Ah, trade unions. Always sticking their noses in things they know absolutely nothing about. Who else would set up an organisation to fight child molestation and name it “Helping Hand”? It’s like those reborn Christians who named their bookstore “CUM”.
It gets better. Trade union Solidarity’s Helping Hand has now responded to DSTV’s proposed porn channel by citing statistics it has gathered. According to Danie Langner, the executive director of Helping Hand, these show “a strong correlation between pornography and child molestation”.
Of course, if he had taken Statistics 101 (or even Economics 101, but we know how most trade unionists fail that subject) he would know that “correlation” does not equal “causation”. But then why let a pesky thing like empirical research and data analysis get in the way of the moral high ground.
And that’s what this is all about — a moral high ground. Despite numerous attempts to prove a direct causal link between pornography and child abuse, there is still no conclusive proof.
Some people who watch porn abuse children. Some people who never watch porn abuse children. Just like some people who watch porn play football, while some people who watch porn play rugby. Now, if people who watch porn are statistically more likely to play rugby than football, do we assume there is a causal link between the two? No, that would be ridiculous.
A famous satirical example of such statistical misinterpretation is that global warming is responsible for the decline in piracy, because the number of pirates decreased as global temperatures increased (see chart). This example was created by the Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster to show just how ludicrously data can be manipulated.
What I want to know is why Helping Hand does not protest the violence on television. Physical abuse of children is even more prevalent than sexual abuse. I wonder how many parents who beat their children also watch the TV series 24 or Steven Segal movies?
No, that would not suit their objectives, which is to impose their own morality on everyone else. By using the highly emotive “think about the children” approach and flimsy statistics, they are able to scaremonger and justify their viewpoint in the public sphere.
The fact that Helping Hand uses the very real and complex issue of child molestation as a tool to further its own agenda is sickening and begs the question — who is really being perverse here?
CUM…LOL! I bought my books, Hillsongs and Jeremy Camp CDs there (not Condoms, by the way).
I have the answer to your question here and unfortunately the answer is YOU Amanda.
Great article, like how you back up your points by clever visual means. In general porno is one of many “things” that add up to the debasing of society. So my solution is not defending the “right” of pono people to show their “art” but to punt better art to be shown in the media.
Brent
Hey, you don’t have to feel so threatened, you will still be able to buy or rent your porn. Instead of the smear tactics, how about addressing the issue, and providing conclusive proof that there is no causal link between pornography and child abuse. Where the child is concerned, I will err on the ‘conservative’ side, it has nothing to do with your or anyone’s morals.
Amen, I read their ‘statistics’ with disgust this morning.
I mean, “All child molesters watch pornography, but not all all those who watch pornography are child molesters.” What kind of a dunce airs that opinion in public?
If pornography is so abhorrent, why is it such a massively successful industry? I guess it is debatable whether to air it on TV, but at least pretend you know what you are talking about.
The sad thing is this kind of argument will probably hold a lot of sway with people.
Best belly laugh for ages and some very valid points. We are major supporters of the aforementioned Church!
Steve…she doesn’t have to prove anything. The burden of proof is on the side making the claim.
Excellent!
This always makes me laugh.
Nixon instigates porn commission, doesn’t like the findings.
“the helping hand” hahaha….i couldn’t help but laugh
DSTV is getting more porn and suddenly the self-righteous are up in arms – tutting and exclaiming the moral decay of our society. Why this new porn channel is so offensive is difficult to comprehend. DSTV already features porn on two channels several days a week. Is it that the addition of a porn channel brings the total amount of porn above a certain “porn tolerance” threshold? Or is it offensive that large amounts of porn will now be grouped on one channel? Methinks that like in so many other cases, people love the excuse to strut about in loud indignation.
What are the arguments against this? “We must protect our children!”
If you have a boy over the age of 13 he has watched porn. Yes he has. Yes your child.
I understand the need to limit potential sources of inappropriate material and I agree that for young kids to watch porn is unwanted, but to ban access to a service because it may negatively influence the young is not an acceptable excuse. Both alcohol and cigarettes are freely available in most homes and children have access to it at all times. So are cars. And I will argue that the potential negative consequences of poor parental control of any of these items are far in excess of that of a porn channel. That is what it comes down do – parental control.
cont…
DSTV already provides a feature that blocks out content that the parent believes may be inappropriate. This content can then be easily unlocked if the parents want to view it with a simple pin code. If these indignants have not made use of this feature already or are unwilling to do so, it shows up the hypocrisy in their argument. They are not willing to make even a tiny bit of personal effort to protect their children; those that they now use as a excuse to vent and a shield to hide behind. If they are unable block the content, they probably should not reproduce in any case.
We live in a sexually prudish and repressed society. Sex is not evil or sinful. It is enjoyable and can be beautiful. By all means take the measures you think is required to protect (or cloister) your child, but your right not to be offended does not supersede my right to do what I want in the privacy of my own home.
My favourite opening line of any TL article ever! Bloody brilliant.
I regularly stroll into CUM books and ask for Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris just to keep those ladies, with top buttons done up, on their toes. Then you ask for a copy of the Koran and if they still can’t help you, start asking for titles that rattle them like ” The Devil and I: a guide to Satanic worship”, “Gay love for the committed Christian” and ” Was Jesus a Muslim woman?”. Fire those old goats up a bit. Its good for them.
Porn is art, it is education and it is entertainment. Porn is creative, it can be beautiful, it can be silly, comical, sensual, erotic and on occasions it can even show the incredible and that previously thought impossible. It is honest, raw and those who make it are brave and crazy people. Yes, it can be depraved, sick and experimental too. It is us, the human being, naked and exposed for what we really are. The freedom of porn on the internet proves it. We all want it, we are all curious, we all hide it well with a finely plastered, civilised veneer but inside we are sexual animals driven to procreate and enjoy doing so.
Only a truly sexually repressed individual would try to ban it. You are basically trying to ban the essense of life itself. Are we truly that backward as a society? CUM’s boss help us if that is the case.
I don’t think the debate around easy access to Porn should only be about “will viewers molest children” or not. I think it goes much deeper than this. In fact, it goes to the core of society in that, arguably, it contradicts the building block of a healty community – the family unit(in whatever form, most likely 2 people committed to each other, providing securing for the children they raise). (I’ll leave it to you to see if there is reseach to back this up)
By accusing those who oppose the porn of being on “moral high ground”, it sounds like you are saying that the majority of people would welcome porn and those few who oppose it are the bible wielding snobs of old. I beg to differ. To me it sounds more like the “be-cool-man, everything-goes, noting-is-really-bad-for-you, and it-is-my-life” post modern hippie minority trying to present their views as that of the majority.
I do not see how society can be better with more porn around. I do not see woman will be respected more, children will be better protected and men will be more well behaved.
I dont see why Helping hand should advocate against violence. There are other societies who do that. If we judge organisation who a socially active on what they do NOT do, very few will be left standing, if any. Anyone who wants to help, should be applauded.
In the old days, when no lady had ever heard the word ‘condom’, some of us working at Fair Lady (or FL) became the butt of all sorts of jokes. One girl married an erection (site) manager. He went to a fancy dress as exactly that and she went as an french letter.
My son thinks I’m quite fanciful as I mutter in disgust every time we walk past or into CUM books. I really don’t like being seen there!
I’m not a fan of most commercially available pornography, not on moral grounds, but simply because most of it is heavily choreographed, predictable, features actors who are clearly just going through the motions, is aggressively heteronormative, and is rather blatantly misogynistic both in its language and its activities. That, however, is the result of the fact that most porn is produced by men.
There is good, stimulating porn out there that doesn’t insult women and that doesn’t consist solely of acrobatic, let’s-run-through-the-checklist repetition featuring silicone-enhanced starlets. However, I doubt that DStv will be showing any of, let’s say, Shine Louise Houston’s productions; instead, they’ll be running the B-grade trash that Vivid and company can’t shift in any other market.
So if various pressure groups would like to state their objections on an aesthetic basis, I’d be right behind them, just as long as they then also start lobbying to get crap action movies taken off the shelves. Trying to convince me that the world will end because it’s possible to watch porn on TV…well, you’ll have less luck with that outside the the-devil-lurks-under-every-bush demographic, which is not worth taking seriously to begin with.
Richard, the rather obvious and worn old tactic of attacking anyone with a contra opinion, is no different to Malema trying to deflect from the reports of his alleged underhand dealings by accusing the press of wanting to impose their racist agenda. The point I was really making: address the issue. And a simple ‘no conclusive proof’ does not do so; long before there was ‘conclusive proof’, common sense told us it was plain dumb to smoke.
Porn is a perversity made famous by hollywood. I have nothing against good, steamy sexual intercourse, on the contrary i enjoy sex with my woman. What porn does however is to belittle women, making them mere sex objects devoid of any value. i am yet to see a porn movie where the man wants to get to know the women first, over a period of time, and then afterwards have passionate sex with her. Instead it is a superficial meeting (pool cleaner, cab driver etc) where he then has his way with her and often time anything and everything goes, sometimes including a group of men she knows from a bar of soap. If this behaviour is indeed acceptable and in order for the writer and the females commenting on this forum, then kindly let me know when I can come clean your pools. As for the men who advocates the porn channel, there are no surprises with you lot. Our society does not need more sex (there is already a sex shop on every corner). What it needs are men and women who respects one another as equals but also recognises that our differences compliments the other.
There is a need for people to make a fundamental distinction here between “things you don’t approve of” and “things you want to ban”.
There are lots of things I don’t approve of, i.e. fast-food, lady gaga CDs, bakkies etc. HOWEVER does that automatically mean I want to ban them?
I might have a serious problem if there were plans to offer McDonalds food at my kids’ schools, but I’m a responsible enough parent to avoid taking my children to McDonalds while they’re under my supervision.
Arguing that DSTV should be prevented from offering this package because you find porn depraved only makes sense if you also advocate the banning of all forms of pornography. I also wonder how many of those opposed to this have a problem with 18 rated violent movies on DSTV.
A real pity about Solidarity’s blunder…they often do good work (membership R72 per month)
Hey, Amanda, if you need porn, I can send you a few urls and teach you how to use Google.
But really it’s quite funny how these WAC (White Afrikaner Christians) are worried about a porn channel on DSTV, when every kid at school whacks off to Internet porn.
Why are people so worried about protecting kids from erotic material? Before about 11-12, kids aren’t interested in that stuff, older than that and it’s part of their natural curiosity to learn and discover the world they’re growing up into.
The only (sexual) thing kids need protecting from is pedophiles.
SABC opportunity – incesae viewership by putting porn on Welfare TV channels
There is as much types of pornography as there are types of people. Now where to draw the line… This is essentially why pornography as a concept is one that is backward, more so, when placed in the context of a developing country, where AIDS and rape stats are on the increase and a nation whose poverty level is something that cannot go unnoticed. There is no need to identify the violent types of pornography as I’m sure we’re aware of them for the simple reason that we have chosen to take a stance on the matter. The fact that these are classified as porn and ever ‘liberal’ as we are it a question of time though is it not, for us to loosen up about what we as a society deem acceptable and start seeing violent and brutal behavior as acceptable?
One way to ease us into this train of thought is pornography. Because to say yes to pornography is to say yes to the various types of it. This is not a moral issue, please can we let our sensitive egos take a rest already. This is a health issue. It is a safety issue. It is a human relations issue. Pornography breeds a culture of perverts. To all the women who feel threatened being sexually harassed, the wolf whistling, name calling and come- ons by random men on the street, we’re out there saying equal rights and respect yet we support this idea.
Forget about porn on DSTV, porn made freely available to the masses is a matter that needs to be addressed. Does it add up that one says yes to ETV porn and no to DSTV-get-all-you-can-porn-on-1-channel. Its like saying yes to smokkie houses in a neighborhood and no to a shebeen on the basis that it makes us drink. No man left behind is what SA is trying to accomplish by the looks of it, in that case, for those who feel it is an infringement of the right to consume whatever they wish is in the privacy of the home- in this case pornography – there is the internet, there are DVD and video stores and there are also your buddies that burn them on MP3 DVDs for you, go ahead. But for those who are trying to match up a salary to the the cost of living in SA, who may not always be in the home to censor and whose children may get an eyeful on late night Saturdays at friend’s place. Or the many people who get confused amongst the messages of AIDS awareness campaigns and free streaming of porn, The reinforcement of an idea that females are to be dominated, used and discarded, and that men are aggressors, for those people of whom we are part of lets be wise about this.
How a group of people who, it seems have an interest in combating something that holds the potential to expand its ‘range’ and in so doing include content of a violent nature, could be condemned for doing so is concerning, I won’t go so far as to say it is sickening- for I might be moved to gather info that discredits the link between child molestation and porn. What stands out most though is that such an effort has been ‘reduced’ to something called the ‘moral high ground’.
Dear william claasen,
If I had a pool and were 40 years younger, I’d love to ask you over to clean it.
We always believed that if the love interest at home was good enough, extraneous wasn’t really necessary. Extramural activities were the frisson; same person different surroundings, preferably out of doors, but private. If you haven’t worked out how to be comfortably active in a Morris Minor, you haven’t lived!
At my ripe old age, I’ve never watched a blue movie and their charm evades me. As an art student, Playboys lay around openly at college, even though banned, models were all nude and positioning the flashes over the boobs at Scope was far more fun than inspecting the pictures. Nowadays it’s all beautifully lean (and probably gay) six-packs on e-mail; fun but no turn-on.
My son dies a thousand deaths if I as much as say, ‘Cute butt’ about anyone, no matter their age.
And then his godfathers enter (left) and tell him all about my misspent youth, which lasted into middle age, when he was born and spoiled the fun!
To me the so called tenssion between the alliances is just a waste of time and buying face of Cosatu members not to be disolution all of them as it is happening currenlty as we speak, because not later come the Local Election Cosatu as ussaully would be telling its membership to vote for the same people whom the are claiming that they are leaving a capitalist style. I think is the time that Cosatu Laedership must know let people speak their minds when it come to voting time for their leadership of their choice.
Workers of this country must know opentheir eyes widely and call Cosatu leadership in order start to focus on really bread and butter issues such as Labour Brokerages, Nationalisation of weath of this country such Mines , Transportation, etc.
so that the African people can be able to get some permanent job.
MALINGE KA PLAATJIE