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Terrace Review — Wednesday, November 14, 1990 A9

Pornography : seen as a daily influence —

by Harriett Fjaagesund

Pornography is big business.
It ranks in 18 billion yearly. In
terms of dollars and cents, it out
ranks the entire movie and video
industry and book markets com-
bined. Canada’s yearly share on

pornography is to the tune of

$500 million.

At a recent pornography
workshop held at the Women’s
Resource Centre, Sue Higgins,
alcohol and drug counselor at
the Terrace Correctional Centre,
and Karla Henning, co-
ordinator at the Women’s
Resource Centre, pointed out
some of the dangers por-
nography inflicts on our society.

Not only does pornography
degrade women, it gives a false
impression of the role women
actually play in life. Higgins
noted that it is especially damag-
ing to children; she recalled an
incident in Stewart, where she
was teaching at the time, when a
group of young boys watched
porno movies one entire
weekend while the parents were
away. “‘There was a marked
change in these boys’ attitudes

" towards the girls at school. They

treated them as pieces of meat.”’

Pornography has become
common place in our society,
like cigarettes. In fact, we pro-
bably object more to smoking
than we do to pornography.
Playboy magazine is an example
of this. You'll find it in most
households, and while many of
the cheaper mens’ magazines are
considered pornography,

Playboy is considered an accepi-

table literary art form. Yet the
violence depicted in Playboy has
dramatically increased from
three percent to twenty percent
of its contents over the past 10
years.

But X-rated movies and porno
magazines aren’t the only
sources of pornography. Many
advertisers routinely use a much
more .subtle- form of por-
nography to sell their products.

Who Says It Doesn’t Hurt was
the theme of a video shown at
the workshop: As well as the
more conventional pornography
common to movies and
magazines, the video ‘showed
how advertisers use women (or
parts of their bodies) to sell
everything from bathroom
cleansers to fast cars.

Pornography is more than
just dirty pictures. Many adver-
tisements give the image that

women are objects while men

are subjects. In one example
advertisement, the video showed
a picture of a man and a woman
standing on the deck of a boat.
The man was taller and bigger
than the woman, who stood
slightly behind him. While she
gazed adoringly at him, his at-
tention was focused somewhere
in the distance.

All this may seem a little silly
until you look closely at the
message being conveyed:
Women are smaller than men
and therefore more helpless.
Because the woman.-is of secon-
dary importance, she must stand
behind the man. And while she

clings to him, he ignores her.
The overall message here is that
male dominance and power is

SEXY.

But men are victims, too.
How about the famous beer
‘commercials where tall, hand-
some, rugged males guzzle beer
by the barrelfull. What the com-
mercials don’t show are the poor
hung-over slobs the morning
after. Or how about the driver in
the sporty car who really puts
the pedal to the metal in order to
win beautiful women? We never
see the scene where the police
come with a body bag to scrape
him off the road.

There is a lot of dismember-
ment of women’s body parts in
advertisements, such as the
shapely leg to sell shoes or pan-
tyhose. Sometimes body parts
that have absolutely nothing to
do with a specific product are

used. A rising point of conten- -

tion among many women are

designer labels; on many slacks
is sewn onto the

the label
backside of the pants.

As one viewer at the
workshop pointed out, the first
rule in advertising is to create a
need. ‘It teaches the consumer

that he or she will never quite

measure up to the ideal without
Brand X.’’ Pornography is a
powerful means of conditioning
that sells products. It also makes
a lot of assumptions about
wornen and men, and is extreme-
ly racist.

Another viewer pointed out
that ‘our society is very hung-up,
that we are brainwashed into

believing that nakedness and
sexuality are naughty. ‘This

“society is hiding everything. A

woman can’t breast feed in
public, yet breasts are shown
everywhere; on TV, in
magazines, at the theatres.”’
Still another viewer added
that pornography (and racism)

‘often hides behind the guise of

humor, and that because humor
is acceptable, pornography and

racism have become an accep-

table part of our society. Both
Higgins and Hennig advise con-
sumers to write to advertisers if

they see something that they find
offensive.

Pornography hurts everyone.
It cripples the next generation.
To view women as little more
than sexual objects is to discount
half the voice of the entire
human race. One male viewer
put it something like this: ‘‘Por-
nography is nothing more than
propaganda. It’s a falsehood, a
lie. Not all men are interested in
pornography. Why are we so
afraid to teach about sexuality?
Where is the education?”

f

PET OF THE WEEK — This week’s pet is a three-

month-old female malemute cross. She was picked up

as a Stray. If you would like to give her a home stop by

‘the Terrace Animal Shelter.

HOUSING CRUNCH — Making room for a beer store, Demolishing this house
‘and. ite contents last week was no great challenge for the right plece of
| " equipment. This excavator quickly downed the Greig Ave. structure to make

STR eg he

; way for ‘an ‘expanded parking lot at the Skeena Hotel. The. number: of .
_ additional parking spaces will more than make: ‘up for thoee that are lost. .
when construction begins on the Skeena Hotel Beer and Wine Store,