North America’s largest chain of convenience stores, the 7-Eleven stores, announced at the beginning of April that it will stop carrying Playboy, Penthouse and Forum magazines. Christine Hefner, president of Playboy Enterprises claimed that her magazine has stood for “positive, healthy sex for three decades.” But U.S. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals, boycotting the stores, pointed to the connection between pornography and violence. The chain has many stores in Canada.
Anti-pornography groups everywhere lauded the decision. Meanwhile, two U.S. experts, Professor Dolf Zillmann of Indiana University and Jennings Bryant of Houston, again confirmed the connection between pornography and violence. People who have been repeatedly exposed to non-violent pornography develop a preference for more exotic material that includes bondage, sadomasochism and bestiality, they stated. Another result of such reading material on women is that they desire not to have female children.
The Toronto Globe (April 7) reports that three scientific studies are to be released shortly, further corroborating the evidence.
