substitutions aren’t necessarily a good thing.

I was reading old blog posts from Greg Mankiw when I stumbled on this one:

Todd D. Kendall, an economist at Clemson University, reports that more pornography leads to less rape:

The arrival of the internet caused a large decline in both the pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of accessing pornography. Using state-level panel data from 1998-2003, I find that the arrival of the internet was associated with a reduction in rape incidence.

…

I’ve previously seen that report, back in my first fumbling forrays into feminism. Of course, Mankiw is far from a shining example of a feminist, even if he did go watch the Sex and the City movie with his wife.

Too bad rape and pornography aren’t about lust for sex but about lust for power. And in the case of those two behaviors, one is more culturally accepted than the other. So people with a little morality recognize that one is a little better than the other, as rape manifests itself in violence and psychological damage, while pornography can narrow this damage down to a select group of people (the actors/actresses).

In any case, while eliminating rape is a priority for feminism, I doubt any feminist would consider that goal as the end-all, that’s-it-we’re-done. I’d rather establish equality between genders. Too bad it’s impossible when porn consumers are still operating under Let’s-Uphold-the-Patriarchy through porn usage instead of rape.

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Note: I understand that plenty of people have written about this before but I am too lazy to look up links.