[Text Only - for Archiving Purposes]

How The Claim 'Fiction Affects Reality' Relates to Conservative Groups

"The effects of the media pale in comparison to the biological social economic and psychological factors that are far more powerful predictors of aggressive behavior." […] “Obviously, most people do not become motivated to behave aggressively or commit an act of violence as a result of what they observe. As social-cognitive learning theory predicts, people’s interpretation of what they are watching, their personality dispositions, and the social context can all affect how they respond” […] “a child’s genetic predispositions to violence, low feelings of self-control, being socially rejected by peers, criminal opportunity, being the victim of childhood physical abuse, being in a peer group that endorses and encourages violence, and living in a community where aggression is a way of life” - Social Psychology 9th Ed. (2018)

CONTENTS:

​The following examples and image archives are pulled from public websites, articles, discussion boards and social media related to key conservative organizations, groups, movements, etc. that have had strong historical impacts or present day relevance due to their current influence on how people view certain topics. The main commonalities between these groups and individuals below are that they are founded and run by White (self-identified) Christian (or specifically Evangelical Christian) men and women who show open support for anti-LGBTQ+, anti-BIPOC, anti-Women policies while embracing Traditionalist, Ethnocentric and Nationalist tendencies.

Note that many of the following example pieces from these groups and organizations focus on condemning existing media and stirring up anxieties of what it could potentially bring about by existing. However, none of these organizations or writers ever indicated that they followed up on previously made claims, particularly with major hit television shows and book series. Did the sensation '50 Shades of Gray' ever cause an epidemic of domestic violence against women? Did the global sensation 'Game of Thrones' which ran from 2011-2019 with an average of 32.7 million viewers per episode (source: cnn) contribute to a rise in sexual abuse or incestuous relationships? No such insight into the validity of their claims is ever examined or thought after. While they may emphasize the disturbing or scandalous nature of certain media, they do not share reputable studies or evidence that specific media directly causes increased cases of the abuse they focus on.

Texts Related to Censorship & Media Literacy

Articles, Books & Film on Censorship:

Articles and Books on Media Literacy:

A History of Modern Day Censorship & Extremism

The Use of ‘Degenerate’

The Unsavory history of 'Degenerate' as a term, specifically in relation to labeling media, art or people:

​Almost 40 years before Hitler, Max Nordau wrote a manifesto (see below) in 1898 emphasizing how artists, writers & creatives were a dangerous bunch who, while seemingly nonthreatening at first, could be just as destructive as thieves, murderers and sexual perverts by influencing impressionable women, children and the uneducated with their works. To this day, White Nationalists, Nazis, Gender Critical, Radical Feminist, & Alt-Right groups and individuals regularly use the term 'Degenerate' in this fashion (often coupled with slurs and violent rhetoric)

  • In more recent history "with Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the systematic suppression of contemporary art quickly spread throughout Germany. Sanctions were created to forbid the exhibition and even the creation of any contemporary art not approved by the Nazi Party; such work was labeled, along with the artists who created it, as “degenerate.” In 1933 this art began to be displayed in defamatory exhibits intended to disparage modern art, and to link the Jewish race with the decline of German art. The culmination of these exhibits was “Entartete Kunst,” which opened in Munich in July 1937 and was advertised as “culture documents of the decadent work of Bolsheviks and Jews.” The works on exhibit included only a small segment of the almost 16,000 works of modern art confiscated from German museums on the orders of Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda. So-called degenerate works by Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, and other major artists of the 20th century were displayed with paintings by psychotic patients and were subjected to vicious ridicule by the press and the German people, who attended in vast numbers. This exhibit was designed to contrast with a simultaneous exhibition of art approved by Nazi leaders made up of works executed in an academic style and dealing with typical Nazi themes of heroism and duty. After showing in Munich, “Entartete Kunst” toured to other German cities. In 1939 many of the confiscated works were auctioned in Lucerne, Switzerland, or sold abroad to finance the Nazi Party; the rest are believed to have been burned in Berlin."

(Source: https://www.britannica.com/art/degenerate-art)

Examples of the Term ‘Degeneracy’ In Use by These Groups

​(CONTENT WARNING: triggering topics and language below such as racism, antisemitism, anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments, etc.)​

flier
Screenshot from gender critical radfem group Ovarit
excerpt from the turner diaries
antisemitic pamphlet
kiki farms


Degeneration (1898):

Written by Max Noradau who was a nationalist (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51161/51161-h/51161-h.htm)

  • "Degenerates are not always criminals, prostitutes, anarchists, and pronounced lunatics; they are often authors and artists. These, however, manifest the same mental characteristics, and for the most part the same somatic features, as the members of the above-mentioned anthropological family, who satisfy their unhealthy impulses with the knife of the assassin or the bomb of the dynamiter, instead of with pen and pencil."

    • "This phenomenon is not to be disregarded. Books and works of art exercise a powerful suggestion on the masses. It is from these productions that an age derives its ideals of morality and beauty. If they are absurd and anti-social, they exert a disturbing and corrupting influence on the views of a whole generation. Hence the latter, especially the impressionable youth, easily excited to enthusiasm for all that is strange and seemingly new, must be warned and enlightened as to the real nature of the creations so blindly admired."

  • "The verbose rhetorician exposes with more or less grace, or cleverness, the subjective impressions received from the works he criticises, but is incapable of judging if these works are the productions of a shattered brain, and also the nature of the mental disturbance expressing itself by them."

    • "In the mental development of degenerates [...] That which nearly all degenerates lack is the sense of morality and of right and wrong. For them there exists no law, no decency, no modesty. In order to satisfy any momentary impulse, or inclination, or caprice, they commit crimes and trespasses with the greatest calmness and self-complacency, and do not comprehend that other persons take offence thereat."

  • "there are, nevertheless, lower stages in which the degenerate does not, perhaps, himself commit any act which will bring him into conflict with the criminal code, but at least asserts the theoretical legitimacy of crime; seeks [...] to prove that ‘good’ and ‘evil,’ virtue and vice, are arbitrary distinctions; goes into raptures over evildoers and their deeds; professes to discover beauties in the lowest and most repulsive things; and tries to awaken interest in, and so-called ‘comprehension’ of, every bestiality."

    • "the scholar [...] is a constituent part of the governmental machine, and honours and dignities fall far more to his lot than to the poet and artist. The enthusiasts of the latter are youths and women—i.e., those components of the race in whom the unconscious outweighs consciousness; for artist and poet address themselves first of all to emotion, and this is more easily excited in the woman and the adolescent than in the mature man; their [artists'] accomplishments are, moreover, more accessible to the multitude than those of the scholar [...] whose importance is in general fully appreciated only by a few specialists"


The Roots of Christian Nationalism & Conservatism (Videos & Documentaries)

Multiple documentaries, films and clips that cover historical origins, beliefs, acts of violence and political context of Christian Nationalism, White Nationalists, Nazis, Conservatives, & Alt-Right groups. (FULL LIST) For instance, NCOSE is a group that aligns itself with ‘Judeo Christian’ doctrines. What does this mean?

Why ‘Judeo-Christian values’ are a dog-whistle myth peddled by the far right (2017)

"The phrase “Judeo-Christian” has been around since the 1930s but US President Donald Trump recently resurrected it in a deeply problematic speech on October 13, 2017 in which he said: “We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values … We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”" [...] the phrase is used to exclude rather than include. Despite implying that Jews are part of this resurrection of Judeo-Christian values, Trump in no way intends a campaign to Make Hanukkah Great Again. His “Judeo-Christian values” are about protecting Christmas, and about protecting Christians – at the exclusion of others. Christian-majority nations such as the UK and US often lay claim to laws and ethics based on “Judeo-Christian values”. But it is important to remember that Jews have been systematically excluded from and terrorised by states that claim this Judeo-Christian foundation. [...] “Judeo-Christian” is now most often used to draw a line between imagined Christian values and a perceived (but false) threat of Muslim immigration. [...] Invoked in anti-immigration rhetoric with the goal of excluding Muslims, this phrase is actually used to scaffold a false narrative about Christiansbeing persecuted, threatened or besieged, which gives motivation for the protection of “Judeo-Christian values”. In fact, Christians are not persecuted in the countries where Farage and Trump make their homes. Supersessionism A quick search on Twitter for the phrase “Judeo-Christian” illustrates that white supremacists have embraced the term – and that Jews reject it. It’s not surprising that many Jews are not falling for this dog-whistle phrase, especially since the myth of a Judeo-Christian society rests on the false – and dangerous – idea that Judaism and Christianity hold the same ideas and values.” -https://theconversation.com/why-judeo-christian-values-are-a-dog-whistle-myth-peddled-by-the-far-right-85922

The Hay's Code (1930s - 1968):

​​Was written by a Clergyman and Priest

​(The following are Quotes taken from Hay's Code documentation) (http://www.umsl.edu/~gradyf/theory/1930code.pdf):

  • "It has always recognized that entertainment can be of a character either helpful or harmful to the human race, and, in consequence, has clearly distinguished between: Entertainment which tends to improve the race, or, at least, to recreate and rebuild human beings exhausted with the realities of life; and Entertainment which tends to degrade human beings, or to lower their standards of life and living. Hence the moral importance of entertainment is something which has been universally recognized. It enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours, and ultimately touches the whole of their lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work. So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation. Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living condition and moral ideals."

    • "Art can be morally good, lifting men to higher levels... Art can be morally evil in its effects. This is the case clearly enough with unclean art, indecent books, suggestive drama."

    • "[Art] is the product of some person's mind, and that mind was either good or bad morally when it produced the thing. And the thing has its effect upon those who come into contact with it. In both these ways, as a product and the cause of definite effects, it has a deep moral significance and an unmistakable moral quality."

    • (Film then was seen like the Internet often is now, difficult to monitor and control:) "Because of the mobility of a film and the ease of picture distribution, and because of the possibility of duplicating positives in large quantities, this art reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art... Psychologically, the larger the audience, the lower the moral mass resistance to suggestion."

    • "No picture should lower the moral standards of those who see it. This is done:

      • ​(a) When evil is made to appear attractive, and good is made to appear unattractive.

      • (b) When the sympathy of the audience is thrown on the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil, sin. The same thing is true of a film that would throw sympathy against goodness, honor, innocence, purity', honest)'.

      • (c) That evil is not presented alluringly. Even if later on the evil is condemned or punished, it must not be allowed to appear so attractive that the emotions are drawn to desire or approve so strongly that later they forget the condemnation and remember only the apparent joy of the sin.

      • (d) That thruout the presentation, evil and good are never confused and that evil is always recognized clearly as evil... [and] in the end the audience feels that evil is wrong and good is right."

      • No plot should be so constructed as to leave the question of right or wrong in doubt or fogged."

The Comics Code (1954-2011):

For a wonderful deep dive into this history see Nyberg, A. K. (2009). Seal of approval: The History of the Comics Code. Jackson, Miss: Univ. Press of Mississippi. Children were used as an excuse for censorship: "The church's position was that while removal of such material might infringe on an adult's "right to read," good citizens should be willing to waive their rights in order to protect children"

  • "Many felt that even children who did not exhibit other delinquent behavior might be enticed into imitating crimes pictured in detail in their favorite comics, and children who did not act on what they read were still getting the wrong message about authority from the stories that glorified criminals."
    Wertham listed seven ways in which he believed comic books affected children:

    • They may suggest criminal or sexually abnormal ideas (like homosexuality)

    • they create a mental preparedness or readiness for temptation

    • they may tip the scales and behavior of otherwise normal children

    • they set off a chain of undesirable and harmful thinking

    • they create for the child atmosphere of deceit trickery and cruelty

    • He would make statements such as "the fact that some child psychiatrists endorse comic books does not prove the healthy state of the comic books. It only proves the unhealthy state of child psychiatry. He refuted the consultant's claims that comic books were simply healthy fantasy outlets for aggression and that children were aware that the world of comics was one of Make Believe." and "We are not dealing with the rights and privileges of adults to read and write as they choose. We are dealing with the mental health of [children]"

(source: https://cbldf.org/the-comics-code-of-1954/)

CODE OF THE COMICS MAGAZINE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC.

  • General standards—Part A

    • (1) Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.

    • (2) No comics shall explicitly present the unique details and methods of a crime.

    • (3) Policemen, judges, Government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.

    • (4) If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.

    • (5) Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.

    • (6) In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.

    • (7) Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.

    • (8) No unique or unusual methods of concealing weapons shall be shown.

    • (9) Instances of law-enforcement officers dying as a result of a criminal’s activities should be discouraged.

    • (10) The crime of kidnapping shall never be portrayed in any detail, nor shall any profit accrue to the abductor or kidnaper. The criminal or the kidnaper must be punished in every case.

    • (11) The letters of the word “crime” on a comics-magazine cover shall never be appreciably greater in dimension than the other words contained in the title. The word “crime” shall never appear alone on a cover.

    • (12) Restraint in the use of the word “crime” in titles or subtitles shall be exercised.

  • General standards—Part B

    • (1) No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.

    • (2) All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.

    • (3) All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.

    • (4) Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.

    • (5) Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.

  • General standards—Part C
    All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the code, and are considered violations of good taste or decency, shall be prohibited. Dialogue

    • (1) Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.

    • (2) Special precautions to avoid references to physical afflictions or deformities shall be taken.

    • (3) Although slang and colloquialisms are acceptable, excessive use should be discouraged and, wherever possible, good grammar shall be employed.

  • Religion

    • (1) Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible.

  • Costume

    • (1) Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.

    • (2) Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.

    • (3) All characters shall be depicted in dress reasonably acceptable to society.

    • (4) Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities. NOTE.—It should be recognized that all prohibitions dealing with costume, dialog, or artwork applies as specifically to the cover of a comic magazine as they do to the contents.

  • Marriage and sex

    • (1) Divorce shall not be treated humorously nor represented as desirable.

    • (2) Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.

    • (3) Respect for parents, the moral code, and for honorable behavior shall be fostered. A sympathetic understanding of the problems of love is not a license for morbid distortion.

    • (4) The treatment of live-romance stories shall emphasize the value of the home and the sanctity of marriage.

    • (5) Passion or romantic interest shall never be treated in such a way as to stimulate the lower and baser emotions.

    • (6) Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.

    • (7) Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.

  • CODE FOR ADVERTISING MATTER
    These regulations are applicable to all magazines published by members of the Comics Magazine Association of America, Inc. Good taste shall be the guiding principle in the acceptance of advertising.

    • (1) Liquor and tobacco advertising is not acceptable.

    • (2) Advertisement of sex or sex instruction books are unacceptable.

    • (3) The sale of picture postcards, “pinups,” “art studies,” or any other reproduction of nude or seminude figures is prohibited.

    • (4) Advertising for the sale of knives or realistic gun facsimiles is prohibited.

    • (5) Advertising for the sale of fireworks is prohibited.

    • (6) Advertising dealing with the sale of gambling equipment or printed matter dealing with gambling shall not be accepted.

    • (7) Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.

    • (8) To the best of his ability, each publisher shall ascertain that all statements made in advertisements conform to fact and avoid misrepresentation.

    • (9) Advertisement of medical, health, or toiletry products of questionable nature are to be rejected. Advertisements for medical, health, or toiletry products endorsed by the American Medical Association, or the American Dental Association, shall be deemed acceptable if they conform with all other conditions of the Advertising Code.

NCOSE (1960s - Present)  [Previously Known as 'Morality in Media' until 2015]: 

  • Articles:

  • NCOSE's About Page (as of 2023) States:

    • "Using every 'social media' tactic of the era, Morality in Media became the beacon of hope and light for those concerned about the insidious trend toward normalization of sexual exploitation in American culture. It worked relentlessly to educate the public about the harms of pornography and bring about the robust enforcement of federal obscenity laws. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the producers and distributors of pornography across the country found themselves under federal prosecution...But what MIM’s leaders, and most others, could not foresee was the rise of the Internet... Indeed, porn-free spaces are increasingly hard to find. From television, public libraries, public and private schools, home computers, and handheld devices, the Internet and streaming capabilities have cast the shadow of pornography far and wide...We see that pornography is linked to sexual violence and is used to groom children for sexual abuse. We know that demand for commercial sex fuels prostitution and, therefore, sex trafficking as well. The connections go on and on....Our decades’ long battle against pornography, has also shown us that like the tobacco industry, the pornography industry has created a public health crisis. However, despite tobacco’s former widespread use and acceptance in American culture, once its harms became apparent, society took action and adopted dramatic new policies to limit the harmful effects of smoking. Similarly we believe that people need to be protected from pornography exposure and made aware of the risks associated with its use."

The NCOSE Board Members affiliations & beliefs (as of 2023):

  • Executive Director of NCOSE is Patrick A. Trueman:

    • Argued:

    • “He took over at NCOSE in 2010 when it was a struggling organization known as Morality in Media”

    • Executive director of 'Americans United for Life' (Founded in 1971, the group opposes abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, and certain contraceptive methods. The group has been influential in the spread of so-called "Heartbeat" legislation across a number of American states.)

    • Legal counsel for 'The Family Research Council' which is designated a Hate Group by the SPLC for it's anti-LGBTQ+ views which have included labeling LGBTQ+ people pedophiles.

    • Director of Affairs for 'The American Family Association': A Christian Fundamentalist organization also listed as a hate group by the SPLC

  • A Christian Clinic owner:

    • their site includes links to 'Focus on the Family'. This site contains numerous materials to treat "transgenderism": "The growing transgender movement fights against God’s design for male and female"

  • The President of an app designed to monitor porn use on the web:

    • (visible by a parent, spouse or friend) to prevent people from viewing pornography.​

  • A writer for 'The Catholic Thing':

    • Portion of a 2019 article reads "We fast-forward to our own day, and we encounter the irony of a false idea turning on itself.  In the awful unfolding of the “culture war,” abortion has been deeply planted in the law, along now with same-sex marriage, and the drive toward “transgenderism.”"​

A Company Chairman who is an avid contributor to Republican politicians

A College Dean to a Private Christian University who believes sexual content in video games leads to assaults​

A University Professor who considers himself "Un-Woke" and "Un-Cancelable"; holds multiple anti-LGBTQ+ views

  • National Regent of Catholic Daughters of America:

    • "As Catholic Daughters and as citizens, we have the obligation and the power to actively support patriotism."

  • A College Professor of Gender and Women's studies who wrote:

    • an anti-trans manifesto which included "The trans-sex fantasy has imagined—and is enacting—a world in which how a man feels is more real than his actual reality. And now the fantasy has the weight of the federal government behind it."

  • A Doctor who stated:

    • "Internet pornography makes a perfect learning environment for the pornification of culture: It starts with permission-giving beliefs: “What I’m doing is normal, and everybody is doing it.” It miseducates about sex: it says it’s not about intimacy, caring, child-creation, etc. Instead, Internet pornography is about designer sex–the “perfect” and always-available bodies." ... "women exposed to porn are also trained that rape isn’t such a bad crime, and are more likely to accept rape myths. They reduce support for the women’s liberation movement. They’re more critical about their bodies and more likely to be victims of rape" ... "Porn is sex education for many people, and they’re not learning the beauty of the way God designed it."

  • A Bishop and Writer for a Religious Journal:

    • "It is about time that we as a nation finally admit to ourselves that pornography is not some benign “entertainment” that affects only those who use or produce it. In the era of rampant second-hand smoke which I experienced as a young adult, there were countless people who discouraged any effort to define carcinogenic smoke as a “public health crisis”."Four False Arguments1. “There are no victims, so
      no one is being harmed.: Pornography is not a private, victimless sin. It does serious harm to many people, including the person viewing it." "Pornography is not a healthy way to cope with temptation, nor a healthy way to relax. It feeds and
      perverts sexual desire, closing the user in on himself" "Women certainly have a critical role in this fight and should take a stance of absolute intolerance toward pornography, but in a particular way men need to be recalled to their God-given role as protectors of their families and of society if we are to overcome it."

A Former US State Attorney who argued this about Transgender bathroom bills: "“If you have a sex stereotype that you want to be like that day you just simply are that you identify that and that gives you the right to walk into a women’s restroom—and we’re the odd ones here?”"

​​

  • NCOSE, Extremism, and Judith Reisman:[NCOSE Endorses Reisman who is known to be anti-LGBTQ+, firmly anti-trans, and wishes for America to return to the Founding Fathers' "Judeo Christian Worldview"]:

    • Quotes From Reisman's (2016) Work: 'The Origins of the Transgender Phenomenon: The Challenge and Opportunity for Training Lawyers, Judges and Policy Makers in the Historicity of Alfred Kinsey’s Pansexual Worldview':

    • "With the pedophile, bi/homosexual Kinseyan principle that homosexuality was an attribute of personhood now ensconced in the Supreme Court precedent, the stage was set for the next phase, i.e., dismantling marriage as an archaic, discriminatory institution that did not conform to the new, pansexual paradigm."

    • "Furthermore, advocates such as the late Dr. John Money, founder of the gender reassignment clinic at Johns Hopkins University, are urging an end to age of consent, which would lead to the de-criminalization of pedophilia and incest."​

    • "If gender identity becomes part of non-discrimination policies, the protection accorded by sex separate bathrooms, locker rooms and similar private places will be removed, leaving women and children vulnerable to predators who will now have license to enter their private spaces with impunity. Instances of cross-dressing men entering into women’s spaces illustrate how making such conduct acceptable could traumatize women and children. News report show the extent of the problem of women and girls being victimized even before gender identity becomes part of non-discrimination policies."

    • Other Quotes from Articles Promoted by Reisman's website:

      • (2012) 50 Shades of Grey - Pedophilia Hiding In Plain Sight

        • "When you read it, look for the signs. They are all there. The female character has no sexual experience. None. She is given the age of 21, but that age is itself a cover. Her true emotional age is much-much younger. She has never even masturbated. She has never even experienced an orgasm. That alone is one of the greatest attractions to the pedophile. That is the psychology of that kind of act. You get off on taking purity." ... "There is spanking and the use of Baby oil. Why baby oil? Think about it." ... "...she is absolutely convinced the book is purposely advocating the raping of a child and attempting to normalize that atrocity." ... "We are reading child pornography. Remove the false age of the girl, which has no basis in reality, and what we are actually reading is the abuse of a little girl." ... "Are women actually that shallow? Yes, we can be. But women, the vast majority of us, are not people who knowingly condone the sexual abuse of children. We do not condone in any way, the horror that is pedophilia. Sadly though, that is exactly what is happening with the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey.  It's a pedophilia con."​

      • (2015) 'The Harm Caused by Comprehensive Sexuality Education':

        • "every child or young person who views sexually explicit images suffers real harm."[27] This harm is irreversible on a child's brain." ... "President Obama, however, endorsed teaching "medically accurate, age-appropriate, and responsible sex education" in kindergarten as "the right thing to do."[33] Who determines what is age-appropriate for a kindergartener? Planned Parenthood? Local school boards? The federal government? Since schools have "obscenity exemptions," schools can expose children to sexually explicit material and deem it "age-appropriate" by their own standards."

  • ​Quotes from NCOSE Articles Discussing The (Alleged) Dangers of Pornography:

    • (2009) (How the proliferation of adult pornography contributes to sexual exploitation of children)

    • [An article linking the expression of adult sexuality amongst adults to enabling pedophilia. lack of evidence, personal assumptions, because minors may access something meant for adults it should be barred:]

    • Claims Made:

      • Perpetrators use adult pornography to groom their victims.

      • For many perpetrators there is a progression from viewing adult pornography to viewing child pornography.

      • Children imitate behavior they view in adult pornography with other children.

      • Perpetrators use adult pornography to sexually arouse themselves.

      • Addiction to adult pornography destroys marriages, and children raised in one-
        parent households are more likely to be sexually exploited.

    • “For the most part, however, these same…entities have turned a blind eye towards the explosion of hardcore adult pornography on the Internet and elsewhere…[T]hose who fight sexual exploitation of children but who turn their backs to the adult pornography problem are making a tragic mistake.” ... "He explains why it is a mistake for the Justice Department and FBI to focus their energies almost exclusively on child molesters and child pornography because of limited resources. “In the first place,” he writes, “the explosion of hardcore adult pornography is contributing to sexual exploitation of children in various ways. In the second place, children are harmed not just by predators; they are also harmed by exposure to hardcore adult pornography…In the third place…a frequent result of a successful federal obscenity prosecution is a significant fine and/or forfeiture of property…[which] can offset in whole or part the cost of these cases. In the fourth place…it isn’t just children who are harmed by hardcore adult pornography.”

    • ['Minor Coded' rhetoric:] "Mr. Peters observes that while hardcore adult pornography does not depict actual children, it does “include hardcore depictions of sex with persons who look like children"

    • [lack of evidence, personal assumptions, because minors may access something meant for adults it should be barred:] “Pornography defenders overlook at least three factors. First, much if not most hardcore adult pornography is consumed by a relatively small percentage of individuals who are addicted to it. Second, just because a person experiments with hardcore adult pornography for a period of time or on occasion succumbs to the temptation to view it does not mean he or she approves of what is viewed, especially when hardcore adult pornographers promote their products aggressively…Third, many visitors to ‘adult websites’ are minors.”

  • Quotes from NCOSE Articles Discussing The Dangers of Fictional Depictions Specifically:

    •  ​(2019) "'Whether fictional or not, games [...] trivialize sexual violence normalize abuse and decrease empathy for real-life victims,' stated Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of NCOSE. 'Steam is becoming the go-to video game platform for pornified video games that gamify sexual violence and objectification. Steam must take social responsibility for its role in fostering #MeToo culture and remove these products from their site [...] Steam is contributing to the attitudes and behaviors of the next generation of sexual predators,' concluded Hawkins."

    • (2018) "This platform is named Nutaku, which is Internet slang for a gamer who is obsessed with anime. This insidious title could likely cause people to stumble across the pornographic game website by accident while they sought out other anime content, an art genre that’s becoming increasingly popular among children and teens [...] Porn games don’t simply contain sex or nudity. Rather, they are much more graphic. Some of these games promote sexual harassment and assault, including “pressured sexual relationships” and “abusive marriages” [....] Despite being cartoons, the graphic content in these games is far from harmless. Fight The New Drug provides a detailed explanation of how animated porn and regular porn are inseparable. Animated porn fuels sexual addiction and shapes sexual palettes just as regular porn does. Animated porn also isn’t limited to reality; moulding sexual desire towards an unrealizable fantasy. It’s time we recognize that animated, or cartoon, porn present in video games is equally as harmful as regular porn."

    • (2018) "Tumblr’s definition of pornography may be too narrow. While much pornographic content will be removed, it is unclear whether drawings will remain. Tumblr is know for it’s fandom/fanfiction community – including many users who post sexual drawings of their favorites characters from shows, movies, and cartoons. Also, the site will continue to allow written 'erotica'. This too is troublesome because usually this content is highly pornographic and sometimes even more violent and degrading than visual pornography. It also tends to target a female demographic with messages that normalize or glamorize intimate partner violence [...] TAKE ACTION: Thank Tumblr for Its Step to Remove Pornography and Ask Them to Restrict Illustrated and Written Pornography as Well."

    • (2014) (Young Woman's Personal Confession Article) "I was flipping through some fanfiction one day [...] it’s not something that you can just CONTROL. It’s worse. You THINK you can [...] porn, it’s something you hide [...] you know deep down that it’s WRONG, and shameful and you want to hide it and then you feel guilty for ever looking at it but you can’t STOP because it reels you in [...] I don’t look at any of it and I’m proud. And then I get this…squirm or something inside me and I peek. It’s just a peek. But I immediately wish I hadn’t. Because then I’m guilty about it. I stayed up so late reading something that I’ll regret for weeks after [...] Why do you want to keep looking at porn when you have someone REAL right there[?..] There’s so much WRONG with that idea [...] I want people to know what it does to someone. It could be ANYONE, even when they think they don’t have an addictive personality. You don’t need one to fall victim [...] I want people to know [...] there is nothing beautiful about porn, there’s nothing real to it, there’s nothing beneficial to anyone to look or read or watch it [...] It’s like the sirens in old mythology: the idea, the song, pulls you in until you drown."

    • (2015) (on 50 Shades of Grey) "The book and movie are hazardous to young women and men — but parents should seize the moment and talk to their children about genuine intimacy in relationships, Dr. Grossman said Friday. All healthy living things “recoil from pain,” so agreeing to be assaulted is a terrible decision — and a healthy woman does not want to be beaten, said Dr. Grossman, author of “Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student.” Young men also are likely to become confused by the “Fifty Shades” marketing. Does a woman want to be handcuffed and flogged and emotionally controlled or cherished, respected and presented with a wedding ring and wedding date, Dr. Grossman said. Young men should “run for the hills” if someone suggests a BDSM relationship with them as, even with consent, it could lead to accusations of abuse or an arrest, she added."

    • (2015) (on 50 Shades of Grey) "While Ms. James’ characters get to live in a world of fantasy, the violent relationship she describes is too often a cruel reality [...] Brutality against a partner should never be considered “sexy” or entertaining, let alone justifiable. Sexualized violence is still violence [...] Unless the newly released book is a wholesale condemnation and vilification of Christian Grey, it is a socially irresponsible publication and ought to be publicly admonished as such. By glamorizing the exploitive relationship between Christian and Ana, E. L. James is perpetuating the perception of many domestic abuse victims that they can “fix” their abuser if they only obey and love them enough. But no amount of appeasement will ever fully satisfy the perpetrator of intimate partner violence in the real world. The only answer is to get out of the harmful relationship. When the true consequences of abuse are laid out in the open, instead of shrouded in delusional fiction, Grey will be shown for what it really is: a sympathetic defense of a domestic abuser."

    • (2015) (on 50 Shades of Grey) "Domestic violence and sexual abuse against women is romantic and empowering—and women want it. You can shade a lie any color you want, but it does not make it true. Hollywood is fetishing gender inequality and selling it as an empowered love story [...] It is shameful for two prominent women to promote such abuse. Violence is not tasteful and the results of such acts are horrifying, not sexy [...] Women did not work tirelessly for decades for equality to relinquish their control to men by enduring violent and degrading acts labeled as “hot” or “romantic.” [...] Do not be fooled. 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is not a love story. Hollywood’s abuse-for-entertainment agenda is not subliminal; it’s entirely intentional.​​"Pornography is a marriage killer and thus it has monumental negative ramifications for society's future," said Trueman. "Research has shown for some time that porn use in marriage destroys the marital bond, but now we can see that porn use destroys even the desire to get married."

Gender Critical & Radical Feminist (Radfem) Groups (1970s - Present)

Collective Shout (2009-Present)

Affiliates include NCOSE and other women's organizations with Gender Critical / anti-Trans affiliations

  • Articles about Collective Shout's actions:

  • The Collective Shout Team (with public social media) (as of 2025):

    • Melinda Tankard Reist (Founder and Director)

      • Follows various Gender Critical, Radical Feminist and Anti-trans individuals on her twitter

      • Many (if not all) of her books are published by the Radical Feminist publisher 'Spinifex' who also follow openly anti-trans users

      • "I don't believe [that there is a safe degree of pornography]" - (2012) https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/whos-afraid-of-melinda-tankard-reist-20120110-1psdx.html

      • Openly (and many believe hypocritically) supports the film 'Cuties' (2020) despite the controversy of using real young girls to dance sexually: https://www.abc.net.au/religion/melinda-tankard-reist-the-ethics-of-mignonnes-cuties/12718886

        • "The girls are shown twerking and grinding, fingers in mouths, the camera zooming into the crotch region, hands in fake stimulation are troubling. They should be. We have a visceral response. These scenes are designed to make us very uncomfortable. [...] Contrary to the massive stockpile of depersonalised representations of women, perhaps these scenes are all the more shocking for the opposite reason — because the girls have become personal to us before these jarring scenes. Still, there is an ethical principle at stake: do we treat human beings as means or ends? And the complexity here is that in trying to make a serious ethical point about girls and sexuality, the girls may have been used unwittingly — but still inappropriately — to a noble end. The scene could have been filmed differently, from a greater distance, certainly not panning to their small arching backsides and crotches. While we appreciate the intention of the director in confronting us with the reality of life for an 11-year-old, these are real children. Yes, the young actors matter. Poor filming choices and the ensuing backlash has, in a whirlwind of accusations, collapsed what was intended as a work of protest into classification as a “porn” production. But do these questionable filming choices make Cuties a film that “promotes paedophilia”? I am not persuaded." 

      • Notable Tweets:

        • "All these porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists so desperate to get their hands on rape-my-little-sister incest games they’re now exchanging clues on how to find them so that they don’t all die overnight"
           

    • Caitlin Roper (Campaigns Manager):

      • Follows various Gender Critical, Radical Feminist and Anti-trans individuals on her twitter
         

    • Lyn Swanson Kennedy (Campaigns Strategy):

      • Follows Christian Nationalists on twitter

      • Follows various Gender Critical, Radical Feminist and Anti-trans individuals on her twitter

        • Notable Mentions include JKR and Graham Linehan​

      • Notable Tweets:

        • "Someone reach out to the gamebois -they needs help urgently. Brains rotted out from CSAM, grape + inc3st games. Now they’re chasing after women w/ grape + merder threats + false accusations for holding cos to their own ts&cs, bc they can’t access their CSAM, grape + inc3st games"

        • To summarise and for our own records, Savvy’s big “exposes” - apparently intended to intimidate and silence us while riling up a gaggle of rabid followers melting down after losing access to r^pe-inc3st-and-CSAM “games” - consist of: - False accusations of p3dophilia + defense of pedocriminals made against me and my colleagues, based initially on a composite of screenshots that had no connection to one other, then on a poorly comprehended reading of a ‘Cuties’ analysis (comprehension is apparently not their thing) - ridiculing Collective Shout staff using infantile schoolyard bully tactics (something well adjusted, healthy individuals outgrow by roughly age 15) - either dishonestly or due to a lack of comprehension skills (there does seem to be a pattern), summarising our campaigns to misrepresent their goals and impacts (eg we have never objected to ads because they are “too sexy” or “raunchy”) - portraying Playboy as a victim in response to our campaign exposing the p*rnographer’s sex shop chain attempting to whitewash itself by hijacking a well-respected breast cancer charity. (Shame that went over their heads - a symptom of poor research + comprehension skills) I’ve asked Savvy to leave my page once but this person returned to hurl more abuse and false accusations against me and my colleagues, riling up followers in another rabid frenzy to pile on another onslaught of abuse and falsehoods. All because the men lost access to their immersive CSAM + inc3st-and-r^pe p*rn. All because we held companies enabling and profiting from this trade to their own terms and conditions. Due to this person’s lack of self control and respect for boundaries (I asked them to kindly leave my page once before, even inviting them to have the last word- a point that was entirely misconstrued and led to another vicious tirade against me), our message was reinforced and amplified in a way I couldn’t have achieved myself. I almost want to say thanks, Savvy. Now, again, kindly leave my page. #collectiveshout
           

    • Renee Chopping (Campaigns Strategy):

      • Follows various Gender Critical, Radical Feminist and Anti-trans individuals on her twitter

        • Including JKR

      • Follows NCOSE

      • Notable Tweets: *Note, the film 'Cuties' 2020 was filmed with real child actors around age 11

        • (2025) "Gamers are dredging up our support of Netflix film 'Cuties' in an attempt to paint us as “pro-exploitation”. As usual, they’ve missed the point - or ignored it on purpose"..."Cuties depicts the sexualisation of girls - but it doesn’t promote it. It holds up a mirror to a culture that grooms girls to believe their value is in how “sexy” they appear."..."The film shows how girls are bombarded with hyper-sexualised messages. From billboards to YouTube, from lingerie ads to gaming avatars, girls are taught that their bodies are commodities. That’s not fiction, it’s reality. And the consequences are devastating."..."This film made people uncomfortable. Good. If you think the solution is to ban a film that made you squirm, but you’ll go to war over your “right” to play rape games, you’ve [again] missed the point entirely."..."Yes, parts of Cuties raised concern. As @MelTankardReist (Collective Shout's founder) wrote: “A few minutes of inappropriate, ethically problematic filming buried the broader, urgent message...” "We don’t ignore those issues. But we also don’t let them distract from the film’s truth." "Cuties made people uncomfortable because it exposed a culture that grooms girls and normalises their abuse."..."We won’t be lectured on exploitation by grown adults defending sexual torture simulator games."

        • However in 2020 Chopping wrote: "The last thing our kids need is a pornified representation of their peers to aspire to. Netflix needs to remove (Cuties) ASAP #ourkidsdeservebetter #savethechildren #sexualization"
           

    • Coralie Alison:

      • Follows various Gender Critical, Radical Feminist and Anti-trans individuals on her twitter

      • Follows NCOSE​​


Collective Shout Claims & Beliefs:

  • *An important context to note is that the actions 'Collective Shout' pushes for such as censorship of media and the purging of media is that they are not only targeting media meant for a cisgender, heterosexual male audience. They are going after any and all media made by and for anyone including groups they claim are vulnerable and oppressed (such as women and LGBTQ+ people). Additionally it is not just 'extreme' and 'heinous' depictions of fictional women being tortured that are banned, in many cases just the depiction of domestic abuse alone (despite the media sending an anti-abuse message such as Detroit Become Human), or media depicting LGBTQIA+ themes are targeted. Most of the arguments on the Collective Shout page also don't account for the many other women and minorities who disagree with their stances on fiction.

    • Teen Manga graphic comic novels in libraries feature rape, orgies, bestiality (2023):

      • "The Collective Shout grassroots organisation has also weighed in, calling for the Classification Board to be overhauled, saying comic and manga books with sex scenes should not be in libraries. “This is not just ‘adult content’, this is extreme, graphic, degrading, violent pornographic imagery,” spokeswoman Caitlin Roper said. “It’s not a matter of content that should be merely restricted to adults. This material is an endorsement of male violence and abuse of women and it should not be tolerated anywhere, let alone in public libraries”
         

    • There's no such thing as "ethical" porn (2021):

      • "Radical feminist theorists define pornography as the graphic form of women’s subordination and inequality. It is impossible to transform an industry that relies on the objectification and commodification of women’s bodies and sexuality, which turns women into things for men’s use and abuse, into an ‘ethical’ or ‘feminist’ practice.
         

      • "While so-called ‘ethical’ or ‘feminist’ porn is pitched as the solution to violent, misogynist mainstream porn, people don’t seem to be all that interested in watching it. ‘Ethical’ porn is statistically irrelevant." "The bar for what constitutes ‘ethical’ porn is incredibly low, and typically only refers to conditions of production, such as fair compensation and labour conditions, representations of diverse body types and sexualities, consent and authenticity."

      • "We must remember also that women are harmed not just in the production of porn, but in its consumption too."

      • "If we support women’s rights [...] we cannot ignore the abuse of women that is pornography. It’s not enough to merely improve the conditions of this abuse – we must abolish it."
         

    • 50 Shades Myth: It's Just Fiction:

      • "Many Fifty Shades fans argue that it is just a book/film, a work of fiction, and as such the eroticized representations of violence against women have no power to influence thinking, attitudes or beliefs. However, an analysis of the novel found sexual violence and emotional abuse were pervasive and the popular book series had the power to influence attitudes and beliefs surrounding intimate partner violence. The authors argued that “individuals regularly alter their real world beliefs and attitudes in response to fictional communication” and “stories are especially influential when readers become drawn into them and cognitive resources, emotions, and mental imagery faculties are engaged.” 

      • "As Melbourne based mental health professional Geoff Ahern says, “It’s fiction that glorifies fear, intimidation, stalking and violence against women. When I read extracts from the book I hear my clients telling the same stories and that is most certainly not fiction.”
         

    • "Not real", "freedom of expression", "don't like it, don't play": 

      • "In fiction, both physical and sexual violence – along with many other criminal or otherwise socially undesirable acts – are frequently depicted as part of a story intended for entertainment purposes. However, the depiction of such acts in a film or book is not the same as glorifying these acts (though some fiction certainly does)."

      • "It’s well-documented that the media we consume shapes our attitudes – what we think is normal, acceptable and desirable. (Just ask the multi-billion-dollar advertising industry!) Take for example pornography. As sexual ‘choking’ (strangulation) has become a staple sex act in mainstream porn, choking or strangulation outside of porn has become increasingly common. This is no coincidence. Porn eroticises this act of violence, resulting in consumers acceptance of it. Porn is a form of media that influences how people behave in their real-world sexual encounters."

      • "Zerat defends the incest and rape themes of the game as popular pornography genres and male sexual fetishes – as though that makes them acceptable. He argues these forms of violence and abuse of women and children are just fantasy. But while Zerat and the men and boys who purchased his game may have a sexual interest in incest or rape, or regard this abuse as an appealing scenario, these acts occur in a wider culture where such abuse is not a fantasy, but a reality for women and girls. These are men who believe their sexual preferences take precedence over women’s basic human rights."
         

    • Media Release: Classification Board approves movies depicting child rape:

      • "Senator Griff described anime movies depicting “wide-eyed children, usually in school uniforms, engaged in explicit sexual activities and poses, and often being sexually abused." He called for an immediate review of all Japanese anime movies accessible in Australia.

      • The Commonwealth Criminal Code prohibits the sale, production, possession and distribution of offensive and abusive material that depicts a person, or is a representation of a person, who is or appears to be under 18.

      • Senator Griff cited a number of anime series featuring the sexual abuse of children. One of these, Sword Art Online depicts the rape and sexual assault of children. It was given an unrestricted M rating by the Classifications Board, despite the fact it constitutes illegal child exploitation material. 

      • We would like to know how Board members could possibly justify the sexual violation of children for entertainment as justifiable in any way. 

      • Director Melinda Tankard Reist said. “This has allowed a paedophilic culture to flourish. How can we claim to care about the epidemic of child sexual abuse when child sexual exploitation material is given the tick by our so-called regulatory body?”

      • this material is “a gateway to the abuse of actual children” and can be used as a grooming tool to normalise abuse.

Global Online Safety Regulators Network (GOSRN) (2022 - Present)

“Global Online Safety Regulators Network Issues Three-Year Strategic Plan” - https://www.techpolicy.press/global-online-safety-regulators-network-issues-threeyear-strategic-plan/

“GOSRN representatives discussed the plan during a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), which was hosted in Washington, DC.

GOSRN was established in November 2022 with four founding members, and today bills itself as "the first dedicated forum for independent online safety regulators around the world" that enables regulators to "share experience, expertise, and evidence, paving the way for coherent international approaches to online safety regulation."

The network now includes nine member countries: Australia, Ireland, Fiji, France, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Slovakia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Taken together, these countries have a combined population approaching that of the United States, making GOSRN a potentially important market bloc to be reckoned with.”

Examples of Conservative Group’s Arguments & Pro-Censorship Beliefs that Anti-fan Arguments Parallel:

(This list is to provide a brief set of core examples from large influential and extremely religious groups and is non-exhaustive:)

  • Hays and Comic Codes:

    • "The church's position was that while removal of such material might infringe on an adult's "right to read," good citizens should be willing to waive their rights in order to protect children"

    • "Many felt that even children who did not exhibit other delinquent behavior might be enticed into imitating crimes pictured in detail in their favorite comics, and children who did not act on what they read were still getting the wrong message about authority from the stories that glorified criminals."

    • Wertham listed seven ways in which he believed comic books affected children:

      • They may suggest criminal or sexually abnormal ideas

      • they create a mental preparedness or readiness for temptation

      • they may tip the scales and behavior of otherwise normal children

      • they set off a chain of undesirable and harmful thinking

      • "the fact that some child psychiatrists endorse comic books does not prove the healthy state of the comic books. It only proves the unhealthy state of child psychiatry. He refuted the consultant's claims that comic books were simply healthy fantasy outlets for aggression and that children were aware that the world of comics was one of Make Believe." "We are not dealing with the rights and privileges of adults to read and write as they choose. We are dealing with the mental health of [children]"

    • "It has always recognized that entertainment can be of a character either helpful or harmful to the human race, […] Hence the moral importance of entertainment is something which has been universally recognized. It enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours, and ultimately touches the whole of their lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work. So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation. Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living condition and moral ideals."​

    • "[Art] is the product of some person's mind, and that mind was either good or bad morally when it produced the thing. And the thing has its effect upon those who come into contact with it."​

    • “Because of the mobility of a film [[ internet ]] and the ease of picture distribution, and because of the possibility of duplicating positives in large quantities, this art reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art... Psychologically, the larger the audience, the lower the moral mass resistance to suggestion."

    • "No picture should lower the moral standards of those who see it. This is done:

      • ​(a) When evil is made to appear attractive, and good is made to appear unattractive.

      • (b) When the sympathy of the audience is thrown on the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil, sin. The same thing is true of a film that would throw sympathy against goodness, honor, innocence, purity', honest)'.

      • (c) That evil is not presented alluringly. Even if later on the evil is condemned or punished, it must not be allowed to appear so attractive that the emotions are drawn to desire or approve so strongly that later they forget the condemnation and remember only the apparent joy of the sin.

      • (d) That thruout the presentation, evil and good are never confused and that evil is always recognized clearly as evil... [and] in the end the audience feels that evil is wrong and good is right."

      • No plot should be so constructed as to leave the question of right or wrong in doubt or fogged."

  • NCOSE (previous Morality in Media until 2015) (Religious Group with prominent anti-LGBTQIA+ staff and connections):

    • (2019) "'Whether fictional or not, games [...] trivialize sexual violence normalize abuse and decrease empathy for real-life victims,' stated […] Executive Director of NCOSE. 'Steam is becoming the go-to video game platform for pornified video games that gamify sexual violence and objectification. Steam is contributing to the attitudes and behaviors of the next generation of sexual predators"

    •  (2018) "This insidious title could likely cause people to stumble across the pornographic game website by accident while they sought out other anime content, an art genre that’s becoming increasingly popular among children and teens [...] Porn games don’t simply contain sex or nudity. Rather, they are much more graphic. Some of these games promote sexual harassment and assault, including “pressured sexual relationships” and “abusive marriages” [....] Despite being cartoons, the graphic content in these games is far from harmless. Fight The New Drug provides a detailed explanation of how animated porn and regular porn are inseparable. Animated porn fuels sexual addiction and shapes sexual palettes just as regular porn does. Animated porn also isn’t limited to reality; moulding sexual desire towards an unrealizable fantasy. It’s time we recognize that animated, or cartoon, porn present in video games is equally as harmful as regular porn."

    • (2018) "Tumblr is know for it’s fandom/fanfiction community – including many users who post sexual drawings of their favorites characters from shows, movies, and cartoons. Also, the site will continue to allow written 'erotica'. This too is troublesome because usually this content is highly pornographic and sometimes even more violent and degrading than visual pornography. It also tends to target a female demographic with messages that normalize or glamorize intimate partner violence [...] TAKE ACTION: Thank Tumblr for Its Step to Remove Pornography and Ask Them to Restrict Illustrated and Written Pornography as Well."

    • (2015) (on 50 Shades of Grey:) "The book and movie are hazardous to young women and men […] and a healthy woman does not want to be beaten, said Dr. Grossman, author of “Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student.” Young men also are likely to become confused by the “Fifty Shades” marketing"

    • (2015) (on 50 Shades of Grey:) "While Ms. James’ characters get to live in a world of fantasy, the violent relationship she describes is too often a cruel reality [...] Brutality against a partner should never be considered “sexy” or entertaining, let alone justifiable. Sexualized violence is still violence [...] Unless the newly released book is a wholesale condemnation and vilification of Christian Grey, it is a socially irresponsible publication and ought to be publicly admonished as such. By glamorizing the exploitive relationship between Christian and Ana, E. L. James […] When the true consequences of abuse are laid out in the open, instead of shrouded in delusional fiction, Grey will be shown for what it really is: a sympathetic defense of a domestic abuser."​

    • (2015) (on 50 Shades of Grey) "Hollywood is fetishing gender inequality and selling it as an empowered love story [...] Women did not work tirelessly for decades for equality to relinquish their control to men by enduring violent and degrading acts labeled as “hot” or “romantic.” [...] Do not be fooled. 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is not a love story. Hollywood’s abuse-for-entertainment agenda is not subliminal; it’s entirely intentional.

    • (2012) ‘50 Shades of Grey - Pedophilia Hiding In Plain Sight’: "When you read it, look for the signs. They are all there. The female character has no sexual experience. None. She is given the age of 21, but that age is itself a cover. Her true emotional age is much-much younger. She has never even masturbated. She has never even experienced an orgasm. That alone is one of the greatest attractions to the pedophile. That is the psychology of that kind of act. You get off on taking purity." ... "There is spanking and the use of Baby oil. Why baby oil? Think about it." ... "the book is purposely advocating the raping of a child and attempting to normalize that atrocity." ... "We are reading child pornography. Remove the false age of the girl, which has no basis in reality, and what we are actually reading is the abuse of a little girl." ... "Are women actually that shallow? Yes, we can be. But women, the vast majority of us, are not people who knowingly condone the sexual abuse of children. We do not condone in any way, the horror that is pedophilia. Sadly though, that is exactly what is happening with the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey. It's a pedophilia con."​

    • (2009) Titled ‘How the proliferation of adult pornography contributes to sexual exploitation of children’

      • [Anti-fan 'Minor Coded' rhetoric:] "Mr. Peters observes that while hardcore adult pornography does not depict actual children, it does “include hardcore depictions of sex with persons who look like children" [Other claims:] “Perpetrators use adult pornography to groom their victims.” “For many perpetrators there is a progression from viewing adult pornography to viewing child pornography. “Children imitate behavior they view in adult pornography”

    • (2014) [Mirrors anti-fan discussions of ‘pro-shipping’] (Young Woman's Personal ‘Porn-Addiction’ Confession Article) "I was flipping through some fanfiction one day [...] it’s not something that you can just CONTROL. It’s worse. You THINK you can [...] It’s something you hide [...] you know deep down that it’s WRONG, and shameful […] and then you feel guilty for ever looking at it but you can’t STOP because it reels you in [...] I don’t look at any of it and I’m proud. And then I get this…squirm or something inside me and I peek. It’s just a peek. But I immediately wish I hadn’t. Because then I’m guilty about it. I stayed up so late reading something that I’ll regret for weeks after [...] I want people to know what it does to someone. It could be ANYONE, even when they think they don’t have an addictive personality. You don’t need one to fall victim [...] I want people to know [...] there is nothing beautiful about porn, there’s nothing real to it, there’s nothing beneficial to anyone to look or read or watch it [...] It’s like the sirens in old mythology: the idea, the song, pulls you in until you drown."

  • Collective Shout (Gender Critical & Radical Feminist (Radfem) Group with Religious Ties):

    • Titled ‘Teen Manga graphic comic novels in libraries feature rape, orgies, bestiality (2023)’ "The Collective Shout grassroots organisation has also weighed in, calling for the Classification Board to be overhauled, saying comic and manga books with sex scenes should not be in libraries. “This is not just ‘adult content’, this is extreme, graphic, degrading, violent pornographic imagery,” spokeswoman Caitlin Roper said. “It’s not a matter of content that should be merely restricted to adults. This material is an endorsement […] it should not be tolerated anywhere, let alone in public libraries”

    • Titled ‘50 Shades Myth: It's Just Fiction:’ "Many Fifty Shades fans argue that it is just a book/film, a work of fiction, and as such the eroticized representations of violence against women have no power to influence thinking, attitudes or beliefs. However, an analysis of the novel found sexual violence and emotional abuse were pervasive and the popular book […] The [analysis] argued that “individuals regularly alter their real world beliefs and attitudes in response to fictional communication” and “stories are especially influential when readers become drawn into them and cognitive resources, emotions, and mental imagery faculties are engaged.” "As Melbourne based mental health professional Geoff Ahern says, “It’s fiction that glorifies fear, intimidation, stalking and violence against women. When I read extracts from the book I hear my clients telling the same stories and that is most certainly not fiction.”

    • "Not real", "freedom of expression", "don't like it, don't play": 

      • "In fiction, both physical and sexual violence – along with many other criminal or otherwise socially undesirable acts – are frequently depicted as part of a story intended for entertainment purposes. However, the depiction of such acts in a film or book is not the same as glorifying these acts (though some fiction certainly does)."

      • "It’s well-documented that the media we consume shapes our attitudes – what we think is normal, acceptable and desirable. (Just ask the multi-billion-dollar advertising industry!) […] Porn eroticises this act of violence, resulting in consumers acceptance of it. Porn is a form of media that influences how people behave in their real-world sexual encounters."

      • [Mirrors anti-fan discussions of ‘pro-shipping’, these arguments are directed at everyone, not just “men and boys”] "_ defends the incest and rape themes of the game as popular pornography genres and male sexual fetishes – as though that makes them acceptable. He argues these forms of violence and abuse of women and children are just fantasy. But while _ and the men and boys who purchased his game may have a sexual interest in incest or rape, or regard this abuse as an appealing scenario, these acts occur in a wider culture where such abuse is not a fantasy, but a reality for women and girls. These are men who believe their sexual preferences take precedence over women’s basic human rights."

    • Titled ‘Media Release: Classification Board approves movies depicting child rape’:

      • "Senator Griff described anime movies depicting “wide-eyed children, usually in school uniforms, engaged in explicit sexual activities and poses, and often being sexually abused." […] Senator Griff cited a number of anime series featuring the sexual abuse of children. One of these, Sword Art Online depicts the rape and sexual assault of children. It was given an unrestricted M rating by the Classifications Board, despite the fact it constitutes illegal child exploitation material. […] We would like to know how Board members could possibly justify the sexual violation of children for entertainment as justifiable in any way. Director Melinda Tankard Reist said. “This has allowed a paedophilic culture to flourish. How can we claim to care about the epidemic of child sexual abuse when child sexual exploitation material is given the tick by our so-called regulatory body?” this material is “a gateway to the abuse of actual children” and can be used as a grooming tool to normalise abuse.

  • NCOSE Board Member: 'Every Man’s Duty to Protect Himself and His Family from a Pornographic Culture' (2014)​

    • ​[Mirrors anti-fan discussions of ‘pro-shipping’. Replace ‘porn’ with ‘pro-shipping]] "I have seen the evil of pornography spread like a plague throughout our culture." ... “I find it necessary to address the tremendous moral, social, and spiritual dangers of pornography.” “in this pastoral letter I will: 1) examine the nature of the current threat; 2) address the arguments put forward by those who attempt to rationalize pornography and provide “cover” for pornographers; 3) offer concrete counsel […] on how to guard against pornography and to free oneself from its slavery and seek […] forgiveness” "While the danger of immodesty exists even with regard to works of art, the evil of pornography is greater and more insidious. Pornography depicts the body solely in an exploitative way, and pornographic images are created and viewed only for the purpose of arousing sexual impurity. Hence the production, viewing and spread of pornography is an offense against the dignity of persons, is objectively evil, and must be condemned." "We must remember that the right to use the means of communication (i.e., freedom of speech) is not an absolute right. It must always be at the service of the common good." "[The] pornography industry often entices them into deeper and more dangerous behaviors until physical harm is inevitable” “Pornography is not a private, victimless sin. It does serious harm to many people, including the person viewing it." "When one chooses to view pornography [...] one becomes the kind of person who is willing to use others as mere objects of pleasure [...] As the habit of pornography becomes more fixed, the characteristics of a person who debases and objectifies others [...] become more pronounced.” "Children encounter [pornography] and are introduced to an understanding of sexuality not intended [...] they experience the degradation of the human person reduced[...] to an object."

      • False Myth 2. “The temperate use of pornography can be therapeutic."

        • "Rather than providing comfort or satisfaction, the use of pornography inevitably leads not only to repeated unsatisfying experiences, but demands an escalation of stimulation." "Pornography is not a healthy way to cope with temptation […] It feeds and perverts sexual desire, closing the user in on himself." "The discontinuity between the public and the private self widens to the point where fantasy can no longer be separated from reality. In fact, it is often the use of this “fetish” pornography that solidifies the temptation rather than relieving it." "the repeated use of pornographic images and fantasies transforms the temptation into a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. The one who turned to pornography to escape a temptation becomes the embodiment of that temptation. Any seeming relief will be fleeting and the long-range consequences will make future resistance even more difficult, possibly escalating into an addiction."

      • "Contrary to the self-serving defense of some media outlets, such actions are not censorship, but rather the demand for an end to the exploitation of persons and the degradation of public morality." "We have the right to live in a society that supports the full dignity of the human person. We should demand that public officials take action against pornography for the common good." "But if you already have or are using pornography, your spiritual growth will be impossible without an honest admission of guilt and reconciliation."

Image Archive of Examples from Conservative & Anti-Trans Groups:

Excerpts from academic Studies, Books, Sources and Citations Deconstructing Sexuality, Psychology, Morality & Media Influence:

Most Up to Date list of over 100 resources can be found under the tabs 'Psychology' & 'Media Literacy/Censorship/Morality/Fiction/Reality' here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DOhIOb-tI5NTJCtoUnpsQ8ntZvgqR5FW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104628614202867399058&rtpof=true&sd=true)


Transgression as Addiction: Religiosity and Moral Disapproval as Predictors of Perceived Addiction to Pornography

DescriptiGrubbs, J.B., Exline, J.J., Pargament, K.I. et al. Transgression as Addiction: Religiosity and Moral Disapproval as Predictors of Perceived Addiction to Pornography. Arch Sex Behav 44, 125–136 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0257-z

  • "Religious beliefs impact sexual attitudes (Lefkowitz, Gillen, Shearer, & Boone, 2004), sexual fantasy (Ahrold, Farmer, Trapnell, & Meston, 2011), and sexual behavior (Farmer, Trapnell, & Meston, 2009). Most often, the effects of religiosity on sexuality are prohibitive or stigmatic in nature (Ahrold et al., 2011). The same is true of pornography use. Religious individuals tend to disapprove of pornography use and support pornography censorship (Lambe, 2004; Lottes, Weinberg, & Weller, 1993; Thomas, 2013). Religiosity also predicts unhappiness and depressive tendencies among pornography users (Patterson & Price, 2012). Not surprisingly then, pornography use is reportedly lower in religious populations than secular populations (Carroll et al., 2008; Poulsen, Busby, & Galovan, 2013; Wright, 2013; Wright, Bae, & Funk, 2013). Even so, analyses of pornography sales reveal that more religious areas tend to purchase more pornography than less religious areas (Edelman, 2009)."

  • "A simple search for the term‘‘Pornography Addiction” on the Amazon bookseller’s website returned over 1,200 results on the topic. Over half of these results were found within the ‘‘Religion and Spirituality’’section of the online bookstore (Grubbs, Exline, & Volk, 2012). Such a simple finding raises a question about the relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward pornography: Could there be an association between religious belief and the notion of Internet pornography addiction? In support of this idea, several studies have found that religiosity and religious values were positively associated with perceived addiction to Internet pornography (Abell et al., 2006; Grubbs et al., 2010; Levert, 2007; Sessoms et al., 2011)."

  • "-Such religious teachings may influence adherents’ views of sexuality and sexual behavior. Arguably, moralistic influences could lead to pathological interpretations of otherwise normal behaviors (Clarkson & Kopaczewski, 2013). For example, highly religious therapists are more likely to diagnose sexual addiction in their clientele than their nonreligious counterparts (Hecker, Trepper, Wetchler, & Fontaine, 1995). Given that therapists are presumably trained in accurate and unbiased diagnostic procedures, it seems likely that this tendency would be even more evident in the general population. Furthermore, in religious populations, guilt and shame often accompany sexual expression, which can lead to the pathologizing of developmentally normal sexual behaviors (for a theoretical review, see Kwee et al., 2007). As such, it may be that religious individuals have a tendency to interpret a potentially non-pathological behavior, such as Internet pornography use, as pathological."on text goes here

Social Psychology, global ed., 9th edition

Aronson, Elliot, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, and Samuel R. Sommers. 2018. Social Psychology, global ed., 9th ed. London: Pearson Education.

  • The usual assumption has been that watching violence makes people more aggressive, but aggressive people are also drawn to watching violence. Moreover, another entirely independent factor may be causing both. Some children are born with a mental or emotional predisposition toward violence; or learn it as toddlers from the way they are treated by abusive parents or siblings; or in other ways develop aggressiveness as a personality trait. In turn, this trait or predisposition manifests itself in both their aggressive behavior and their liking for watching violence or playing aggressive games (Bushman, 1995; Ferguson, 2013).

  • In an experiment investigating the interaction between temperament and exposure to violence, children watched either a film depicting a great deal of police violence or an exciting but nonviolent film about bike racing. They then played a game of floor hockey. Watching the violent film did increase the number of aggressive acts the children committed during the hockey game- but primarily by those who had previously been rated as highly aggressive by their teachers. These kids hit others with their sticks, threw elbows, and yelled aggressive things at their opponents to a much greater extent than did either the kids rated as nonaggressive who had also watched the violent films or the kids rated as aggressive who had watched the nonviolent film (Josephson, 1987).

  • Likewise, a few longitudinal studies have shown that exposure to violence in media or video games has the strongest relationship in children who are already predisposed to violence (Anderson & Dill, 2000). Thus, it may be that watching media violence merely server to give them permission to express their aggressive inclinations (Ferguson & Kilburn, 2009). The same conclusions apply to the research on violent pornography (in contrast to nonviolent erotica). Meta-analyses repeatedly conclude that although there is, for men, a positive correlation between watching violent pornography and hostile, aggressive attitudes towards women, that association is largely due to men who already have high levels of hostility toward women and are predisposed to sexual aggression (Malamuth, Mald, & Koss, 2012).

  • Taking all this research together, we conclude that frequent exposure to violent media, especially in the form of violent video games, does have an impact on average children and adolescents, but the impact is greatest on those who are already prone to violent behavior. Obviously, most people do not become motivated to behave aggressively or commit an act of violence as a result of what they observe. As social-cognitive learning theory predicts, people’s interpretation of what they are watching, their personality dispositions, and the social context can all affect how they respond (Feshbach & Tangney, 2008). Children and teens watch many different programs and movies and have many models to observe besides those they see in media, including parents and peers. But the fact that some people are influenced by violent entertainments […] cannot be denied.

  • One of the leading researchers who study media violence argues that it is “time to move forward with a more sophisticated perspective on media effects that focuses less on moral objections to certain content and more on media consumers and their motivations” (Ferguson, 2014). Finally, however, let’s put this issue in larger perspective. The effects of the media pale in comparison to the biological, social, economic, and psychological factors that are far more powerful predictors of aggressive behavior: a child’s genetic predispositions to violence, low feelings of self-control, being socially rejected by peers, criminal opportunity, being the victim of childhood physical abused, being in a peer group that endorses and encourages violence, and living in a community where aggression is a way of life (Crescioni &Baumeister, 2009; Ferguson & Kilburn, 2009).

  • Ch. 12 Violence & The Media:

    • (418) "the effects of the media pale in comparison to the biological social economic and psychological factors that are far more powerful predictors of aggressive behavior."

    • (425) "most people find it difficult to inflict pain on a stranger unless they can find a way to justify it and the most common way of justifying it is to dehumanize the victim"

    •  (403) "according to a review prepared for the government on child safety and online technologies the greatest source of danger teens face on the internet does not come from pornography. the report found that the most frequent threats that minors faced both online and offline are bullying and harassment by peers."

  • Ch. 6 Cognitive Dissonance:

    •  (178) "Social psychologists have discovered that one of the most powerful determinants of human behavior stems from our need to preserve a stable positive self-image. Most people believe they are above average … more ethical and competent turn the majority"

    • (180) "People who are in the midst of reducing dissonance are so involved with convincing themselves that they are right that they frequently end up behaving irrationally and maladaptively."

    • (Page 200 bottom) "The closer people are to committing acts of cruelty the greater their need to reduce the distance between I'm a good kind person and I am causing another human being to suffer. The easiest route is to blame the victim he is guilty he started this it's all his fault he is not one of us anyway."

    • "Success at dehumanizing the victim virtually guarantees a continuation or even an escalation of the cruelty it sets up an endless chain of violence followed by self-justification (in the form of dehumanizing and blaming the victim) followed by still more violence and dehumanization"

    • (301) "Discussion of deindividuation and how anonymity leaves people feeling less accountable for their actions. in meta-analysis of more than 60 studies, researchers found that becoming deindividuated also increases the extent to which people obey the group's norms. Sometimes the norms of a specific group to which we belong conflict with the norms of other groups or of society at Large. When group members are together and Deindividuated they become more likely to act according to the group norms than societal norms."

    • (456) "Ethnocentrism. the belief that your own culture Nation or religion is superior to all others is called ethnocentrism"

    • (458) "The tendency to blame victims for their victimization attributing their predicaments to inherent deficits and their abilities and character is typically motivated by a desire to see the world as a fair and just place one where people get what they deserve and deserve what they get."

Electronic child abuse? Rethinking the media’s effects on children

  • Buckingham, David (2001) , ‘Electronic child abuse? Rethinking the media’s effects on children’, in M. Barker and J. Petley (eds), Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 63–77.
     

    • "Elite discourses about popular culture have traditionally been suffused with patronizing assumptions about the audience, based largely on a contempt for women and other members of the ‘lower orders’. yet it is also children who are often defined as quintessentially ‘other’, and who have historically been seen to be most at risk from the media." [...] "The imitative violence, which has remained the central focus of anxiety and such debates, is largely seen as rising from the inability to distinguish fiction and reality. Children copy what they see on television because they lack the experience and the intellectual capacities that might enable them to see through the illusion [...] And, of course, in expressing our concern about these matters we implicitly position ourselves as somehow immune from such inadequacies. Using such arguments thus in itself appears to guarantee our rationality and maturity and thereby distinguishes us from those others whom we take it upon ourselves to protect."

Meeting George Bush versus Meeting Cinderella: The Neural Response When Telling Apart What Is Real from What Is Fictional in the Context of Our Reality

Abraham, Anna, D. Cramon, and Ricarda Schubotz. 2008. "Meeting George Bush versus Meeting Cinderella: The Neural Response When Telling Apart What Is Real from What Is Fictional in the Context of Our Reality." Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 20:965–76. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20059.

  • "the findings of the present study essentially imply that different memory retrieval systems are more strongly recruited when making reality-based judgments about scenarios involving real or fictional characters."

  • "It appears then that one of the means by which we tell reality apart from fiction, at least in the explicit context of reality testing, seems to lie in the manner in which such information is coded and accessed, namely, if it is personally significant or not. The degree of associated self-relevance is therefore a possibly critical determinant factor that enables us to differentiate between what is real and unreal."

Only Bad for Believers? Religion, Pornography Use, and Sexual Satisfaction Among American Men

Perry, Samuel L, and Andrew L Whitehead. “Only Bad for Believers? Religion, Pornography Use, and Sexual Satisfaction Among American Men.” Journal of sex research vol. 56,1 (2019): 50-61. doi:10.1080/00224499.2017.1423017

  • “viewing pornography seemed to be associated with lower sexual satisfaction, but only for those who would be violating religious sanctions against it. This suggests moral incongruence plays a key role in explaining the connection between pornography consumption and sexual satisfaction among American men… this study’s findings suggest that it is not necessarily pornography use per se that negatively influences sexual satisfaction. If that were strictly the case, the negative association between pornography use and sexual satisfaction would have held regardless of participants’ religious characteristics. But the fact that the association was contingent on participants’ religious belonging and belief suggests that “moral incongruence” is an important factor to consider.”

  • “Previous research on pornography use and religion has suggested that religious persons who use pornography often report feeling considerable guilt and cognitive dissonance for violating their moral convictions about chastity and “lusting” (Baltazar et al., 2010; Grubbs et al., 2015; Perry & Hayward, 2017; Thomas et al. 2017). Religious pornography users are more likely to evaluate their lives more negatively than non-religious users (Grubbs et al., 2015). Thus it is likely that men who attend worship services more often [...] or have a higher opinion of the Bible [...] but also view pornography fairly regularly, are more likely to experience guilt and shame that potentially colors their evaluation of their own sex lives. This helps explain why the negative association between pornography consumption and overall happiness (Patterson & Price, 2012), marital quality (Doran & Price, 2014; Perry 2016), or parent-child relationship quality (Perry & Snawder, 2017) has tended to be stronger for those who are more closely attached to religious others.”

  • "Conversely, American men who are less connected to a religious community and less apt to view the Bible as authoritative show little to no connection between their sexual satisfaction and pornography use. This finding also helps to qualify the few studies that have reported several benefits of pornography use to viewers’ sexual relationships. Research has shown that pornography use in isolation tends to be more negatively associated with sexual and relationship satisfaction compared to coupled pornography use (Campbell & Kohut, 2017; Maddox et al., 2011; Minarcik et al., 2016). Because religious proscriptions against viewing pornography would likely preclude devout couples from incorporating mutual pornography use into their lovemaking practice, it is likely that relatively irreligious couples would be comparatively more likely to view pornography together, or at least would be more understanding of their partner’s pornography use (Perry, 2016). Persons who are less attached to religion, in other words, would be more apt to view pornography in the way that studies suggest can be beneficial to sexual relationships (together), whereas religious persons would be more apt to do so in isolation, which would more likely result in relational tensions surrounding hiding, lying, and possible discovery (Bridges et al., 2003; Stewart & Szymanski, 2012; Zitzman & Butler, 2009)."

  • "Studies have shown that definitions of “pornography” can vary across groups (Willoughby & Busby, 2016), and it is possible that deeply religious persons in particular may expand the definition of “adult website” (e.g., to the Victoria’s Secret website or Maxim.com) beyond what less religious persons would do."

Who Gets to Write About Sexual Abuse, and What Do We Let Them Say?

Spampinato, Erin (2017) "Who Gets to Write About Sexual Abuse, and What Do We Let Them Say?: Criticism of ‘My Absolute Darling’ and of memoirs about incest suggests that there are some stories we’re not ready to hear"

  • "As smith pointed out, there is a whole canon of literature (both fiction and nonfiction) written by victims of sexual violence and sexual abuse like incest. This literature often gets charged with the same criticisms that have been made of Tallent’s novel : of eroticizing sexual violence, exploiting the stories of victims (even if the story is told by the victim), embellishing levels of violence, and just being generally unnecessary."

  • "What all these texts have in common is that they are narrated by women who describe in detail the ambivalence they felt about their victimizers."

  • "Harrison was largely not seen as a victim, but as a writer who had opportunistically mined her family history for its gory details. [...] Similarly, Margaux Fragoso’s memoir Tiger, Tiger (2011), an account of her relationship, which lasted into her twenties, with the family friend who began abusing her when she was eight, was criticized for what was perceived as its horrifying attention to detail; a number of reviewers, including Jenny Diski, argued that it would only appeal to pedophiles. [...] All of these books were accused [...] of going too far, of being too graphic, and of treating sexual violence with an uncomfortable amount of ambivalence."

  • "But how can a memoir go too far? How can the truth be the wrong thing to tell? Even if talking about sexual violence were in some kind of “bad taste,” would anyone actually argue that our commitment to propriety should outweigh our understanding of actual crimes that are being committed against vulnerable people? The argument that Wolcott made in his review of The Kiss and Diski in her review of Tiger, Tiger — that people are now too willing to tell their tales of sexual woe — doesn’t hold up when one examines the rest of the culture."

  • "we can’t also argue that true stories of sexual violence have no place in the culture because they’re distasteful."

  • "The Incest Diary is written by a victim of rape, but not the kind of victim whose visibility contemporary feminism has fought for. This is both because it brings up the uncomfortable question of complicity when it deals with the author’s attraction to her father, and because the author is a person who has not survived in the sense that we mean when we call someone a “survivor” of sexual violence. Indeed, she writes that hers is a “creation story,” one in which the years of brutal sexual abuse she suffered are so central to her selfhood that they cannot be separated from her survival. They cannot be overcome, but must be integrated into her experience, and as the book ends, the author is still very much in the middle of that process."

  • "if we are as concerned about the accounts of women being taken seriously as we say we are, we should welcome such stories, even if they don’t meet our expectations or confirm our biases."

The Light in the Shadows: Therapeutic Explorations of Fantasy and Fear*

  • "As smith pointed out, there is a whole canon of literature (both fiction and nonfiction) written by victims of sexual violence and sexual abuse like incest. This literature often gets charged with the same criticisms that have been made of Tallent’s novel : of eroticizing sexual violence, exploiting the stories of victims (even if the story is told by the victim), embellishing levels of violence, and just being generally unnecessary."
     

  • "What all these texts have in common is that they are narrated by women who describe in detail the ambivalence they felt about their victimizers."
     

  • "Harrison was largely not seen as a victim, but as a writer who had opportunistically mined her family history for its gory details. [...] Similarly, Margaux Fragoso’s memoir Tiger, Tiger (2011), an account of her relationship, which lasted into her twenties, with the family friend who began abusing her when she was eight, was criticized for what was perceived as its horrifying attention to detail; a number of reviewers, including Jenny Diski, argued that it would only appeal to pedophiles. [...] All of these books were accused [...] of going too far, of being too graphic, and of treating sexual violence with an uncomfortable amount of ambivalence."
     

  • "But how can a memoir go too far? How can the truth be the wrong thing to tell? Even if talking about sexual violence were in some kind of “bad taste,” would anyone actually argue that our commitment to propriety should outweigh our understanding of actual crimes that are being committed against vulnerable people? The argument that Wolcott made in his review of The Kiss and Diski in her review of Tiger, Tiger — that people are now too willing to tell their tales of sexual woe — doesn’t hold up when one examines the rest of the culture."
     

  • "we can’t also argue that true stories of sexual violence have no place in the culture because they’re distasteful."
     

  • "The Incest Diary is written by a victim of rape, but not the kind of victim whose visibility contemporary feminism has fought for. This is both because it brings up the uncomfortable question of complicity when it deals with the author’s attraction to her father, and because the author is a person who has not survived in the sense that we mean when we call someone a “survivor” of sexual violence. Indeed, she writes that hers is a “creation story,” one in which the years of brutal sexual abuse she suffered are so central to her selfhood that they cannot be separated from her survival. They cannot be overcome, but must be integrated into her experience, and as the book ends, the author is still very much in the middle of that process."
     

  • "if we are as concerned about the accounts of women being taken seriously as we say we are, we should welcome such stories, even if they don’t meet our expectations or confirm our biases."

The Nature of Women’s Rape Fantasies: An Analysis of Prevalence, Frequency, and Contents

Bivona, J., & Critelli, J. (2009). "The Nature of Women’s Rape Fantasies: An Analysis of Prevalence, Frequency, and Contents". The Journal of Sex Research, 46(1), 33–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20620397
 

  • "Results indicated that 62% of women have had a rape fantasy"

  • "Erotic rape fantasies, which comprised 45% of the rape fantasy logs, are highly erotic fantasies that included forced sex at some point in the story. By definition, fantasies within this group were not at all aversive to the fantasizer. In a large majority of erotic rape fantasies, the non-consent was feigned or token (i.e., not a real attempt to end the sexual interaction in the fantasy). In about three-fourths of erotic rape fantasies, the self-character’s level of consent changed from being initially resistant to willing, and this type of change in consent was also more common in erotic than in the other two types of rape fantasy"

  • "many rape fantasies are not realistic depictions of rape. They are often abstracted, eroticized portrayals that emphasize some aspects of actual rape and omit or distort other features"

Expressive writing buffers against maladaptive rumination.

  • Sloan, D. M., Marx, B. P., Epstein, E. M., & Dobbs, J. L. (2008). "Expressive writing buffers against maladaptive rumination." , (2), 302–306. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.8.2.302.
     

    • "In line with previous hypotheses regarding the mechanisms of action for expressive writing (e.g., Sloan & Marx, 2004) and the speculations of Nolen-Hoeksema et al. (in press), we propose that the expressive writing sessions may allow brooders to confront their negative thoughts and feelings, use more constructive problem-solving skills, and restructure maladaptive cognitions regarding their stressful experiences, all of which served to ward off further increases in stress that they would otherwise have experienced and led to or maintained future depression symptoms. Another possible explanation is that the expressive writing intervention prompted the participants to seek out social support. That is, writing about stressful or traumatic experiences provoked the participants to discuss what they had written about with others, which, in turn, strengthened their social bonds. The strengthened social bonds hypothesis has been suggested by Pennebaker (1997) to account for what maintains beneficial outcomes resulting from expressive writing. Seeking out social support would be particularly beneficial for brooders as these individuals have been found to socially isolate themselves (Nolen-Hoeksema & Davis, 1999). Moreover, people who are socially isolated or who do not receive emotional support from others are less likely to use active coping strategies (e.g., Holahan & Moos, 1987). Consequently, the increase in social bonds would serve as a positive distraction from brooding and would increase the likelihood that these individuals would engage in active coping strategies to address ongoing stressors they might have been experiencing"
       

    • "Rumination is defined as a mode of coping with distress in which the individual repeatedly and passively focuses on distress and its possible causes and consequences. It is regarded as a stable response tendency that exacerbates further negative thinking, increases negative emotions, and interferes with effective problem solving. Ruminators also tend to display cognitive inflexibility. Numerous studies have found that rumination increases the risk for depression"

Punishing Sexual Fantasy

Gilden, Andrew. (2016). "Punishing Sexual Fantasy." William and Mary Law Review 58 (2): 419–91. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol58/iss2/3/.

  • "This Article reveals a widespread and overlooked pattern of harshly punishing individuals for exploring their sexual fantasies on the Internet. It shows that judges and juries in several areas of the law repeatedly conflate sexual fantasy with sexual abuse, have largely been dismissive of both the merits and value of fantasy-based defenses"
     

  • "Reading, writing, and reflecting on sexuality—whether taboo or otherwise—allows individuals to understand their own desires and pursue a range of socially desirable ends; they might “come out,” seek treatment, channel the fantasy into a consensual offline form, openly question the wisdom of the underlying taboo, or use the fictional account to cathartically let off steam and aggression."
     

  • "the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, frequently steps into custody disputes to protect the legal interests of BDSM practitioners, and it often needs to educate judges that a demonstrated interest in bondage or sadomasochism does not equate to mental illness or poor parenting. For example, in one case, a woman’s ex-husband found her profile on the website FetLife and used her posts, pictures, and writings about consensual BDSM activities to claim that she was a danger to their children"

The Sexual Fantasies of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors: A Rapid Review

Gewirtz-Meydan, Ateret & Opuda, Eugenia (2021) "The Sexual Fantasies of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors: A Rapid Review" Volume 24: Issue 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248380211030487.
 

  • "Studies have consistently found that the vast majority of people who practice BDSM do not report a history of CSA (Powls & Davies, 2012). According to Lehmiller (2018), the BDSM-themed sexual fantasies that are experienced by CSA survivors are not about survivors’ attempts to relive the past; rather, they serve as a mechanism to cope with past abuse. In terms of force fantasies, Lehmiller explained that these types of sexual fantasies may be a way for some survivors of CSA to take control of a previous experience over which they had no control. As the fantasizers, survivors may gain a feeling of empowerment. Sexual fantasies that involve BDSM elements offer survivors a distraction from self-awareness and negative aspects stemming from the abuse (e.g., anxiety, low self-esteem)."

  • "Having sexual fantasies can also be a source of resilience and recovery for CSA survivors if survivors embrace their sexual selves and fantasies (Hitter et al., 2017). Moyano and Sierra (2015) found that individuals who had experienced sexual abuse appraised their sexual fantasies more positively than did individuals with no history of abuse. For example, men who had experienced CSA reported a higher frequency of positive cognitions of sexual submission, and women who had experienced CSA reported more positive cognitions of sexual dominance. These findings are in contrast with traditional gender roles  and sexual selection in which men tend to have more fantasies related to dominance, and women have more fantasies related to submission, suggesting that not only might the abuse play a significant role in shaping the survivor’s sexual fantasies but also that these fantasies are wanted and experienced as positive. It can cautiously be suggested that these fantasies replay or repair past experience and as such might have the potential to facilitate growth and healing for the survivor"

  • "Improving the state of knowledge on sexual fantasies after CSA is important to facilitate ways to conduct examinations and to develop prevention programs and
    therapeutic approaches."

  • "When treating CSA survivors, therapists should acknowledge that a history of CSA can impact the extent and content of survivor’s sexual fantasies. Thus, exploring, normalizing, and possibly gaining control over sexual fantasies should be one of the goals of treatment."

  • "As survivors of CSA frequently arrive in treatment with an adversarial attitude toward their own fantasies, the therapist has an important role in legitimizing and validating the survivor’s sexual fantasies. To facilitate the healing process, it is the therapist’s responsibility to allow survivors a transitional safe space in which to fantasize, explore, and express the deepest and most private fantasies."

  • "Sexual fantasies can be used in therapy as part of thesurvivor’s journey of healing, as a form of reconstruction of or compensation for past experiences. If appropriately guided, the survivor can use these fantasies as a safe and secure way to return to familiar places and reconstruct the experience, or alternatively, engage in compensating fantasies of power and control. Replaying different fantasies via the use of one’s imagination may minimize some of the challenges in sexual relationships and can reduce feelings of embarrassment, surprise, and shame."

Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

  • Lanning, Kenneth V. 2010. "Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children"; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice. https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/US-NCMEC-OJJDP-Child-Molesters-A-Behavioral-Analysis-Lanning-2010.pdf.

    • "One especially sensitive area for investigators is the preferential sex offender who presents himself as a concerned civilian reporting what he inadvertently 'discovered' in cyberspace or requesting to work with law enforcement to search for child pornography and protect children. Other than the obvious benefit of legal justification for their past or future activity, most do this as part of their need to rationalize and validate their behavior as worthwhile and gain access to children. When these offenders are caught, instead of recognizing this activity as part of their preferential pattern of behavior, the courts sometimes give them leniency because of their “good deeds.” Preferential sex offenders who are also law-enforcement officers sometimes claim their activity was part of some well-intentioned, but unauthorized investigation. In the best-case scenario, these “concerned civilians” are well-intentioned, overzealous, and poorly trained individuals who are, therefore, more likely to make mistakes and errors in judgment that may jeopardize a successful prosecution. In the worst-case scenario these “concerned civilians” can be sex offenders attempting to justify and get legal permission for their deviant sexual interests. In any case investigators should never sanction or encourage civilians to engage in “proactive investigation” in these cases, even if they are working with the media and the department thinks they want potentially positive publicity."

    • "Legal definitions may not be the same as societal attitudes. The definition problem is most acute when professionals from different disciplines come together to work or communicate about the sexual victimization of children…The important point, then, is not that these terms have or should have only one definition but people using the terms should communicate their definitions, whatever they might be, and then consistently use those definitions. Failure to consistently use a definition is often a bigger problem than defining a term. Many will define a child as anyone younger than 18 years old but then make recommendations such as “never leave your children unattended,” which clearly does not apply to all children meeting that definition. When we use basic or common terms, we rarely even define them."

Primary and secondary prevention of child sexual abuse

Knack N, Winder B, Murphy L, Fedoroff J.P. (2019). "Primary and secondary prevention of child sexual abuse". International Review of Psychiatry, 31:2, pp. 181–94 DOI: 10.1080/09540261.2018.1541872

  • "It is not difficult to understand why the mention of child sexual abuse can incite such an immediate and intense emotional reaction [...] While understandable, these emotions rarely lead to effective solutions to the problem, but rather lead to acts of vigilantism [...] Media-fuelled fears, along with over-simplified or incorrect characterizations of sexual offenders, can result in tertiary legal strategies [...] that are not evidence-based, and which may actually increase the risk of sexual recidivism (Finkelhor, 2009). As terms like ‘paedophilia’ and ‘child molester’ are used interchangeably in the media... Misunderstandings of the law and fears about ‘thought police’ [...] can also prevent these individuals from seeking treatment before they offend. If society truly wants to move toward a world in which no children are sexually abused, it is important to understand that one’s own emotional reactions, however justifiable they may be, cannot be permitted to hinder or override evidence-based strategies that can help ensure the safety and wellbeing of children [...] The ability of primary and secondary prevention initiatives to circumvent even initial sexual offences is nothing short of life-changing, and there is no reason why individuals who are at-risk of engaging in CSA should have to wait until after they’ve offended to be given access to treatment."

Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies Questionnaire: The Development and Validation of the Erotic Fantasy Use Scale

  • Nimbi, F. M., Galizia, R., Limoncin, E., Levy, T., Jannini, E. A., Simonelli, C., & Tambelli, R. (2023). Sexual Desire and Erotic Fantasies Questionnaire: The Development and Validation of the Erotic Fantasy Use Scale (SDEF2) on Experience, Attitudes, and Sharing Issues. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 11(8), 1159. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11081159.
     

    • Erotic fantasies are considered to be among the most common human sexual experiences [1,2]. They are defined as mental imagery and thoughts that are sexually arousing or erotic to the individual while awake, and thus are not externally observable [3]. Across studies, about 90–97% of the general population report having sexual fantasies and using them to stimulate their desire or intensify their arousal [3,4,5,6,7,8].
       

    • The use of erotic fantasies is typically referred to as a positive experience [2,3,7] that is often able to activate and increase the sexual response, pleasure, and satisfaction [9,10,11,12]. Fantasizing may also hinder the effects of the negative cognitions and distracting thoughts that are commonly experienced in sexual problems [13,14,15,16,17]. In intimate relationships, sharing sexual fantasies between partners seems to increase the positive perception of the relationship, which, in turn, may motivate the partners to invest further in the relationship [12]. However, sexual fantasies can also represent a negative experience, especially when they involve non-consensual sexual activities with harmful/painful scenarios or illicit behaviors that are perceived as unwanted and distressful for the individual [6,18].
       

    • Sexual fantasies are not necessarily desires that people want to perform in real life, but they are better represented as an expression of imaginative and phantasmatic activity [6,19]. For example, having erotic fantasies related to paraphilic topics is neither rare, nor directly connected to committing a crime [7,20]. In any case, since distress is a fundamental issue in clinical work, it is necessary to evaluate not only the content, but also the frequency, emotional reactions, and attitudes towards fantasies, in order to be more able to use them as effective tools for improving sexual satisfaction and sexual health.

Fifty Shades of Belgian Gray: The Prevalence of BDSM-Related Fantasies and Activities in the General Population

Holvoet, Lien & Huys, Wim & Coppens, Violette & Seeuws, Jantien & Goethals, Kris & Morrens, Manuel. (2017). "Fifty Shades of Belgian Gray: The Prevalence of BDSM-Related Fantasies and Activities in the General Population". Journal of Sexual Medicine. 14. 10.1016/j.jsxm.2017.07.003. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318505712_Fifty_Shades_of_Belgian_Gray_The_Prevalence_of_BDSM-Related_Fantasies_and_Activities_in_the_General_Population
 

  • "To conclude, there is a high level of interest in BDSM in the general population, which strongly argues against pathological characterization and stigmatization of these interests. Further research is needed to confirm BDSM as a leisurely preference rather than psychiatric affliction to destigmatize it within the population. This quest might benefit from exploring comparisons between BDSM profiles from the general population and those from the BDSM community"
     

  • "The majority (61.4%) of the completers with a self-proclaimed interest in BDSM became aware of this interest before the age of 25. Bezreh and colleagues [4] demonstrated awareness at an even younger age (85% before the age of 20) within a small sample of the BDSM community. Similarly, Floyd and Bakeman [17] demonstrated first awareness of same-sex attraction was reported around the age of 13.2 years old and self-identification as being gay/lesbian/bisexual came at an age (19.7y) which is comparable with our findings concerning BDSM interests"

What Is So Appealing About Being Spanked, Flogged, Dominated, or Restrained? Answers from Practitioners of Sexual Masochism/Submission

Labrecque, Frédérike & Potz, Audrey & Larouche, Émilie & Joyal, Christian. (2020). "What Is So Appealing About Being Spanked, Flogged, Dominated, or Restrained? Answers from Practitioners of Sexual Masochism/Submission." The Journal of Sex Research. 58. 1-15. 10.1080/00224499.2020.1767025.

  • https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341869861_What_Is_So_Appealing_About_Being_Spanked_Flogged_Dominated_or_Restrained_Answers_from_Practitioners_of_Sexual_MasochismSubmission

  • "These results show that, contrary to classic psychopathological hypotheses about m/s, such proclivities were not necessarily associated with sexual or physical childhood abuse. Childhood trauma is neither sufficient nor necessary to develop interest in m/s behaviors, as the vast majority of adults with a history of childhood abuse do not
    practice m/s behaviors and the vast majority of m/s practitioners were not victims of childhood abuse (e.g., Richters
    et al., 2008). Still, the narratives studied confirm that some persons with m/s proclivities may have issues related to childhood adversity, as is the case with many psychological attitudes. Psychoptherapists (and practitioners of BDSM who take a dominant role) should be aware of this possibility."

Moral Panics and the Social Construction of Deviant Behavior: A Theory and Application to the Case of Ritual Child Abuse

Victor, J. S. (1998). "Moral Panics and the Social Construction of Deviant Behavior: A Theory and Application to the Case of Ritual Child Abuse". Sociological Perspectives, 41(3), 541–565. https://doi.org/10.2307/1389563.
 

  • "In simplification, a moral panic is a societal response to beliefs about a threat from moral deviants [...] “A condition, episode, person or group emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-thinking people; socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnosis and solutions; ways of coping are evolved or (more often) resorted to; the condition then disappears, submerges or deteriorates and becomes visible”
     

  • The following five specific indicators of a moral panic (summarized from Goode and Ben- Yehuda 1994:33-39):

    • 1. Volatility- The sudden eruption and subsiding of concern about a newly perceived threat to society from a category of people regarded as being moral deviants.

    • 2. Hostility- The deviants are regarded with intense hostility as enemies of the basic values of the society and attributed stereotypes of 'evil' behavior. 

    • 3. Measurable Concern- Concern about the threat is measurable in concrete ways, such as attitude surveys. 

    • 4. Consensus- There is consensus in significant segments of the population that the threat is real and serious.

    • 5. Dis-proportionality- Concern about the number of moral deviants and the extent of the harm that they do is much greater than can be verified by objective, empirical investigations of the harm. Even though the measur- able concern is great, the numbers of deviants are minimal or even non-existent and their harm is very limited or even non-existent. 
       

  • “False accusations are a necessary part of a moral panic. In order for a moral panic to take hold among a large number of people, it is necessary for some people to be publicly identified with the perceived threat, even if the deviance of which they are accused is purely imaginary”

The Use and Abuse of Morality

Rorty, Amelie. 2012. "The Use and Abuse of Morality". The Journal of Ethics. 16 (1): 1-13.

  • "in their most general forms, the distinctive functions of morality can cast shadows: they are all subject to the abuse of excess or deficiency. Moreover, when they laid down in unquestionable, unqualifiable ironclad commands or ideals, specific prohibitions and obligations alike can cripple the improvisation and inventiveness that is essential to the necessary subtlety of morality in action"

  • "The first abuse is fairly obvious [...] Righteous and self-righteous people misappropriate the claims and language of morality. Instead of using its various dimensions as heuristic guides in attempting to determine what needs to be done and how to do it well, they treat the function of morality as providing judgment, as if its point was to issue in summary sentencing: this is moral; that is immoral or evil. In theological terms, the righteous place themselves in the position of divinity, judging the world, praising and condemning according to their lights. Equally seriously, they are committed to a reductive and impoverished Manichean moral theology with two moral judgments: right or wrong, good or bad, beneficial or harmful, moral heroes or evil empires, as if the world is a battle ground between the forces of good and evil, winner take all. They forgo the work of trying to find out exactly what is good or harmful in each situation, the work of understanding and crafting the complex tasks and roles that morality requires."

"More Than Just a Music”: Conservative Christian Anti-Rock Discourse and the U.S. Culture Wars

  • Nekola, A. (2013). “More Than Just a Music”: Conservative Christian Anti-Rock Discourse and the U.S. Culture Wars." Popular Music, 32(3), 407–426. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24736782.
     

    • “Beginning in the 1960s, prominent conservative Christian leaders including David A. Noebel, Bob Larson and Frank Garlock preached on the threat of rock music, arguing that not only was the culture of this music morally threatening, but the sounds themselves were inherently dangerous and fundamentally evil, and thus could harm the bodies and minds–and souls–of listeners... they believed this music threatened the family, the church and the very integrity of the nation itself.”
       

    • “Garlock attributed rock’n’roll’s harmful physical and mental effects to both its volume and its irregular rhythm, citing as proof of its danger for living beings a series of now (in)famous experiments in which plants that were exposed to rock music died while those shielded from rock flourished. Arguing that...it was possible to see a person’s nature through their musical choices, but also that one might ‘re-tune’ oneself and become better or worse through the music listened to (Garlock1971, p. 9).”
       

    • “In addition to their fears of supernatural evil, all three conservative Christian critics’ claims about rock’s beat were grounded in the concept of a duality between the mind and body drawn, like neo-Platonism, from Classical philosophy. In this conception, white men were most associated with reason,‘the spirit’ and the mind, while women, children and so-called ‘primitive’ or non-Western peoples existed outside of rationality and were thus associated with the physical, ‘the flesh’ and the body. It is no surprise that these Christian critics aimed their crusade at youth; not only were teens more likely to listen to rock’n’roll; they were also more susceptible to music’s affective powers (and its demons) because they were not fully rational adults. Similarly, conservative Christian critics also argued that non-whites were more vulnerable than whites to rock music’s evils and the satanic presence it invited. The notion that race and rhythmic music are linked in dangerous ways can be traced back to long-standing anxieties about the non-rational body–the racialised, feminised and youthful body–as disruptive of the social order. In the 1920s, psychologist Carl Jung claimed that an entire culture could be ‘infected’ by another culture’s rhythms (quoted in Golston1996).”

Seal of approval: The History of the Comics Code

  • Nyberg, A. K. (2009). Seal of approval: The History of the Comics Code. Jackson, Miss: Univ. Press of Mississippi.
     

    • "Many felt that even children who did not exhibit other delinquent behavior might be enticed into imitating crimes pictured in detail in their favorite comics, and children who did not act on what they read were still getting the wrong message about authority from the stories that glorified criminals."

    • Wertham listed seven ways in which he believed comic books affected children:

      • They may suggest criminal or sexually abnormal ideas (like homosexuality)

      • they create a mental preparedness or readiness for temptation

      • they may tip the scales and behavior of otherwise normal children

      • they set off a chain of undesirable and harmful thinking

      • they create for the child atmosphere of deceit trickery and cruelty

      • He would make statements such as "the fact that some child psychiatrists endorse comic books does not prove the healthy state of the comic books. It only proves the unhealthy state of child psychiatry. He refuted the consultant's claims that comic books were simply healthy fantasy outlets for aggression and that children were aware that the world of comics was one of Make Believe." and "We are not dealing with the rights and privileges of adults to read and write as they choose. We are dealing with the mental health of [children]"

    • "The church's position was that while removal of such material might infringe on an adult's "right to read," good citizens should be willing to waive their rights in order to protect children"

Expressive Writing and Health

Lepore S.J., Kliewer W. (2013) "Expressive Writing and Health". In: Gellman M.D., Turner J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1225
(Summarized):

  • Fewer stress-related visits to the doctor

  • Improved immune system functioning

  • Reduced blood pressure

  • Improved lung function

  • Improved liver function

  • Fewer days in hospital

  • Improved mood/affect

  • Feeling of greater psychological well-being

  • Reduced depressive symptoms before examinations

  • Fewer post-traumatic intrusion and avoidance symptoms

  • Reduced absenteeism from work

  • Quicker re-employment after job loss

  • Improved working memory

  • Improved sporting performance

  • Higher students’ grade point average

  • Altered social and linguistic behaviour

Interest and Investment in Fictional Romances

Van, M. E., & Mar, R. A. (January 01, 2019). "Interest and Investment in Fictional Romances". Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13, 4, 431-449.

  • "fictional romances could provide an avenue for exploring and ultimately informing individuals’ romantic identity. Focusing on fictional relationships may help individuals decide which aspects of a relationship are important to them without opening themselves up to the risks that accompany forming and maintaining actual relationships."

  • "Individuals may essentially learn “what not to do” from becoming invested in these dramatized relationships. Conversely, a practical approach to love might make the turbulence of fictional relationships seem all the more alluring, leading to a greater emotional investment in dramatic fictional relationships. Becoming invested in these fictional passionate relationships also means no risk of personal emotional fallout, unlike taking a passionate approach to one’s real relationships. It is also possible that people who are more interested in fictional relationships simply like to think more about relationships in general, and that this means quite different things for different people."

  • "Another explanation for this association is that individuals who observe and become invested in fictional relationships, which might be more volatile in nature, are more likely to want to avoid this kind of turmoil in their own lives"

  • "People do not become deeply engaged with fictional relationships to compensate for unhappiness with their own relationships, but rather possess a deep interest in relationships and romance"

​

The Textual Features of Fiction That Appeal to Readers: Emotion and Abstractness

  • In contrast, interesting characters were described using negative and arousing words. It therefore seems that readers are drawn toward characters that elicit negative emotions or possess arousing characteristics, or perhaps ones that do negative or exciting things. Although readers may not necessarily like these characters, they can still be compelled or intrigued by such characters."
     

  • "In exploring the topic of the appeal of negative media, Oliver and Raney (2011) argue that individuals have an intrinsic need to gain insight into human nature by deriving meaning, truth, or purpose from the world around them, which includes narratives. Characters that grapple with negative experiences—such as failure, frailty, or mortality—tend to pose questions about human nature and perhaps facilitate insight into questions regarding our own existence."

Choosing and enjoying violence in narratives

Lagrange V, Hiskes B, Woodward C, Li B, Breithaupt F. (2019). "Choosing and enjoying violence in narratives". PLoS ONE 14(12): e0226503. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0226503

  • "People who chose highly violent plot developments generally enjoyed the stories more than people who made less violent choices. A large percentage of our participants (up to 66%) could be persuaded to opt for highly violent plot choices and as a result rated their satisfaction higher than people who did not make highly violent choices. However, people who did not have choices and read completed stories generally strongly disliked high violence. It is when participants are given control of a situation and execute it by opting for high violence that they find greater satisfaction. In short, choosing violence increases enjoyment"

  • "Apparently, the very act of opting for high violence simultaneously disconnects people from constraints of morality and responsibility and thereby opens an aesthetic realm of fun and satisfaction."

  • "We suggest that by choosing high violence, people claim specific forms of agency over the media content, which leads to greater enjoyment. The appeal might not be the satisfaction of a disposition, but rather an act of choosing stories that break out of the ordinary and thus open up an aesthetic zone of enjoyment. Choosing violence is enjoyable, not violence itself."

Is Your Love of True Crime Impacting Your Mental Health?

Childs, Chivonna. 2021. "Is Your Love of True Crime Impacting Your Mental Health?" https://health.clevelandclinic.org/psychological-effects-of-watching-crime-shows/.
 

  • “Watching true crime doesn’t make you strange or weird,” Dr. Childs says. “It’s human nature to be inquisitive. True crime appeals to us because we get a glimpse into the mind of a real person who has committed a heinous act.” 

  • "as women are also disproportionately likely to be the victims of crime.  “We want to watch true crime in part to learn how to avoid being a victim,” she says. “It can teach us to be prepared in case we’re ever in that situation.”  

  • "stopping to consider how the stories make you feel in the moment can help clue you in to whether you should walk away from them now and try again later. “Your body is going to tell you how much is too much,” Dr. Childs says. "You don’t need to swear off all your favorite true and fictionalized crime shows forever."

Trashing: The Dark Side of Sisterhood

[Shared to deconstruct the act of Trashing in a marginalized group; The behavior described closely mirrors how antis can treat their own members as well as those they deem opponents (attacking other female, BIPOC & LGBTQ+ fans while ignoring institutions)]

  • "What is "trashing," this colloquial term that expresses so much, yet explains so little? It is not disagreement; it is not conflict; it is not opposition. These are perfectly ordinary phenomena which, when engaged in mutually, honestly, and not excessively, are necessary to keep an organism or organization healthy and active. Trashing is a particularly vicious form of character assassination which amounts to psychological rape. It is manipulative, dishonest, and excessive. It is occasionally disguised by the rhetoric of honest conflict, or covered up by denying that any disapproval exists at all. But it is not done to expose disagreements or resolve differences. It is done to disparage and destroy.
    The means vary. Trashing can be done privately or in a group situation; to one's face or behind one's back; through ostracism or open denunciation. The trasher may give you false reports of what (horrible things) others think of you; tell your friends false stories of what you think of them; interpret whatever you say or do in the most negative light; project unrealistic expectations on you so that when you fail to meet them, you become a "legitimate" target for anger; deny your perceptions of reality; or pretend you don't exist at all. Trashing may even be thinly veiled by the newest group techniques of criticism/self-criticism, mediation, and therapy. Whatever methods are used, trashing involves a violation of one's integrity, a declaration of one's worthlessness, and an impugning of one's motives In effect, what is attacked is not one's actions, or one's ideas, but one's self.
    This attack is accomplished by making you feel that your very existence is inimical [...] and that nothing can change this short of ceasing to exist. These feelings are reinforced when you are isolated from your friends as they become convinced that their association with-you is similarly inimical to the Movement and to themselves. Any support of you will taint them. Eventually all your colleagues join in a chorus of condemnation which cannot be silenced, and you are reduced to a mere parody of your previous self."
     

  • "I gave the movement the right to judge me because I trusted it. And when it judged me worthless, I accepted that judgment."
     

  • "This legitimated for many the idea that the Movement could tell us what kind of people we ought to be, and by extension what kind of personalities we ought to have. As no boundaries were drawn to define the limits of such demands, it was difficult to preclude abuses. Many groups have sought to remold the lives and minds of their members, and some have trashed those who resisted."
     

  • "Rage is a logical result of oppression. It demands an outlet. Because most women are surrounded by men whom they have learned it is not wise to attack, their rage is often turned inward. The Movement is teaching women to stop this process, but in many instances it has not provided alternative targets. While the men are distant, and the "system" too big and vague, one's "sisters" are close at hand. Attacking other feminists is easier and the results can be more quickly seen than by attacking amorphous social institutions. People are hurt; they leave. One can feel the sense of power that comes from having "done something." Trying to change an entire society is a very slow, frustrating process in which gains are incremental, rewards diffuse, and setbacks frequent. It is not a coincidence that trashing occurs most often and most viciously by those feminists who see the least value in small, impersonal changes and thus often find themselves unable to act against specific institutions."
     

  • "Instead of trying to prove one is better than anyone else, one proves someone else is worse. This can provide the same sense of superiority that traditional competition does, but without the risks involved. At best the object of one's ire is put to public shame, at worst one's own position is safe within the shrouds of righteous indignation"​