Dear Stevan,
During the final few minutes of today's discussion, we were all talking
about arousal during the viewing of pornographic films, both with and
without violence. Arousal, as you mentioned, is measured by penile
diameter, and in fact, this method is used in the assessment of sex
offenders in Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight. These prisoners are
shown clips of films, as you mentioned, but are also shown photographs
of naked people. This includes pictures of little girls, as well as
grown, mature women. In the case of paedophile sex offenders, they
become more aroused when watching a rape scene (dominant male in a
violent clash with a female) and also are usually at peak arousal when
shown a picture of a small child.
You said in the lecture that all males will experience some sort of
arousal when watching a sex video. That's a fair enough comment. But
surely the average normal male will not be aroused by the sight of a
pre-pubescent girl, or boy, for that matter. I seriously doubt that a
normal male would have lustful ideas going through his head when
thinking about a small child. On the contrary, a sex offender will find
this extremely erotic. So where does one draw the line between being
healthily aroused by porn, and being perverted? And why is it that some
men act on their fantasies and others don't?
I completely understand the difference between proximal and distal
causes of why we do what we do...... in which case, what distal reason
is there for a man to rape or sexually abuse a pre-pubescent girl, who
cannot conceive anyway?
Also, is it not possible for the proximal and distal reasons to in fact
be the same? What I mean is, if a couple are trying for a baby,
admittedly, they'd be aroused and find the experience pleasurable, but
their ultimate goal is to conceive, and this may be what is going
thnrough their heads at the time ( I know that is a pretty unromantic
account of love-making , but do you get what I mean). Another example
could be that a man in the desert is dying of thirst, and uncannily
finds a bottle of water. Surely his first thought would be 'hoorah,
I've found some water to drink so that I can rehydrate my self and
live'. Perhaps what I am ultimately trying to say is that if you are in
a life or death situation, your proximal and distal actions will be for
one and the same reason.
My final comment is referring to the comment made today about men
fantisizing about rape. It has also been said in the past that females
fantasize about BEING raped. I think that these ideas boil down to
domination more then anything else. The male has always been regarded
as the stronger, more dominant sex, as well as the more agressive. I
reckon that these are behavioural characteristics of the male which
help him to pass on his genes. However, whatever happened to the female
in all of this? Does she not get the oppurtunity to pick and choose who
her 'victims' will be, or who she wants to pass her genes onto?! Then
again, some women like to be controlled, dominated and man-handled.
Rape, though, is a completely different case.
Anyway, that's about it from me.
See you, Louise.
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