Radical Feminism Its effects on the “stay-at-home” mother
In 1920, women were given the right to vote. In 1963, we were given the equal pay act, making it illegal to pay women less than their male counterparts. Banning of gender discrimination in schools was passed in 1972. And last year, 2013, the ban on women serving in combat roles was lifted. The feminist movement has done so much for the female population. We have many rights appointed to us because of those willing to fight for them all. But for now, there simply is less to fight for. Of course there are still areas that need our strong willed women, but the workforce is not one of them. We need our mothers at home.
We are surrounded by women in our lives who believe that to be considered a successful woman in today’s society, we must be professionally successful. But we need more women who will stay home and nurture their children. In an LDS General Conference, October 2010, Larry R. Lawrence spoke of the importance of courageous parents, both mothers and fathers. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/courageous-parenting?lang=eng&query=courageous+women
Although sometimes is calls for mothers to work outside of the home, when there is no need for them to be, it affects their children more than if they worked from home. If the family was not struggling financially when the mother worked full-time, if they were not at risk, the children were associated with later risk for behavioral difficulties. Children with full-time working mothers showed significantly more behavior problems by age 4 ½ years. Mothers working full-time when their child is in any critical period of attachment, emotional, or cognitive growth is more likely to be associated with subsequent difficulties.
It is safe to assume that while this is immediately affecting our children negatively, it will eventually negatively affect our society as a whole, as it is these children who will soon make up the adult population in our society. So there are some arguments to be made for the benefits of being a stay-at-home mom both for our children and our society. There are community programs to help influence mothers staying at home. Here is a Facebook page to join! https://www.facebook.com/Momswhostayhome
Our children need us, they need mothers who are there for them and are there to raise them. If staying home will help them have fewer behavioral problems, then why not give them everything we can!
References
Imbornoni, A.-M. (2014, November 10). Women's Rights Movement in the U.S. Retrieved from: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/womenstimeline1.html
Pelcovitz, D. (2013, January 3). The Impact of Working Mothers on Child Development. Retrieved from OU: http://www.ou.org/life/parenting/impact-working-mothers-child-development-empirical-research-david-pelcovitz/
We live in a world with some frightening statistics on Pornography. It was addressed previously in this blog the dangers pornography viewing imposes on individuals, marriages, families, and our society. Lets focus on the organizations available to help us make a change!
“56% of divorce cases involve one of the individuals having an addiction to pornographic websites and media (Manning, 2005). Pornography addiction leads to divorce for many reasons one being that it “damages the sexual performance of the viewers…Having spent so much time in unnatural sexual experiences with paper, celluloid and cyberspace, they seem to find it difficult to have sex with a real human being" (Gilkerson, 2013).
Lets do what we can to educate ourselves, others, and empower our world to decrease this percentage of divorces caused from pornography and save families!
Anti- Pornography Organizations/ Policies
Read here about Google’s decision to somewhat control pornography on the web!
I was impressed to find a recent policy that was implemented by Google this past July. Google sent a letter to many of their advertisers informing them of their new policy to no longer accept AdWords advertisements containing explicit language or that link to porn sites. Though this did not put a stop to search engine’s ability to find and link people to adult websites, they still took the step to make a difference.
Morality in Media
The leading organization opposing pornography since 1962 is called Morality in Media. Two things this organization does that stands against pornography:
“Currently, Morality In Media directs the War on Illegal Pornography Coalition, which his an effort with Congress to pressure the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce existing federal obscenity laws.
Morality in Media also maintains a research website about the harms of pornography and regularly directs national awareness campaigns to help the public understand the consequences of pornography and find resources to aid in their struggles.”
This organization educates, informs, and takes action. Rather than being mainly family focused, this organization is focused on society as a whole. It is focused on types of people--individuals, children, marriage, and families.
Visit this site here: http://moralityinmedia.org/
Share it with your family and friends to help educate yourself and others on the serious dangers of pornography. We can help others overcome their addictions to pornography…there is hope!
Crosby, J. M., & Cox, J. M. (2009). Viewing Internet Pornography: For Whom is it Problematic, How, and Why?. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 16(4), 253-266. doi:10.1080/10720160903300788
Currently, the majority of people who are struggling with sexual compulsions and addictions are married, heterosexual males. More people, especially college-aged adults, are more accepting or indifferent to pornography. In one study, 56.3% of respondents said that viewing pornography is normal or somewhat normal. Furthermore, 77.8% of the respondents had no particular reaction to pornography or said they enjoyed it, while 22% of people were angered, disgusted or embarrassed. There is also a difference among the sexes. More females have negative reactions to pornography than males do [1]. It is clear that many are unaware of the damage that pornography can cause. In the United States there are 40 million regular internet porn viewers. Pornography is not just a “man” problem anymore, it has also become a problem for women. Studies show that while 70% of young men view porn at least once a month, 1 in 3 women are also porn viewers. With statistics like this, people need to be aware of the dangers presented to them and their families.
Trending News and Videos
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Listen to this non-religious woman’s testimony of how pornography ruined her marriage. Education is power!
It is evident that pornography use is associated with couple relationship quality. In one study, the use of pornography by males had a consistent negative association with the quality of the relationship for both men and women. There are 2 possible reasons for this. One is that the woman may have disapproved of the pornography habit of the man and lost interest in sex. The other reason is that the man felt that his needs were being met through pornography use and lost interest in relational sex [2].
Another thing that is clear that even non-violent easily accessible pornography changes viewers’ attitudes or relationships and of women. Those who had viewed this type of pornography were more likely to experience a decreased sexual satisfaction with the affection of the intimate partner, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance. It is clear then, that those who view pornography begin to have a warped view of a normal sexual relationship and begin to be dissatisfied with the level of intimacy their partner is displaying. Furthermore, pornography viewers devalued the importance of monogamy in a relationship.
Non-violent pornography also had an effect on the viewer’s opinion of women. Those who viewed this type of pornography were more callous towards women and trivialized rape as a criminal offense. Furthermore, watching standard porn leads to an increased desire for more deviant and erotic types of pornography [3].
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Pornography is Poisonous to the Brain, here’s why:
Pornography is very much like a drug. Everyone has reward pathways in their brain. After accomplishing something difficult (something that promotes life) the brain will reward the hard work by releasing chemicals such as dopamine. The person will then have a sense of satisfaction or pleasure.
This short video describes the science behind why pornography is harmful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ya67aLaaCc
With pornography a high amount of dopamine is released and the person viewing pornography feels pleasure without doing any of the work. As these pathways in the brain change, dopamine is still released, but the one viewing pornography cannot feel the effects as much, so something new or sexually deviant must be viewed to receive the same effects. In essence, the pornography viewer begins to form an emotional attachment, a dependency on pornography. Pornography cannot return that emotional attachment.
It is easier for a person to go from what may seemingly be a harmless glance at “soft porn” to “hard porn” or acting out sexually than one might think. Pornography addiction is something that can happen in a relatively short amount of time.
This video from Tedx Talks talks about the age of technology, how it has changed the porn industry, and the stark difference between a world of pornography and a world filled with loving and giving.
Can be found at fighthenewdrug.org is an organization whose mantra is “Porn Kills Love.” This organization advocates and educates people about the dangers of pornography through videos, extensive researched articles, and testimonials.
Enough is Enough Organization
Can be found at www.enough.org and is an organization dedicated to making the internet safer for children and families.
Your Brain on Porn organization
Can be found at http://yourbrainonporn.com/ and is a science-based, secular resource that educates about the negative impacts of pornography on the brain.
What You Can Do
At home. Have open communication with family members about pornography and how it can change the way people view other humans. Also discuss your family’s values of sexuality in relationships. Put computers in areas that will be frequented by the whole family, so no one will be tempted to go to inappropriate sites. Make sure spam filters are up to date. If possible buy or enable child safety or parental controls on televisions and other technological devices.
Be involved in your community. This can be anything from going to a PTA meeting to talk about your child’s school’s policy concerning pornography viewing, a city council meeting, or advocating that your local library get better filters for their internet.
Sign Petitions. Sign petitions or create one yourself that will influence public policy. Go to this website to create or sign a petition protecting children and families from the dangers of pornography: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions
Vote for politicians who are in favor of protecting and supporting children and families. You can be informed of the people you vote for by googling your state’s representatives.
References
1. Beaver, William, Paul, Stephen (2011). Internet Pornography: Variables related to use among
traditional aged college students. Sociological Viewpoints, 27: 25-38.
2. Poulsen, Franklin O., Busby, Dean M., Galovan, Adam M. (2013). Pornography use: who
uses it and how it is associated with couple outcomes. Journal of Sex Research, 50(1), 72-83.
3. Manning, Jill C. (2006). The Impact of internet pornography in marriage and the family: a review of the research. Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity, 13:131-165.
Today abortion is a type of contraception for women. They are very popular, and also very heart breaking. Due to the amount of abortions happening, it is something that needs to be talks about and brought up so that we can decline the number of abortions and either practice safer sex, or have more babies ready for adoption.
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Even though abortion
has been declining since contraception's have become more available
to people., it is still something that is overly used. Young adults need to be educated on practicing safe sex, and being aware of
their consequences. Abortion should never be an easy way out of
something due to the importance of life. Abortion is being used as a back up plan, which is completely wrong.
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There
are approximately 1.21 million abortions in America each year. That
is about 2% of women aged 15-44 that are having abortions. Though a
substantial 47% of women getting abortions have already had at least
one abortion before hand, it is still hard for the mothers to do so.
Usually mothers do not feel that financially they can afford the
child and give them everything that they need. Others feel that they
are not ready for the responsibility. However, when women make the
decision to abort a child, you are giving them nothing. Since only
3% of babies are aborted due to possible health problems, we can be sure to know that most babies will be healthy and ready to give up for adoption. Therefore, there is no need to abort a perfectly healthy baby.
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Adoption is a great method to cure the problem of an unplanned pregnancy. Especially when a teenage mother or a single mother is pregnant. When women do not feel like they are ready for the responsibility, there are women out there begging for the child who might not be able to ever have any of her own. The fact that about half of the pregnancies within the United States are unplanned, there could be a big rise of children being able to adopt. However, of those children, 4 out of 10 of them are aborted.
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Abortions are a threat to families for two completely different reasons. First being that life is taken for granted for. Many women try to get pregnant and have children but cannot, and yet some can get pregnant from a one night stand and do. When these one time stands get pregnant, they then abort the baby, when they could help a family who is really wishing for one. Another reason why it is hurting families because when people have abortions, all of these babies that could be give up to someone else is being taken away and some couples never get the chance to have their own families. It is hurting the lives of the babies in more way than one, first off they never get to exist, and second off they never get to be in a loving home with a adoptive parent who would give them the world.
In the United States, Federal
and State Bans and restrictions have been set to try to lower the number of abortions. Ongoing for years there have been people pushing a bill that would
ban abortion after a pregnant woman has passed 20 weeks. This is a great bill to pass for majority of the mothers out there who are aborting late in their pregnancy, but can harm those mothers who have a medical emergency and need to abort the baby for the safety of their own lives. As for what the community is doing, well Planned Parenthood is doing what they can but educating people and giving very affordable contraception so that unplanned pregnancies can be avoided which in turn will obviously lower abortions.
A few stories about abortion. Caution: sad, graphic and scary images in the videos. Here is a story of a mother who thought she was making the right decision of having an abortion, but felt like she could not go through with it.
News on President Obama standing up for babies who lived through the abortions. Caution: sad, graphic and scary images in the videos.
