Pornography leads to violence against women

Barring a few, almost everyone wants porn sites blocked on the Net, reports Nina Muslim.

"Pornography feeds sexual obsession," says the 26-year-old Filipina, who was lured to the UAE last year with a promise of a job.

When she arrived in Dubai, her sponsors, her fellow compatriots, demanded that she pay back the money spent on her visa and air-ticket by selling her body.

She was rescued two days later after a friend informed the Dubai police. The women who forced her into prostitution have since been tried and convicted.

They are now serving a three-year sentence for human trafficking.

M.J. says pornography intensifies sexual desires. "When men see these images, it heightens their desire. They go looking for someone. If they don't have any money, they will commit rape," she said.

Professor David Clarke, a psychiatrist at Monash University in Australia, said pornography has been shown to contribute to violence against women.

Trivialises sex

"Pornography trivialises sex, which should be a part of a healthy, mature and committed relationship. It abuses women by objectifying them, who are the primary subjects," he told Gulf News.

Pornography fuels sex addiction and is used as a way to cover up feelings of inadequacy, loneliness and sadness, he said.

The doctor said arguments that pornography was just fantasy and not reality did not hold water as some people may choose to turn fantasy into reality once fantasy was no longer satisfying.

"People who are sexually addicted will seek different ways of stimulating themselves when the conventional ways no longer work," he said.

Clarke said pornography should not be confused with art, which may feature women in the nude.
"Pornography is not about beauty. A classical painting can hardly be considered pornography," he said, compared to a picture of a woman trying to be lurid and explicit.

Parents Perez and Nhel Moron said pornography was dangerous, especially for children. They said a system to filter out these harmful images on the internet was important.

"Children are not mature enough to understand or handle the images they see of naked men and women in sexual situations," said Perez.

"Being naturally curious, the children would then try to imitate what they see, without fully understanding the consequences of their actions," she said.

She also believed that pornography contributes to adultery. "Pornography leads to a lot of social problems. It is one reason for single mothers and broken families," Perez added.

Nhel, who volunteers as a social worker at an advocacy group in the UAE, agrees with the arguments of feminists that sexually violent acts against women were more crimes of power and not sex.

"It is the debasing and humiliation of women that is the primary objective of sexual crimes", he said.

He, however, said the problem was how to allow people who could process pornographic images without harming society, from the ones who would. "How do you differentiate between the reasonable people and the unreasonable? he said.