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AR 22:33 - Dealing with the problems of porn
In this issue:
CULTURE - "creating, representing, and influencing contradictory religious identities"
ISLAM - the Muslim poet who reached deep into the West, "transcending religion even while embracing it"
PORN - 'only the extreme, fake, end of an issue'?
Apologia Report 22:33 (1,353)
August 30, 2017
CULTURE
Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred, by Richard W Santana and Gregory Erickson [1] -- new book warehouser Baker & Taylor sums it up: "This work considers ways in which American cultural products such as TV, advertising, music, and video games have played a significant role in creating, representing, and influencing contradictory religious identities." A further paragraph-length publisher's blurb reads: "The United States is the world's primary creator and exporter of popular mass culture and arguably one of the most religious countries in modern history. As a result, the coexistence of American religion with popular culture <www.goo.gl/8AFXeb> has created a fertile yet caustic environment for new religious belief structures, new texts, and new worldviews that are uniquely American. This work considers ways in which American television, advertising, music, and video games have played a significant role in creating, representing, and influencing contradictory religious identities. The authors examine three distinct segments of popular culture that 'rescript the sacred,' including popular religious texts (e.g. the Christian fantasy novels of Frank Peretti), secular works that nonetheless reflect and influence popular religions (e.g. Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and works that contain a central element of religious content but no clear didactic intent (e.g. The Da Vinci Code)."
The book's table of contents indicates chapters related to baseball, porn, popular music, film, television, "demons and aliens," and video games. Last, J. A. Albertson (University of North Carolina at Charlotte) alerts us in Choice (Jul '17) that we missed this title years ago: "First published in 2008, this book considers the interconnectedness of popular culture and religion. Claiming that the former is key to understanding the sacred, Santana (English, Rochester Institute of Technology) and Erickson (interdisciplinary studies, New York Univ.) seek, with this second edition, to revitalize their claims with up-to-date examples of media in which religious issues manifest and are worked out. Popular religion, i.e., that communicated outside theology and professedly religious institutions, and popular culture are shown to be heavily influenced by American Protestantism. This second edition presents no new arguments. An obvious and critical shortcoming is the prevalence of claims unsupported by footnotes. Many of these claims are outside the field of American religious studies. Summing Up: Not recommended." (Maybe it's not recommended for religious studies folk, but it's likely informative for culture watchers.)
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ISLAM
In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahlil Gibran, by Paul-Gordon Chandler [2] -- Publishers Weekly reports that "Chandler blends memoir and biography in this introductory exploration of poet Kahlil Gibran's influences, writings, and impact. He traces Gibran's life from his birth in Lebanon in 1883 and his immigration to the United States in 1895 to his return to the Middle East in 1899 and his encounters with leading artistic figures in Europe before his death in 1931. Each chapter centers on a key work of Gibran's, with ample excerpts to get a sense of his style and messages. This orderly chronology will help readers fill in details and get a better sense of what events shaped Gibran's work.... Those unfamiliar with the poet's work will gain solid insights into how and why Gibran <www.goo.gl/452tVh> sought out universal reconciliation of the religious impulses stemming from his Maronite Catholic upbringing, his Arab identity, and his Western education. Chandler includes anecdotes from his own travels, including (but not exclusively) to sites related to Gibran's life. These asides muddle more than illuminate his key points, often having very loose connections to the central narrative. Though this is not an entirely successful mash-up, it provides a solid introduction to Gibran and his complex work." PW Annex Reviews, Sep '17
Library Journal (Aug '17 #1) notes that Chandler, an Episcopal priest, observes: "Gibran was bound and embraced by many worlds: East and West, Muslim and Christian, pastoral and urban, ancient and modern; intoxicated with the teachings of Jesus, but not the church. VERDICT Chandler succeeds in providing a portrait of a hard-won spirituality that transcended religion even while embracing it."
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PORN
It's a given. "Your Kids will see internet porn. Deal with it." So says WIRED magazine (Sep '17, pp78-79) contributor Sarah Fallon who interviews Peggy Orenstein (author of Girls & Sex [3] and Cinderella Ate My Daughter [4] and who is "currently working on a book about boys, masculinity, sex, love - and yes, porn") beginning with a discussion about the pervasiveness of the problem for young boys.
Fallon: "What's the effect on those boys?
Orenstein: "Research suggests a positive correlation between heterosexual guys who look at porn regularly and those who support same-sex marriage.
Fallon: "Great!
Orenstein: "Ah, but they're also less likely to support affirmative action for women. And among young men, exposure to porn has been correlated with seeing sex as purely physical, regarding girls as playthings, and measuring their masculinity and their self-worth by their ability to score with hot women.
"And one study suggests that female porn viewers are less likely than other women to intervene if they see another woman being threatened or assaulted. ...
Fallon: "You mean … I just have to talk to them about … pornography?
Orenstein: "Yep. It's bizarre to me that because of our own squeamishness, we're unable to engage with our children. The result is that we allow them to be educated by a culture that, at best, does not have their well-being at heart. ...
"But we silo discussions about sex as if they have nothing to do with everything else. You should have already spoken to your kids about relationships and human behavior and sexuality. So that when you get to the porn conversation, you have a foundation. Porn shouldn't be where you start. ...
Fallon: "… what do I tell my sons?
Orenstein: "The biggest surprise for me as a parent has been how hard we now have to work to protect our kids' imaginations from predatory, addictive websites that want to sell things to them - or sell them to advertisers. So you have to lay the groundwork, to have conversations about what's real and what's not. Talk about how, when you see a movie, there's violence, but that violence is totally unrealistic. Porn is really only the extreme end of an issue. We know these things are fake, that's not the way the two people really interact. Kids have to be able to contextualize, to deconstruct it. Just like they need to do with other forms of media. Because yes, everyone is upset about porn, but the messages they get from garden-variety media are just as influential - maybe more so."
WIRED gave this article the title "Parent Trap." While we think doing so sends an appropriately dark ironic message, it still misses the mark. "Family Trap" would have been more accurate. Incredibly, Fallon begins this article: "Visitors to Pornhub, the largest porn site on the internet, watched about 92 billion sexytime videos last year. Not that there's anything wrong with that." Just a minute. Didn't Orenstein admit "everyone is upset about porn"? <www.goo.gl/dkHSCL>
Visit <www.goo.gl/nGSNnH> to study the subject in back issues of Apologia Report.
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred, by Richard W Santana and Gregory Erickson (McFarland; 2nd ed. 2016, paperback, 260 pages) <www.goo.gl/YeUumW>
2 - In Search of a Prophet: A Spiritual Journey with Kahlil Gibran, by Paul-Gordon Chandler (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017, hardcover, 200 pages) <www.goo.gl/cjzqo2>
3 - Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, by Peggy Orenstein (Harper, 2017, paperback, 336 pages) <www.goo.gl/wQPCga>
4 - Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, by Peggy Orenstein (Harper, 2012, paperback, 272 pages) <www.goo.gl/ESXUMh>
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