Browsing by Subject "pornography"

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    Awkward Alliances and the Indianapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance of 1984
    (2021-05) Fox, Jonnie Bray; Haberski, Raymond; Robertson, Nancy M.; Shrum, Rebecca K.
    This thesis examines the motivations behind the advocates and detractors of the Indianapolis Anti-Pornography Ordinance of 1984. It will examine how and why Indianapolis Conservatives, who opposed pornography due to its perceived moral implications, joined forces with a radical feminist to create an ordinance outlawing pornography that utilized the radical feminist argument of pornography’s potential violence. It will explain the national divide between radical and liberal feminists on the issue of pornography and how this is reflected on a local scale through the methods of Indianapolis feminists to contend with violence against women. Through interviews with those associated with the ordinance, it will broaden the understanding of the sides in the debate and how the ordinance was defeated. This thesis will also demonstrate that while the ordinance ultimately failed to be enforced after being signed into law by Mayor Hudnut, it marked a significant moment in not only Indianapolis but the Nation’s history and helped change the course of the pornography debate.
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    Do People in Conservative States Really Watch More Porn? A Hierarchical Analysis
    (Sage, 2020-01) Perry, Samuel L.; Whitehead, Andrew L.; Sociology, School of Liberal Arts
    Recent studies have found that state-level religious and political conservatism is positively associated with various aggregate indicators of interest in pornography. Such studies have been limited, however, in that they either did not include data measuring actual consumption patterns and/or did not include data on individuals (risking the ecological fallacy). This study overcomes both limitations by incorporating state-level data with individual-level data and a measure of pornography consumption from a large nationally representative survey. Hierarchical linear regression analyses show that, in the main, state-level religious and political characteristics do not predict individual-level pornography consumption, and individual-level religiosity and political conservatism predict less recent pornography consumption. However, interactions between individual-level evangelical identity and state-level political conservatism indicate that evangelicals who live in more politically conservative states report the highest rates of pornography consumption. These findings thus provide more nuanced support for previous research linking religious and political conservatism with greater pornography consumption.