Web Labeling; now thats what I’m talkin about!

Reading about the new website labeling proposal made me so happy! If you've been keeping up with my blog entries you've definitly seen that this is an important topic to me! I'm always complaing about how explicit material on the web should be a lot more hidden and controlled. To hera that the government is FINALLY trying to do something abouth this is thrilling! I never thought they would , but I geuss it hasn't passed yet huh?

 I was suprised and annoyed when I read about how the Clinton administration also tried to do something about this but was shut down. I can kind of understand how the first ammendment starts to come into play, and how the lines become fuzzy… but come on. We need to do something about this, honestly.

It's great to hear that someone is trying to regulate these sometimes unwanted or traumatizing websites and images. It is really pathetic how easily accessed and overwhelming these things are on the net. 

 Cheers Gonzales!  Good Luck!

I don’t know about you guys but Gay Porn doesn’t bother me

Reading Mr. Lucas' article kind of made me feel bad for him. I mean not that he is not a happy or lucky man… I'm sure he makes lots of money and has lots of great sex as the owner of Lucas Entertainment, A gay porn production company. Just listening to him talk about how important gay porn is to the gay community and how he wants to promote safe sex, and make men feel more comfortable with thier sexuality is really wonderful , and then hearing him talk about how some gay media outlets such as magazines and TV channels shun him (afraid of a bad rep), is sad!

I have a few questions I would ask Mr. Lucas;

1. I really love and respect the fact that you are so serious about safe sex, and will not even hire anyone who's ever provenly had unsafe sex! I also think it is very commendable that making your movies drug-free is very important to you. You are really setting a positive example for gay men, and that is so wonderful…as well as risky for your piggy bank I'm assuming??

Do you think that the condoms and drug-free policies that you enforce effect your sales at all? Do you think that your products would sell more if they were "bare-back" and included drug usage? ( I hope the answer is no, but I know that many people like to see things that are not neccessarily the safest, and smartest )

2. You mentioned that you don't feel that any of your stars are objectified or unhappy to be there because you can tell when a man is aroused/enjoying himself because of his erections or ejaculations.

We learned in class that many actors in gay porns are actually "straight", and have thier wives/girlfriends come to shoots in order to help them become aroused. Do you have any straight stars, and if so doesn't that kind of change the theory about your stars all neccessarily being happy to act in your movies?

3.You mentioned that most gay men portrayed in the media (mostly movies and TV) are shown as clowns, sick, crazy, and unrealistically stereotyped, none of which ever show the gay man as a sexual creature.

I watch a show that is aired on showtime called Queer as Folk. It is one of my all time favorites by the way. This show seems to be one of the most realistic gay portrayals that I've seen.Ofcourse every show has added drama etc., but generally all of the gay men on the show are average dudes, with all different average jobs and average problems, and I really think it is great! It also definitely shows these men in very sexual and nude situations. Honestly, at first it was hard to get used to, because I've never experienced anything like it, but now I can't get enough of the show.

Have you seen it? What do you think?

We Need to Stop This

Listening to the radio-show " Internet's Impact on Sex and Society" got me thinking about many major issues that are involved around this. Here is the first installment of me ranting about it!

Kiddie Porn is more than sickening, and has no excuse to exist.

The author of Pornification( sorry I forget her name ), was on this radio show and discussed that while she was researching for her book she talked to a large amount of men who are regular porn users, but do not enjoy or ever look for kiddie porn. Each and every one admitted though that they have come across such smutt while looking at "regular porn" on the internet.

This proved her point that things like kiddie porn, violent porn, animal abuse and other terribly inhumane acts have become easily accessible and even unavoidable now that the internet is such an "information highway" FOR PORN.

I'm not totally against porn, but I am strongly upset by and against inhumane porn of that nature. I don't understand why these sites are not strongly regulated. I'm sure if government officials were to type in any number of key words, thousands of these terrible websites would come up on any search engine.

Why can't they just have the power to immediately shut down these sights?

I understand that most porn is regulated by freedom of speech vs. indecency… but if anyone rational, who had the authority, was to come across a website that deeply abused, disrespected, or showed voilence towards children, women, or animals, why can't they immediately shut down the site!!!!! I don't understand why things aren't regulated more closely?

Also, if this was a policy, maybe less of these sites would be created in fear of losing access to making any website.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I Don’t Want Any Adult Friends, But Thanks Anyway!

Dave's Blog about Adult Friend Finder showed me how creeped out he was about this website where people go looking for sex partners on the web. He compared it to Facebook, or Myspace, saying that some groups were even labeled by sex fetishs! This freaks me out a little bit too, but kind of for different reasons.

Dave noted that " It implies to me that everyone is just bunch of horny and greedy bastards living to full-fil their needs, nothing else". I think that the statement is kind of true, and we can also make that inference from noting many other factors about our society and economy….BUT I am more upset thinking about a couple of other aspects of this website.

To me a website where people just meet so that they can have sex is very dangerous. First of all this is a great way to contract an STD, if you are using this website to meet random people, you have no idea what kind of disease's they may have. That's really sickening.

This also really upsets me because such a beautiful thing like sex should not be represented this way. Its one thing to watch or read porn, but to go online searching for unknown sex partners is terrible.

Another thing that bothers me is that out of the 24 million people who are involved in this website…how many do you think are married? or even in a serious relationship. Not only do their partners not know probably, but THEN thymight be contracting diseases from these random sexcapades. How would you like it if your girlfriend/boyfriend came to you and said "Honey…I've been meeting up with men/women 20 years older/younger than me, having raunchy S&M sex with them, and now I have Herpes… and so do you"

Birth Control: Obscene?? YOU MUST BE NUTS!

After hearing about Margeret Sanger and her book in 1915: Family Limitation, I was apalled to learn that Comstock tried to arrest her for being obscene. Even more unfortunately, her husband had to take the wrap. I can't believe that less than 100 years ago Birth Control was known as a something indecent. 

Women should have a choice.

Just because a woman is sexually active, or even married, doesn't mean that she is financially or emotionally ready to have children, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Some women who are sexually active may want to secure a job and lifestyle, and save up some money before they are ready to care for a child. Or maybe they have life goals that they would like to attain first before devoting themselves to other human-beings. Not to mention there are married couples that just don't want children and are happy being aunts and uncles, or maybe they want to adopt children in need of a caring home.

Women should have a choice.

Even today there are SO MANY unwanted pregnancies. So many people's lives are at stake. Babies get murdered, illegal or unsafe abortions are performed, young mothers drop out of school, inner city parents are unable to afford food and shelter for their children.

Even today with all of the forms of birth control that are easily accessible acceptable we have so many problems with unwanted or uncared-for children. How can someone say that it is wrong to be cautious and plan out your family so that everyone is taken care of properly?

Even just over lifespan of our grandparents, We've come a long way. 

Yeh Mikey Likes it a Little Too Much.

iplaybass’ post entitled He likes it! Hey Mikey! had me laughing, but also made a valuable point. His post is about a friend he had back in highschool who’s parents busted him for looking at internet porn. They fought the Government and the Phone Company, only to find out that the site was made in a country outside of the US where censorship laws are not exactly enforced the way they (supposedly) are over here.

I think its funny because most of these sites in the US or not , have you click a button that says “Yes, I am over the age of 18” , which doesn’t prove anything! If parents really want to block their kids from finding porn on the internet, they are going to have to change the settings on thier computer’s or internet browsers. This may not have been perfected a few years ago when “Mikey” was in big trouble, but it is very effective.

The only other way to make sure porn is not viewed is to monitor your childs use of the internet at all times! If the child is young enough, this should not be a problem, but once kids are in high school… I mean come on. They really should know about sex by then, if not the parents are sheltering them too much.

So if parents are having problems with internet porn, instead of asking the government or phone company to do their parenting, they should regulate the computer usage (with settings or by personally keeping an eye on the kids) OR teach the kids the difference between right and wrong, what they should or should not be viewing and taking part of, and trust that they can make smart decisions.

Don’t Forget it’s Opposite Week

I am against the porn myths website. I think that this website is exaggerating it’s theme because the creator is obviously against porn for some reason. Maybe the person who created this website had a bad experience with porn, maybe porn has effected her life in a negative way somehow, or maybe she is against porn for religious reasons. Just because she has had a bad experience with it, or because she has seen it have negative effects on other or herself, doesn’t mean that she has to trash the industry completely and attack every aspect of it.

Yes I know that pornography has caused problems for some relationships, or has been a catalyst for some bad behavior in the past, but you can say that about anything. If someone watches too many action movies, maybe they will think that its cool to fight everyone and play with guns, or if people listen to violent music, maybe they will take things literally and act wrongly.

Who knows? Everyone is different, and everyone reacts to stimuli in different ways. You can’t let a few wrongdoers, or over-obsessed porn watchers let you think that pornography will have those effects on everyone who watches them or enjoys them.

Why should we blame people who simply enjoy watching porn for entertainment or excitement. If the Porn industry is the highest grossing genre, then a majority of the population must be viewing it on a regular bases, and MOST of these people live their everyday lives with out encountering any problems because of it.

(P.S. I started this entry writing my “opposite position” because I did agree with many of the points that were made on the website, but as I continued I started to believe my opposing argument and now I kind of see both sides. I don’t know if that is exactly what Dr. Halavais wanted, or maybe I didn’t full-fill the assignment the right way…. )

3 Sweetest Flippin Blogs in our class

1. celebrity*SKIN is my favorite!! I wish I had time to read every single entry from start to finish. This girle is extremley smart, knows how to write really well, has inviting and funny titles, is hilarious, and sarcastic (which i really enjoy). Her jokes and points are awesome! I wish I could write/think/entertain like her! She wants to be a journalist, and I think she’ll be wonderful at it. I especially like the way she uses her knowledge in psychology, women studies, and religion to help her comment on our weekly topics. BRAVO!

2. Cyberporn and Me-Sounds Good I LOVE AND HATE THIS BLOG. How is that possible, you ask? My problem with this blog are that many comments are biased, rude and illegitimate….but a good blog stirs up emotion, and invites response. Sometimes I feel like his entries have nothing to do with class which might not fill requirements, but then I like that because they are different,engaging and usually pretty funny! I love that he uses images, and I think his “stream of consciousness” style of writing is sometimes confusing, but also interesting and witty.

3. Excuse me sir but your balls are showing…bumblebeetuna I am in awe of this dude. He is a full time traveling musician and also is a fulltime student. I can barely pull off school and my part time job as a Server at TGIFridays. His posts are informative, jolting, and articulate. I like how he uses a lot of his own experiences and stories to discuss topics. I am also very impressed and shocked about his personal viewing of pornography and why he feels that way.

Good Point AJ!

While reading AJ’s Hut  I got excited to hear someone else get so annoyed by spam, and the rotten internet companies that sell and give away my e-mail adress on a daily basis. I think that this should not be legal, because it is an obstruction of privacy!

We know how annoying it is to have to go through those e-mails, and you all have probably deleted something you DID need because you thought it was spam, and that really sucks. I’m alsways nervouse when sending someone an e-mail for the first time that they will not recognized the email adress and delete it.

Also AJ mentioned that we should have better filter systems in our e-mail programs. I agree! I have spam control and i still get atleast 5-10 unwanted e-mails PER DAY. thats crazy! The fact that companies can just give out your e-mail adress should not be allowed. aspecially because of computer virus dangers and adult material being sent to children.

Another thing that i can’t stand is the junk mail I get via snail mail. It’s isnt as bad, but still not pleasant! I actually laugh some of it off now because I figured out that it was my phone company that gave my name and adress out because they always spell my last name wrong, and when I get junk mail with the same spelling I know who the culprit was.

Sexual Behavior Sequence Duhhhh

Maybe it’s just me but The Sexual Behavior Sequence that was introduced in fisher and baraks article seems to be a little obvious to me. I mean it basically states that once someone experiences a sexual stimulus, they become aroused. Why did that take ten pages and two graphs to explain? haha

I geuss I understand that theories and graphs are useful in any situation to explain physiological and psychological happeneings, but I feel that this article and idea was a little drawn out. The writings made everything sound way more complicated than it actually is.

I don’t mean to take all my agression out on this one article haha. I do constantly get annoyed with trying to read information that is fluffed up with complicated analogies and big words in order to sound very intellegent and professional. Articles and books like these are only confusing audiences and making the information harder to understand rather than easier.