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(Solved) Essay on Moral Panic
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Added on 2021-06-18
(Solved) Essay on Moral Panic
Added on 2021-06-18
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Student’s Last Name 1Academic WritingBy (Name)CourseProfessorUniversityDateIs the Reaction to Pornography an Example of Moral Panic?
Student’s Last Name 2IntroductionThis essay will prove the point that reaction to pornography is not a moral panic. Moral panic can be described as a fear that is widespread and often regarded as an irrational one. The fear emanates from the notion that something or someone poses a significant threat to the interests, safety, and values of a society. Essentially, moral panic is propagated by the media and the politicians play their part in fueling it. The end result is the formulation of policies or laws aimed at dealing with the source of panic. Therefore, the moral panic has been noted to, in many ways, escalate social control. More often than not, moral panics are focused on the marginalized groups as a consequence of their class, sexuality, religion, or nationality. In this regard, moral panic is often based on stereotypes that are well-known and enacts some sort of reinforcement onthem. Moral panic also exacerbates the notable differences between certain groups or individuals(Vasudevan, Ross and Eccleston, 2017 p.45). This essay will, therefore, argue that the reaction topornography is not a moral panic. The essay will also provide literature and evidence-based in Australia to reinforce the aforementioned topic.Facts to Prove the ArgumentWhether moral panic entails children having an easy access to pornographic materials or mobile phones that have the ability to take and communicating digital photos, all the fears have areal basis. Internet pornography and the ease of accessibility to children has perhaps been one of the significant fears in the modern times. Indeed, the fear justified. Nonetheless, a certain irony exists due to the fact that the same industry that has produced the pornographic content has also issued tools to deal with the threat that poses moral fear (Harkness, Mullan and Blaszczynski,
Student’s Last Name 32015 p.34). Parents can now comfortably access software to limit offending and explicit contentsand keep their children away from the prevailing harm. For decades, studies have been conducted to unravel the negative effects of pornography with a special focus on the degrading and violent pornography. Some of the elements that were analyzed in these studies include whether pornography causes objectification of women, violence, or aggression. Some researchers maintain that pornography plays a great role in propagating violence against women. However, the recent past has seen the aforementioned studies get challenged by multiple scholars. Ferguson and Hartley (2009), for instance, conducted a study challenging the above studies and proceeded to debunk the hypothesis implying that pornography is a significant contributor to behaviors related to sexual assault. According to Ferguson and Hartley, pornography offers its consumers a catharsis to eliminate sexual aggression (Ferguson and Hartley, 2009 p. 328). Another research by D'Amato( 2006) indicated that the current data from the United States indicates an inverse relationship between the reported rape cases and the consumption of pornography, and the author also indicates that the same holds for multiple countries including Australia (D'Amato, 2006 p.45). Posner (2011) submits a theory indicating that pornography can be viewed as a complement to consensual sex as well as masturbation and thus there is no need for moral panic as this could reduce the cases of rape (Posner, 2011 p.45). Other commentators argue that pornography has a great impact on the sexualization of the community, and noting that it has become relatively easy to access such content via the internet nowadays, the adolescents’, as well as the children, may be affected negatively during their development stages. The agreement of restricting children to access such content is widespread, and while similar concerns exist regarding the exposure of adolescents to
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