Re: [UUPoly-L] UU and blue/red poly

["David Hall" <airsafe1@comcast.net>]

Speaking from the sex educator and Free Speech perspective, the condemnation
of all "porn" as degrading is simply not true. Classic literature can be as
degrading to women as some erotic entertainment. Watching a couple of adult
films, from the 8000 or so produced each year does not constitute a good
survey of the genre. And if you want to see women put down, just watch TV.
And let's don't even talk about where the violence is.

If there is a link to swinging/poly it is the above average interest in sex,
not in porn itself. In particular, swingers seem to enjoy watching people
have sex, and there is a lot of that on video. So what? Watching adult
entertainment is a personal choice, and in a free society should be any
adult's right. If you don't want to watch, ok, but don't tell anyone else
they are wrong to enjoy it.

At least one survey (http://ejhs.org/volume3/swing/body.htm) shows that the
only  difference between swingers and the general population is that
swingers seem to be happier. As Nina Hartley put it, swingers prefer sex to
bridge on Saturday night. 

Jm said: "I don't know if there's a correlation between viewing pornography
and polymamory/swinging but there's definitely a link with the debasing and
degrading of women and the pornification of our culture." I do not believe
there is a shread of hard data on this claim, common in some political
discourses. It would be impossible to test experimentally, but in societies
where adult material has become increasingly available over long periods of
time, sexual violence has gone down. Correlation does not prove causation,
but it there was causation, the correlation would have to be in the other
direction. I can introduce you to many adult entertainment performers who
love their work, make a lot more $ than the average man or woman, and are
bright, articulate, educated people.

Saying kids "dress like ho's" is degrading to whores (and kids), assuming
that they all dress some particular way. We do not do service to poly causes
by name calling, nor using the same arguments that the far right does.

Stepping off soap box.

Dave