FISCHER: Porn has no place on college campuses

Porn has no place on a university campus.
If you go into a University of Nebraska-Lincoln lab, odds are that you will be confronted with a sign or a screen saver reminding you that viewing of pornography is not allowed on university computers. While the university can't stop individuals from viewing pornography in their own homes, most recognize that a university ought to enforce at least a minimal level of decency.
Recently, however, there seems to have been some dispute about what role pornography ought to play in campus life.
Early last week it was discovered the University of Maryland had made plans to show a hard-core pornographic film at a campus-run theater. The event was planned by a student-run programming committee and had been approved by the school's administration.
According to an April 2 article in the Baltimore Sun, when news broke of the plans, university officials defended themselves by claiming that they saw the showing as an opportunity to offer students a substitute to heavy drinking and other unsafe activities.
In an apparent further effort to discourage such "unsafe" practices, the university even planned to have representatives from Planned Parenthood speak at the theater before the showing and provide information about safe sex.
However, after a significant amount of public outrage and threats from the Maryland State Legislature to cut funding for the university, officials decided to cancel the showing.
Some have reacted to this incident by claiming that the Legislature's actions constitute inappropriate censorship, and universities ought to be preserved as places with unlimited free expression and openness to all ideas.
While this is all very noble and well-meaning, it is important to remember that universities are first and foremost institutions of learning. Their purpose is to promote education, understanding and higher thinking.
Pornography is not consistent with this aim. It is disrespectful toward women, encourages objectification and contributes to a view of the human person that is in no way consistent with educated thought.
Pornography has no place in an institution of higher learning and certainly should not be promoted in the way the University of Maryland planned to.
For years, conservative Christians have condemned pornography as one of the true evils of modern society. They have claimed it causes the depersonalization of the person and objectification of women. More recently, some prominent feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon, have attacked pornography and argued it is degrading and promotes violence against women.
It is hard for many people to accept that the consumption of pornography affects the way people think and act, despite it being confirmed again and again by research.
Here in America, we like to think of ourselves as individuals who are unaffected by the world around us. We can make our own way, set our own trends and live life the way we want to.
But this view of the world is severely lacking. Studies have shown again and again that we are strongly influenced by parents, peers, media, economic status and education. The list goes on and on.
We certainly have the ability to make choices, but it is an undeniable fact that social forces have an incredible impact in shaping our world and the way we react to it.
Pornography is no different, and in fact, it may even go deeper than previously thought.
A recent study examined how viewing sexually explicit material affected males' brain function. Researchers at Princeton University found that after heterosexual men viewed sexually explicit images of women, the areas of their brain associated with empathy and understanding other peoples' emotions shut down while the areas associated with the use of tools showed increased activity.
Susan Finke, one of the psychologists associated with the project, said this research demonstrates these images can change the way men perceive and interact with women, and it leads men to see women as objects rather than people.
In the 1990s, anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday noticed there were significant differences in the amount of sexual violence perpetrated against women between cultures. Through further research she found that a similar disparity existed between college campuses.
The culmination of this research led to a 1996 article titled "Rape-Prone Versus Rape-Free Campus Cultures" in which she examined these differences and attempted to explain their cause.
She found that several factors were present at campuses with high rates of sexual violence against women that were not present at those with low rates of sexual violence. Among these factors were "using pornography to learn about sex" and "using pornography as a guide to female sexuality."
In the article, she describes how one particular fraternity that had recently been accused of significant sexual violence frequently consumed pornography and how this shaped its members' views of women and sex.
Although religious conservatives are often most outspoken, the arguments against pornography are not just based in religion. Solid academic research has documented its negative effects. It simply has no place in an institution of seeking, learning and understanding.
The outrage that was expressed toward the University of Maryland was more than justified. Officials there ought to be working to eliminate the damaging practice of pornography consumption rather than promoting it.
luke fischer is a junior secondary education major.  reach him at lukefischer@dailynebraskan.com.