Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    studies such as these always scare me, because i'm afraid that they
    will be used to promote censorship. (i'm not in favor of violence
    in the media, i just don't want to legislate against it.)
    
    i suspect that violence in media 'just' reinforces prevalent and
    latent attitudes. an article in THE NATION recently suggested that
    television is not nearly the negative influence of which it has been 
    accused,  but that rather, we the audience fill in the blanks in
    context and picture in accordance with our own visions of 'reality.'
    
    it's now fashionable to speak of teaching 'values' in the schools.
    i think that a valuable course would be one that included a discussion
    of attitudes, ethics, and the media, in which students would
    participate in experiments to show them how they react to the images
    that bombard us constantly. in awareness lies the map to freedom.
  
    it would be interesting to see the results of the study if the 
    researchers had used movies depicting homosexual rape.

    Re: .1
    
    I do not agree with the previous note.  As a man, I have seen how
    men view women and I can attest to the fact that many men are not
    offended by violence toward women.
    
    I personally would welcome censorship of violence on television
    and in the movies.  We do not need movies such as RAMBO in this
    society.  There is enough violence without creating more for "art's"
    sake!
    
    This does not mean that I would like everything censored!
    
    I think that violence especially violence toward women is disgusting
    and unnecessary in any media.
    
    walter

    
    re: .2
    
    Perhaps many of the men you have met are not offended by violence
    towards women.  I don't think you were presuming to speak for the
    entire gender, but if you were, you're wrong.
               
    As for the censoring of violence in movies and television, you are
    an adult and entitled to your opinion.  Please don't be offended
    if I say that I am glad you are not in a position to make it my
    opinion as well.
    
    DFW

    I think one has to be very concerned about the issue of censorship.
    As soon as anyone starts saying what's ok for someone else to
    read or view, the fundamental problem with controlling the means
    of communication rears its ugly head.  Free communication is the
    only way of maintaining a free and informed society, although
    admittedly most people watching "Wheel of Fortune" or "Rambo"
    are not doing so to better inform themselves and make enlightened
    social decisions.  
    
    What's your porn may not be what's mine, and we need to be
    careful of that.  Canada, for example, has recently started banning
    the importation of gay literature because anything discussing
    "buggery" has been declared obscene.  This includes authors
    like Oscar Wilde, and informative books like "The Joy of Gay Sex".
    I consider that an offensive infringement on human rights and
    freedoms, but clearly there are others who feel differently.

    More than most, I do not approve or defend violence towards
    women.  I do consider it worth pointing out that Japan produces
    some very violent films (don't know about their television),
    but that the average citizen wouldn't dream of being so anti-social
    in real life, and the violent crime rate is fairly low.
    What's wrong in our society, is that violence is quite basic
    to the American mythos: the John Wayne paradigm.  Anyone who's a man
    will resort to righteous violence to get what is his by right.
    One of the things that is "his by right" is a submissive woman.
    What's more, the myth maintains that women adore "manliness", 
    that manliness is dominance, and consequently women secretly 
    prefer to be dominated by a "manly" man.   

    The average man doesn't even come close to measuring up to
    the absolute standards for "manliness", and few get the respect
    of other men as a "dominant" male amond men.  For men who
    are frustrated and unable to take a dominant place in the male
    hierarchy (i.e. most of them), their self-image can be
    salvaged by the fact that at the very least, they are
    naturally dominant over their women.  This is basically an
    acceptable attitude in our society still.  This dominance
    is often re-inforced by violence and rape, and the effort
    to fight against such violence will always be half-hearted
    by a society that still accepts the underlaying premise.
    I don't expect that censorship will change that.

    I think that I am going to rephrase my ideas as I was speaking in
    an angry frame of mind and not expressing myself properly.

    I do not agree with censorship!  However, what do you do with people
    who are affected by various stimuli such as extreme violence?  I
    suppose the sentences for violent crimes could be raised to more
    reasonable levels.  We are getting too many lenient sentences for
    crimes such as rape.
    
    RE:.4
    
    If men need to be dominant because of conditioning or attitudes(I
    agree), this must be addressed by society.  American society is
    not the only society that is extremely violent and wants its women
    to be submissive, just look at Europe.  
    
    Also, oriental women are extremely submissive to their men and
    oriental society has always cultured this fact.
    
    Yes, I agree that censorship in Canada is rather strange.  Based
    on new polls, I believe that it will get worse.  Ontario has even
    more bizzare censorship rules when it comes to movies.  Ontario
    will allow movies such as "Nightmare on Elm Street", Parts I, II,III
    etc. where mostly women are the victims but the Censor Board will
    not allow a movie such as "Tin Drum".  I did not realize that the
    books mentioned in .4 were banned in Canada.  This is even worse
    than I imagined.
    
    /walter