And here I thought rape was about power, not sex.

innocent boys (an oxymoron if ever there was one)

Is there a polite response to this phrase? 'Fraid not. Fuck you, Ms. Lafsky.

it would seem to throw a wrench into that oft-repeated idea that rape has nothing to do with sex, only power. Maybe in fact rape does have something to do with sex. Or getting off, at least. For the man.

I will never understand why my fellow liberals defend porn. Here is a letter that a porn "model" write to Salon just last year. Read her words and tell me again that porn is harmless. Read them and tell me that it "helps" women:

"I want to tell your readers that this is not an industry like the others, that once you get in you can't go back. Every time a guy says to me, "You look familiar," I tense up. Every time I start to get involved with someone, I dump them, because how can I bring this up to them? So ... yeah. I messed up. I hope other people can avoid falling into this. This is not a normal industry, it is messed up, and people will pretend to be your friends but they are not; they are all just using you. Yes, they use you in other industries, but in other industries the consequences are less severe. You don't experience the same level of fear once you're out of them.

Sometimes I think about killing myself, but mostly I try and pretend it never happened, or write it off as a colorful chapter of my youth...

Please, Salon, don't portray this as a healthy thing to do. It isn't. I didn't meet a single girl in the industry who wasn't desperate and needy, even though they were all good at bluffing. When you're in it, you start justifying everything to yourself, you get so caught up in the excitement, you say, "I'm doing this because I am confident!" but really, you aren't. Please don't encourage people to make such justifications to themselves. I know it's trendy to call this sort of thing "sex positive," but really, it is as sex negative as you can get."

http://archive.salon.com/books/letters/2005/03/16/porn2/index.html

with the "innocent boys" comment???

Did John Kerry write this?

They didn't study Web porn at all. They saw that since Al Gore invented the Internets, rape rates have gone down and they MADE UP AN EXPLANATION FOR IT. I agree that psych experiments on porn (as described in the article) are probably useless, but this "study" is utter trash. Worse than any porn I've ever averted my innocent eyes from.

I demand this piece be pulled and the writer fired.

It is awful regardless of the angle from which it is approached.

The writer is sexist; the data is severely flawed; no self-respecting person, let alone feminist, liberal, or just plain decent human being can seriously defend the pornography industry, let alone pretend it's providing some benefit to keeping crime down.

Joan Walsh, if you allow this piece to stand and this writer to remain on your payrool, then you have no standards.

Dear Michael Sullivan: I think it is ultimately that Todd Kendall (it's hard to keep these names straight while posting) from Clemson with whom you have a beef, and perhaps the Slate columnist Landsberg a bit as well, then Salon's Lafsky for the turn of phrase "innocent boys = oxymoron" but the whole porn=cuts down on rape idea came from that Kendall fellow at Clemson. He is the one who did the study. Then this fellow Landsberg at Slate did an analysis of Kendall's study, guessing at reasons and offering commentary. Then Salon's Lafsky reported on Slate's analysis where the Slate fellow guessed at reasons.

Lafsky is kind of just the messenger here.

No wonder she has her head up her ass.

Go back to your shitty lawyer blog, Melissa. Bone up on those writing skills.

to your congregation, Pastor - if you have one. I am a feminist, and I think the "innocent boys" joke is offensive too. But I'm not calling anyone names. Not even you.

This "study" you refer to is ridiculous and proves nothing at all. My God, the measures people will go to in order to defend their wanking materials. . . it boogles the mind.

The misogyny in porn is so omnipresent, so obvious, I'm stunned Broadsheet would latch onto a non-study to defend it.

...except how willing people are to justify porn use, as it's so "hip" and "edgy" to like porn. I am not advocating making anything illegal, I'm all for freedom of speech etc., but don't try and make porn anything other than what it is: a medium that reinforces and recycles antiquated gender stereotypes while contributing even more racist, violent and misogynistic images to a women-hating culture. It pisses me off to see a so-called feminist publication defending something that so obviously demeans women. Salon will critique sexist politicians, tv shows, commercials and products but somehow porn is untouchable, because they don't want to come across as prudish or "sex negative". In my opinion the porn industry is what's sex negative- taking an otherwise passionate, exciting act and turning it into a disgusting charictature. I also find the fact that this article mentions that 15-19 year old boys are one of the largest consumers of internet porn disturbing. I do not envy the young woman who is the first "real life" sexual encounter of a young man who has been looking at internet porn since adolescence. And about the rape component- great! One more reason to let rapists off of the moral hook. Now that "she was asking for it" has become over used, we could just start saying "it wasn't his fault- he doesn't have internet access!"

The number of REPORTED rapes are down; why does the "study" not consider that the reasons for not reporting rape could be increasing (thank you, Maryland appellate court! See Rebecca Traister's report on 10/31).