro-
ducts; more effective
representation to government
on farm issues; improved
public education on farm
issues; the development of
child care programs in rural
areas; and the need regional
level conferences of this type
to deal with specific com-
munity needs were the major
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brell addressed the issue of
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The Turning Point Con-
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isting newsletters.
The need for the Turning
Point Conference was iden-
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Women, a farm women's
group in Grey -Bruce Coun-
ties, who joined together with
rural women's groups from
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sector organizations
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Times -Advocate, November 28, 1984
Page 7
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