miles> Fortunately, there's actual scientific research on this.
miles> Various researchers have conducted experiments that randomly
miles> assign men to different types of film and measure attitudes
miles> and behavior towards women. The basic finding is this:
miles> exposure to "aggressive" erotic materials provoke more
miles> negative attitudes and more aggression against women.
miles> Exposure to sexually explicit films with no aggressive
miles> content does not provoke more negative attitudes and
miles> aggression against women, compared to groups exposed to films
miles> without sexual content.
Research MacKinnon and Dworkin cite repeatedly. Thanks for putting it clearly.
miles> So does any porn provoke violence against women? It's not as
miles> simple as the Dworkinites assume.
I don't know what a Dworkinite is, but M&D certainly present a nuanced, careful view in *In Harm's Way* and Dworkin does so alone in many places. They claim porn causes or contributes to a fairly wide range of social ills, from the objectification of women, to the undue focus on sex as penile-vaginal intercourse, to diminishment of some men's willingess to credit testimony of rape survivors, to apathy about sexual violence in general, to the actual commission of rape and sexual violence.
Seems neither assumptive nor simplistic.
Best, Kendall Clark -- If you've gotta blacklist, I wanna be on it. -- Billy Bragg