Letter to Gazette: “Children need education to help deal with predators”

Today’s Gazette publishes a letter from Enid Gorman of Amherst. She writes: I am a retired social worker who worked as a child sexual abuse prevention educator in public and private schools in New York City for several years, as well as providing therapy to sexually abused children. In regard to your article of Jan. […]

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Porn’s “Verbatim” Accounts of the Pleasures of Child Sexual Abuse Don’t Square with Reality

Here is the reality of child sexual abuse as described by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened, and the legal procedure […]

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Some Porn Hard to Distinguish from Training for Pedophiles (explicit language)

Robert Jensen and Gail Dines discuss the weak boundaries between some legal pornography and depictions of pedophilia in “The Content of Mass-Marketed Pornography”, from Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (1998, p.87-89). A subgenre of pornography sexualizes differences in age. Because of strict laws banning child pornography, actual children are almost never used in […]

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Robert Jensen: Influence of Pornography on Sex Offenders (explicit language)

Robert Jensen interviewed 13 convicted sex offenders in Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (1998, p.119-134), to investigate how porn influenced their thinking. All of them had viewed “hard-core pornography”–sex presented in graphic detail. The average age of first viewing was 12, with a range from 8 to 19. From about age 21 on, […]

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Robert Jensen: When Examining Complex Social Phenomena, Scientific Method Has Limits; Listen to the Stories of the Victims (explicit language)

Writing in Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (1998), Robert Jensen addresses a tactic we’ve seen a lot of in Northampton’s porn debate. Because “science” has not yet conclusively shown a causal link between the use of pornography and sexual violence, some pornography supporters argue, no collective action is possible… I will simply assert […]

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A Review of Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families

NPN’s Jendi Reiter reviews Pamela Paul, Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families (New York: Owl Books/Henry Holt & Co., 2005). Freelance journalist Pamela Paul, a contributor to Time Magazine, The Economist, Psychology Today and numerous other mainstream magazines, undertook this study of the pervasiveness of pornography in modern American […]

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Hustler Cartoons: Racism, Misogyny, Anti-Semitism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Incest, Ridicule of Disabled People… (explicit)

If you wonder where people get callous attitudes towards other groups and those who disagree with them, a good place to start is with cartoons like those found in Hustler. We are indebted to Nikki Craft and the Hustling the Left website for bringing these to our attention. These images are explicit and should only be […]

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The Science Behind Pornography Addiction

Dr. Mary Anne Layden gave this testimony at a US Senate Science, Technology, and Space Hearing in 2004. Dr. Layden is Co-Director, Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program, Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania… Pornography, by its very nature, is an equal opportunity toxin. It damages the viewer, the performer, and the spouses and […]

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Victor Cline: “Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children”

Psychologist Victor Cline specializes in family/marital counseling and sexual addictions. Here are some highlights from his article, “Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children”…As a clinical psychologist, I have treated, over the years, approximately 350 sex addicts, sex offenders, or other individuals (96% male) with sexual illnesses. This includes many types of unwanted compulsive sexual acting-out, […]

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