Equity and widening participation (EWP) initiatives in Australia are increasingly reimagined in policy as sites where participants are constructed as competitor-individuals, with education considered only in terms of employability, social mobility and nation-state market competition. In the context of EWP outreach, and with school students in…

Internet pornography access among male students at Evangelical Christian colleges presents two dilemmas. First, Internet pornography access is institutionally prohibited based on a Biblical view of sexuality. The second dilemma is that individual students who choose to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ in the context of Evangelical Christian…

Available evidence suggests that changes in the funding of UK higher education in recent years have been accompanied by an increased student presence in the sex industry, ostensibly for financial reasons and to make ends meet. The current study comprises a sample of students ("N" = 200) drawn from several universities in the UK. Data…

Focuses on the debates over the MacKinnon-Dworkin Anti-Pornography Ordinance to explore one instance of definitional argument: the attempt to effect a redefinition. Argues that advocates for a definitional shift created the possibility for a "terministic catharsis" by simultaneously locating pornography in multiple locations on the pentad,…

Studies the public responses to Andrea Dworkin's novel "Mercy" (about rape specifically and the sexual abuse of women in general). Suggests that Dworkin's "Mercy"--like other controversial cultural texts--fostered a type of literary public sphere and that defining these spheres as "war zones" does not foster open debate or a common space for…

Engages in ironic play with the confessional mode to find out how to think and talk after the French feminist confrontation with philosophy. Confesses a desire for philosophic thinking, then seeks from hermeneutics the secret at the heart of its enterprise. (SR)

Describes writing assignments based on several readings on the ethical quagmire of pornography. Suggests that exploratory writing grounded in the texture of students' lives is an antidote to abstract, theoretical pronouncements. Urges returning to an ethics developed in a community of writers who begin with values already given but who form an…

Examines by meta-analysis the effect that exposure to pornography produces on aggressive behavior under laboratory conditions considering a variety of possible moderating conditions. Demonstrates a homogeneous set of results showing that pictorial nudity reduces subsequent violent behavior, but that depictions of nonviolent sexual behavior and…

The recent "Urofsky v. Gilmore" decision considerably narrows the scope of academic freedom by rejecting arguments that faculty members in public colleges and universities have a constitutional right to academic freedom. In "Urofsky" the court ruled that professors do not have a constitutional right to view sexually explicit material on computers…

Notes that media scholars often resist the use of the evolutionary paradigm. Discusses two problems: an overly simplistic view of evolutionary models; and a distrust of ideological implications. Develops an evolutionary model proposing that gender differences in the consumption of sexually explicit media is, in part, the result of inherited…

A growing body of empirical research strongly suggests that adolescents and young adults are increasingly becoming both victims and perpetrators of crime and abuse enabled by information technology. The US federal government has stressed technological, legislative, and law-enforcement solutions to these problems. Efforts to protect children have…

Finds no effects on undergraduate male students for film exposure and no interaction effects between film and partners' sex-role orientation for women's evaluations of their partners; however, men's sex-role orientation moderated film effects for men's evaluations of their female partners' intellectual competence and sexual interest. Discusses…

Pornography has become an issue of wide-spread concern outside academe and is the focus of disputes over censorship, feminism, and sex. The feminist claim that pornography is not a First Amendment issue, but a civil rights one, is discussed. (MLW)

Exposed college students and nonstudents to videotapes of nonviolent pornography or innocuous material. Found consistent impact of pornography consumption on measures examining attitudes toward marriage, cohabitation, and other related issues. Exposure prompted greater acceptance of pre- and extra-marital sex and agreement with the belief that…

Studied use of the Internet by college students by determining sites selected on 6 of 70 computers in a college computer laboratory. The overwhelming use of the Internet in this open lab conformed to university acceptable-use policy, with almost no use of the computers to contact pornographic sites. (SLD)