Boy, am I late to the punch here. Still, I think I might be able to add something deconstructive here (uh, sure) so batter up...

1. Porn cultivates good relationships.

As was mentioned somewhere above in this giant mass of thread, it can be a nice addition to an existing relationship, to get the old mind-juices flowing and liven up the old sex life. Sort of like eating vanilla cake, but then eating the same vanilla cake for years, and then realizing you can put strawberries on it, and all of a sudden vanilla cake with strawberries is the best thing you've ever eaten.

2. Porn is for men who sincerely appreciate the beauty of the female body.

I'd agree that this is a myth, except that I don't know anyone who thinks this, and it misses the point. Porn is for getting yourself excited in that special way that makes you feel all warm inside when you don't have a person to get you all warm on the outside too. Among other things. Of course, sex is mainly mental to begin with, so appreciation of beautiful bodies helps.

3. Porn is harmless and it has no negative effect on the person using it.

I also drink alcohol and curse.

4. Strippers and porn stars lead glamorous lives, and men respect them.

Glamorous? Maybe on screen, but there's effort involved -- Porn is hard work, you know. I don't know any strippers or porn stars personally, so I can't say I respect or disrespect any of them. I'm trying to be funny here, but this "myth" is so far off base I'm having trouble linking it back to reality. Come on, throw me a bone here!

5. Men like variety in women so porn use helps a man stay faithful to his woman.

You know, I think you're getting your information from a questionable source. This list isn't "Common myths about porn," it's "lame excuses men tell their wives to justify watching porn in a sitcom." Though as a man, I do like variety, so I recommend roleplay. You know what I'm talking about; I've already explained that strawberry thing.

6. Women who get involved in the porn industry choose to do so, and they have valuable careers.

"Everybody needs money! That's why they call it money!"
Too bad I've only seen the first hour of The Heist. This one I can't really argue with, but only because it's true about every career. This has been pointed out above, but just like anything else, there's people who have a career and there's people who just have a job. Then there's people without a job, and without a career, and there's people who have tons of money and just drive around all day looking for things to throw money at, and now I'm completely off track.

7. Porn is an outlet or safety valve for men who would otherwise do Bad Things.

This is patently false. Everyone knows the safety valve for men who would otherwise do Bad Things is video games. Except it always goes HORRIBLY WRONG. And then students end up getting hurt because other students were playing those MURDER SIMULATORS all day. Won't anyone think of the children? Why does no-one listen to Jack Thompson!? Oh wait I'm off topic again.

8. Women who work in porn are empowered and sexually liberated.

Damn I'm having trouble making this stuff funny. You know what, I'm going to pass on this one.

9. Porn is just a fantasy and people do not apply it to real life.

Completely false. I watched a porn once where a guy has sex with three women in the span of fifteen minutes, but then the guy turns into a girl and the three women turn into a tiger, a monsterous tentacle beast, and a plant. Then the girl has to run away from the tiger, but she's trying to make out with the plant, and the tentacle beast is just busy eating popcorn. I know this is not fantasy because it happened to me when I was 19.

-----

So there you have it. As a bonus, since this thread is about porn myths, I feel it only appropriate to add a few of my own myths about porn that are harmful to people.

10. Sexual partners always climax at the same time, even if they've just met.

11. Sex is always satisfying, and everyone feels loads of sexual pleasure effortlessly.

12. Sex is always accompanied by an appropriate soundtrack.

13. The quality of any sexual act is directly proportional to the amount of noise both sexual partners make.

14. The only appropriate things to say during sex are "Give it to me," "Oh yeah baby," and "Yes, yes, yes." Moaning is also appropriate.

15. The best way to get a woman to sleep with you is to be a domineering asshole. Wait a minute...

So despite the fact that nobody will mistake me for a professional comedian, I've hopefully made you laugh just a bit. Because one of the best things to do when confronted with an emotionally charged topic (oh crap he's getting serious, why don't I have a dental appointment lined up) is to laugh at it a bit and take the edge off. Judging from previous replies to this thread, I think a bunch of Sifters already get it.

i was at a wedding of all places and this came up. some conservative member of my family decided that this was newsworthy. all i could say was "since do we listen to jesse jackson?"

i don't remember what the next topic of conversation was, but it proceeded directly after my comment.

ps. can't refer to genitalia or jack thompson will be disbarred a second time.

The congress security council had the same information that bush did so should they also be removed from office? I think somebody needs to come up some legislation to remove Kucinich from his position because he's wasting peoples time with this. He's quickly becoming a jack thompson.

Nobody expects copy protection to last more than a week tops nowadays, and that's likely the whole point. Bring out some new version of SecuRom that takes people a while to crack and at least the impatient pirates will buy it. I mean it's not like even your average Joe can't go to gamecopyworld, download a crack and follow some basic instructions.

It does somewhat confuse me though when they introduce copy protection that tries to go beyond that. Case in point, Mass Effect. What could possibly be the point of weekly validation? Granted they went back on their decision due to fan outcry but it really makes you wonder what kind of technological neophyte and luddites are tasked with coming up with these ideas.

It's insidious, but hey, since piracy isn't going away, neither is this kind of copy protection.

Whether you like it or not, ordinary people will likely not know of the copy protection on a game before they pick it up from their local videogames store (that charges twice the online price at least here in Australia) because they thought the art on the cover was pretty and they think guns are cool.

Even if they do, is that likely to affect their decision? Probably not, as long as it works hey? Regardless, it's hardly fair to treat the programmers, the graphics designers, the voice actors as a unilateral entity with the management and the profit maximising pressure from the distributors. After all, their salaries come from the same source.

If anything I suspect games will simply transcend to multiplayer only (where servers can explicitly restrict access of play to legitimate distinct CD keys which cannot be generated), or will be playable with internet access only through some kind of elaborate content streaming system. At the very least, you're going to see PC gaming marginalised, generally being the format on which piracy is easiest and which is generally dominated by the most tech-savy consumers.

Which would all be a tragedy for the future of videogames as a respectable storytelling medium and beyond simply providing inane, gratuitous doses of violence that politicians and fame-seeking Jack Thompson-wannabes can use as the scapegoat that is corrupting our children.

EDIT - Oh isn't Zonbie in the game industry? *demands professional input*

Jack Thompson (the gray-haired guy talking about CS) just got disbarred (prohibited from practicing law) today. Not kidding.

http://kotaku.com/5013148/jack-thompson-walks-out-on-hearing-bar-recommends-enhanced-disbarment

In his face!

Not sure I agree with #10 as an "attack" on video games. This has been diagnosed as a medical condition. All the rest are pertinent though, to be called attacks.

I'm curious if Jack Thompson has ever wondered if continually attacking video games with made-up facts and unsubstantiated evidence would ever have the effect of turning a man into a giant penis. Because I've got some empirical evidence which points directly to that phenomenon.

Yeah, that was some spectaular car-crash PR by Creative, I don't know whats happened to them, but they really suck broken balls now.

That whole DanelK thing was the last straw for me, I wont buy creative no, I think Fatal1ty should find a new sponsor (this promo was Terrible!)

In reply to this comment by Krupo:
I'm still angry with Creative for the Vista driver fiasco.

3 words

The Mental Asylum!!

and some more words!
I laughed at this! he's right it fires shurikens and lightning!
ahah

I hear you Spoco2 but it must be said, drink a bottle of jolt and then go mental with the painkiller, hours of fun. Of course Jack Thompson would say I am now I fully trained Phycho Assassin but..meh. its stupid and fun! And it knows it!

I say yey!

>> ^Zonbie:
HA! HA! HA! Thats one pissed off goose...
Goose found to have played GTA IV!
That explains everything...


Get Jack Thompson!

Jack Thompson = Douche, I upvote for the truth right there.

Citing Jack Thompson's logic, my video gaming experience means am on par with Pol Pot on the genocide scale.

Uwe Boll and Jack Thompson could be considered as the most evil people in the world of video games...

Uwe Boll destroy video game reputation with bad movies while Jack thompson blames video games for any violence in the world...

>> ^Krupo:
This guy makes me so angry. How can you get admitted to the bar and yet still be so stupid???

Actually there have been several attempts to disbar him, or at least threats. He's got quite the history of teeing people off, often former supporters.

I've actually gone through a series of psychological journals looking at studies on this, along with some meta-studies, and the answer isn't very clear, as there are often contradictory studies. The general consensus seems to be, violent video games increase aggression in the short term. The long term affects aren't clear (longitudinal studies take a lot more time and effort than sticking a kid in a room and having him play counter strike for 2 hours). The key word here is aggression, and not violence. I'm fairly certain I remember reading a study saying the aggression levels were comparable to other competitive activities. Those that are already aggressive seemed to react more strongly to violent video games, meaning they were much more aggressive than other children.

My personal view on the matter is that these people play violent video games because it feeds their compulsion. That doesn't mean I think all people who play violent video games do it for that reason. I think it's just one symptom and there are generally a lot of other signs. Of course so far there has been no indication this person played video games, or that he "disturbed" before the event. The only clue to a reason why so far has been that he stopped taking his medication. And depending on exactly what it is and what its for, that can be enough. As far as the guy responsible for Virginia tech Cho, played counter strike in high school, I don't think there were any indications he played after that. He also wrote violent stories and quoted Shakespeare passages. So I'd say by the Thompson line of reasoning writing and Shakespeare cause people to be violent as well. I think people like Thompson are just looking for something easy to place the blame on. Something more identifiable as a target rather than something more abstract such as mental illness or societal forces.

1. Violent video games always cause violence. This is fact. Everyone who has ever played Doom has wanted to indiscriminatley kill housecats. I seen that on Dateline or something, so it is fact.

B. Jack Thompson plays Halo 3 online under the gamertag "p0l1tIc1An", he and I go way back, I seen him on tv the other day. Good guy.

D. Dick Cheney's gun jammed, and his hunting partner didn't seen him and jumped in front of the birdshot, it wasn't Dick's fault. He's a good guy.

Don't let Jack Thompson see this!