This class was my first ever online course. It was a good experience for me and provided me with a new way to communicate online. I have never blogged until this class. I think that blogging is great and it helped me express my thoughts and feelings. Personally, I am someone who likes to talk and state my opinions. Therefore, this was a suffiencient way for me to take this course because I was given many chances to express my thoughts. Cyber-Porn is a topic that I rarely discussed or new much about. So I enjoyed learning about it. I feel that I am confident in my kownledge on the topic. The blogging kept me interested in the course and wanting to learn more. The best part about this class was reading my classmates thoughts on everything. You rarely get to know what everyone else is thinking in your class. Reading others peoples blogs provided me with infomation I never thought of thinking about. I am very happy that I took this course. I know I will benefit from my new knowledge on Cybr-Porn and Society.
I was watching lecture 35 about The Future and it made me think a lot about how people view sex these days. The meaning of sex has changed so much throughout the years. People used to have sex to produce life and express their love for one another. Sex used to have such a beautiful meaning. In today's society, people think sex means your going to get a disease, or people just have sex out of pure enjoyment and not out of love. I feel that maybe pornography has caused this negative view of sex. Pornography has become a way for people to get out of having sex with their loved one. It is an easier way to get immediate pleasure. Pornography has distorted our meaning of sex. Sex is no longer an important part of reproduction and that is disturbing. It's no longer called "making love." If people are changing their views on sex…what is it going to be like in the future?
I have been reading through many blogs and have noticed that a lot of people are talking about pornography ruining peoples lives. There were two blogs posted by davidg called Pornographys hold on people and Real life stories of porn addiction. This a major concern of mine. It is very disturbing to hear how pornography can affect someones life so much. It doesn't only ruin your life but the lives of your loved ones. What I don't understand is how can someone let this happen?…Is pornography really that great? I have seen videos and DVD pornos before. I didn't see them for enjoyment, I saw them because my friends were watching them and they wanted to make fun of them. The whole time I watched them I thought to myself "this is not arousing at all… this is gross." I have come to a conclusion that maybe the reason why people let pornography run their lives is because they are not happy with themselves or their life. Maybe pornography is the only thing that makes them happy. Or maybe they are depressed? For example, look at the real life stories that davidg talked about. Keith and Gene obviously had personal issues before they got into porn. Once they were exposed to porn it became an addiction and a way to get away from real life. Like what davidg stated, the worst part about all of this is that if nothing is going to be done to prevent this, a decrease in family values and sexual satifaction will take place in the world.
Chapter 11 discusses Youth, Pornography, and the Interenet. This topic seems to be a major issue in the porn industry.
From kindergarten to seniors in high school, the maturity level changes in each student. They all go through different stages of development. Their parents, teachers, and librarians have primary responsibility for guiding them into maturity. Part of this guidence is in their physical world and in cyberspace. Therefore, they can help control what the children are being exposed to on the internet and in the real world. Being exposed to porn and sex can affect how they mature. A popular place they would be exposed to this is on the internet. The internet can be in the homes and schools of children. "With respect to Internet usage, developing maturity implies the ability to make safe, responsible, and morally appropriate choices about what to do and what to see on the internet and a facility for coping constructively with inappropriate or objectionable experiences (p 205)." The parents are an important figure in this because they can provide instruction and supervision about internet use. They could also be smart in deciding where their children use the internet. For example, they could put the computer in the living room where the children won't be alone. Teachers and librarians are to educate their students about the internet and prepare them for what they may find. They could provide a safe environment for the children that doesn't promote any inappropriate experience or content. The porn industry can be a harmful place for children and teenages and there are ways that we can prevent them from being exposed to it. This involves understanding your role in the lives of children.
After watching Lecture 33 on Intellectual Property, I wanted to research copyrighted pornographic material. I found this article, Cyber-porn abounds on Network Neighborhood. The article is about how they found out that "pornography is both accessible and permitted in Yale students' shared files (para 2)" in Yal's Network Neighborhood. Their general policy is not to go looking for pornography in the Network Neighborhood. But get real, students will be searching for porn. Many students were able to access pornographic pictures and material that were most likely being distributed illegally. "It is illegal to publish copyrighted materials online without being granted rights (para 11)." A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by government for a limited time to protect the particular form, way or manner in which an idea or information is expressed. Therefore, these pornographic pictures and material could be copyrighted. I think that copyrighting pornographic material is a good thing. People may argue that other people who do pornos are taking the risk of the material being exposed everywhere on the internet, but I think they deserve the right to protect their work.
I found a blog called "What is going on with men" that sparked my attention. I agree 100% percent with this entry. Why is it that more men than women are found to be child sex offenders? I believe men feel they are powerful and have control in these situations, therefore they feel they can do what they want. I'm not a man hater either but when we are talking about child pornography, I tend to be a little against men. It is even more shocking to find out that some of the men in child pornography cases are doctors and lawyers. I thought they were suppose to be smart? It's like all the money and power gives them the freedom to act dumb. This makes me think…. can you trust anyone these days?….
Mr. Lucas,
I really appreciate that fact that the actors in your films don't do drugs and use condoms. I feel that when people think about gay men or gay porn…they automatically think drugs, diseases, and basically get discusted. How can we change that?…. Can we promote your films more?…. How do we show the society that gay men are just like everyone else and can be successful and clean?…. Do we really need a movie or T.V. show to prove that?…..
Mr. Lucas's article was very interesting and educational. It touched on important aspects of gay porn that aren't talked about enough. I would like to talk about a couple topics that he brought up in the aricle. First off, he started discussing how gay expression in porn is oftened silenced. Most of the time porn is accused of promoting violence against women. Why is it that we focus so much on straight porn than gay porn? People don't realize that gay porn has a negative effect on men just as much as straight porn has on women. Men are opressed by the heterosexual status quo. People just assum that everyone is straight. They don't recognize and accept gay men. In some ways, I support gay porn. It is very hard for gay men to live in today's society. There is so much discrimination in the world today. Therefore, I think that gay porn is beneficial. Mr. Lucas says that his gay porn films are safe, don't involve drugs, and they are a place for freedom of expression. It is a time when men try something new and find their sexuality. It is hard for gay men to "come out of the closet." Therefore, gay porn helps them feel comfortable with their sexuality and learn more about it. I agree with Mr. Lucas and his thoughts on gay porn. Thoughts like these need to be brought up more in the porn industry.
I came across in Chapter 10 a section about Pedophilia that interested me. I am a bit suprised how they mentioned that pedophiles might not be so far removed from the "normal" population. To some extent I do believe that because who can stop men from having fantasies of young girls since these days they seem to be developing and growing up a lot faster. Although, I also disagree because what about the Pedophiles that act on their fantasies, or even end up raping some girls. "Theories of Pedophilia customarily assume that an indivudual fails to grow out of a quite normal early interest in fellow children so that one's sexuality does not mature into the appropriate relationship with adults (Halavais 172)." This is true but some Pedophiles don't grow out of that stage. So what do we do about them? Is it ok because "Pedophilia is a condition, a set of interest and obsessions, which does not of itself violate any law because it does not necessarily lead to any types of conduct? (Halvais 172)" No, its not ok. Notice he said it doesn't necessarily lead to any types of conduct; that doesn't mean it never does! I have heard more stories about Pedophiles sexually abusing young children than just having fantasies about them. In my eyes, being a Pedophile is more illegal than being an alocholic.
Lecture 23
I learned from lecture 23 the cognitive, and emotional responses that people get from pornography and how it has a physical effect. There could be a cognitive response like impure thoughts. There could also be an emotional response like experiencing different feelings. All of these responses are what makes pornography interactive. They also have a huge physical effect. For example, this physical effect could be masturbating. It could also be trying certain positions with your girlfriend that you saw in a porno or acting out an impure thought. This is so interesting to me because I never realized what an impact pornography has on people physically. I always thought that pornography was just a way for people to view sexual enterainment. Im not going to say that I was totally blind to all of this, I just didn't realize how serious it is. This class has definitly opened my eyes to pornography. It makes me wonder how many people close to me watch pornography that I never thought would.
