Friday, September 10, 2004

Should porn have a place in our society?

Did you know that according to BBC statistics, 60 per cent of Internet users in Pakistan regularly visit pornographic websites?
In an essay titled 'The East is Blue', that is also set to published alongside images of American porn stars in a book entitled XXX:Porn star, Salman Rushdie claims "A free and civilised society should be judged on its willingness to accept pornography". In her recent article Miranda Husain, a writer for the Daily times, supports this view saying that "we should perhaps modify Mr Rushdie’s assertion: only a society that accepts the existence of pornography and also accepts the need to promote the forming of emotional bonds between the sexes can be described as a truly free and civilised society." What do you say?



10 comments:

MK said...

What does Marinda mean by promoting the forming of emotional bond between the two sexes. If this means a sexual bond then she is a bit loose bolt in the head.
such vague statements do us or any society no good. I fshe means strengthening emotional bonds in true sense of the word then that can be achieved through a million other ways.
Rushdie's assertion that societies that are willing to accept pornography is portrayed in the western culture and the ruins that iut is in these days.
But i think evil in many forms exists in every society. No society can be perfect. ANd only those who keep onmaking an effort to recognize the evil only to get rid of it prosper. not those who acknowledge it and then accept it as a fact that van not be gotten rid of.

Hami said...

Just to say

"Neither our religion(which builds the nation and society) nor our Society supports porn"

Bad use of net can easily be understand by the condition that here in Hyderabad, Pakisatan, when ever one is caught going to cafe the realtives fires the parents that Net Cafe is not a right place - My Self faced these all things I told my parents the truth that I am not using the Net in that way then my parents gave me net access to just check up me and i found right now i havent any Net Access at my home due to expensive conditions but even now my relatives fires my parents minds to have a Hard eye one me ....

I am writing this in a cafe and I know the 8 more users are watching the porno sites as i cauht them my self

Thanks

Unknown said...

60% of population in Pakistan VISITS porn sites? I don't get it. And I certainly not in a position to give any damn to Salman Rushdie and likes anyway on this subject. Do we have something else than to sex-up this issue? May be you'd like to tell how many American teen agers use their dads and moms' credit cards and pay to these sites? *hint, hint*

Anonymous said...

A truly free and civilized society has more to do with tolerance (religious and otherwise), and less to do with porn or its acceptance.

Having said that, we have the freedom to make our own choices and decisions. So whether we watch porn or not is a conscious decision that each individual should make. It is not something that the government should control, regulate, or censor.

Anonymous said...

I cannot agree more with Anonymous. A mature society lets an individual practise his or her own free will, regardless of whether or not that freedom results in watching porn, practising religion or expressing an opinion. Regulation itself must be the issue, not porn. Rushdie's comments are just a bitter-true reflection of what Pakistani surfers 'browse' the most, which may be verified by visiting our own "web directories" top ten lists/search queries, or Google Zeitgeist.

Anonymous II.

Anonymous said...

A society should allow its members to decide on whether to commit a crime or not? This argument is based, and can be finished, soley on the question of determining whether looking at/engaging in pornography is a crime at all. If it is judged as a crime, then the society should never let its members commit themselves to the said crime (hence bans on drugs, murder/suicide, etc). If it is deemed otherwise, then the society should not impose itself on the population, which would otherwise be committing no crime. Its all depends on the question of whether the pornographic issue is a crime or not.

What do YOU think?

-Faizão

Anonymous said...

It may not be a crime but there certainly is something wrong with the act of watching porn isn't it Faizao?

-Anonymous III

Anonymous said...

Anonymous III: So why, in your opinion, is there something wrong with the act of watching porn? And even if there is something wrong with it, is it wrong enough for it to be banned or censored?

-Anonymous I

Anonymous said...

The problem with watching porn is that you end up thinking of the opposite sex as an object rather than a human being filled with emotions. Your psyche is affected. Your perception about love and lust becomes twisted to the point where you fail to distinguish between it.
As for the issue of banning it-well I don't think it should be regulated by the governement coz they are more likely to use it for political means rather than actual censure. In any case I believe the people should be given the choice but at the same time there's a need to educate the masses about the consequences of it. To quote our Prophet (P.B.U.H), 'the best veil is the veil in the eyes.'
I Hope you all agree.

-Anonymous III

S. A. Rahman said...

Should porn have a place in our society?
I have read many other comments, I am shocked to read them. Someone was pointing others, someone wasn't giving a damn to it, someone was pulling religious triggers, but nobody had proper asnwer, sad, isn't it?
Let's take a look at internet policies in Islamic cities Makkah and Medinah, every Illegal/Inlawfull/against-religion/pornographic website is filtered automatically by ISP's. Govenrment did all right to stop evil in the bud, enforced law against evil via internet. What out Pak Government has done? Nothing, I can buy a Rs. 10/- scratch card and surf every site freely nobody can stop me, not even my ISP is interested to look upon what I do. But why blocking pornography only? even though it's against our religion, but it's not against our democratic society. Before we block/filter such sites we should also take look upon books selling on bus stands, weird magazine are sold freely every where another healthy source for soar-eyes ;). I laugh at *Should porn have a place in our society?* why asking for what you can't answer yourself? ;) Do you think your postings help? NO! If our government wants to block such things to be viewed by citizens, they must have done something at first place, all they want is MONEY! even ISP's want MONEY to keep their business alive. I laugh at religious talkers, how come you know that pornography exists? ;) No Offense! but, everybody wants a _place_ for pornography for their earnings, very soon (let the pak prostitution society be online) we'll have our own girls online offering free demos & cheap services ;)
even the cyber cafe owners say *We don't argue with whatever you do* & *You pay us for an hour and watch whatever you like*. Even the policemen like a place for _pornography_ to get bribed ;).
In short, I have watched enough of pornography myself and have enjoyed it all the way, now it's time for my brothers to go those sites and do what I did.