Pornography

If you ever wanted an example of where social values are up the spout, it's in the realm of pornography. Of course when I say pornography, you immediately think of sex. But there is another sort of pornography which is far worse, and is almost uncontrolled in our society, and that is the pornography of violence.

I have never seen an erect penis, or a set of female pudenda on British TV, and certainly I have never seen these commonplace everyday body parts put in their normal everyday conjunction. And yet the other day, while switching channels, I found myself looking at a close-up of something I just couldn't resolve. What was it? A rack of lamb? Modern art? What? The camera pulled back. I was seeing, in a crime drama, the ribs and internal organs of a female corpse on a pathologists table loving reconstructed for "my" titillation. A few weeks ago I tried an episode of "Romans". A female torture victim hangs in chains, raped and whipped. The torturer says to his (again female) employer. "She won't talk, what do you want me to do?" - "Cut off her face".

Is this entertainment? Is this better for us than the sight of a bit of real sex? What it is, is pornography, that's for sure, and it taints anyone who watches it.