Since its early days pornography has always been a controversial issue.
Since its early days pornography has always been a controversial issue. While the accessibility and presence of porn constantly increases, the subject, no longer being a taboo, raises debates over the influences in the mainstream culture.
Traditionally, the two sides of the argument involved liberals defending the freedom of expression as well as media consumption and prude conservatives, seemingly concerned with the corrosive effect of porn on family life, ethical and religious values. However, recently the criticism of pornography focuses on sexual representations and the effects on women’s social position, expressed by feminists.
“I can’t define pornography, but I know it when I see it.”
Of course, the whole purpose of pornographic material is to stimulate sexual arousal in the viewers. The entire industry is built on the purpose of fulfilling one of the basic physiological human needs—addressing the audience temporarily controlled by their hormones. Because of its nature, content of porn is repetitive and needs additional factors to succeed commercially. It is usually some form of emotional content for the entertainment. Majority of the users are not interested in seeing respect and mutuality being depicted, as they are watching porn to avoid these aspects of sexuality.
Predominantly “made by men and for men,” the most effective way to maximise the popularity is to include the emotions which male audience is more willing to accept—aggression and domination.
This is where the feminist counterargument begins. The idea of porn being not-so-innocent form of entertainment, or even a therapeutic fantasy is completely rejected. The main objection is based around the view that pornography plays a major role in the exploitation and oppression of women. With the division between “erotica” and “pornography,” feminists are not against all sexually explicit material, but only the subset in which women are subordinated through abuse, domination or humiliation.
From that perspective, the pornographic industry dehumanises women and presents them as sexual objects. Some argue that these representations may hold further implications for women’s interest – a false advertisement for sexuality and an incision to defamatory remarks about women, causing harm to their reputation, credibility or opportunities.
Nonetheless, young men (and some females too) appear completely unapologetic and comfortable with their use of porn. The casual approach somehow suggests that there is no underlying problem and everyone is entitled to watching whatever they like in their free time. Personally, watching a woman penetrated by three men at once is not what I would choose after a stressful day at work. Yet, having limited sexual choices at the time and looking from man’s perspective I can see how porn offers inexpensive and easy escape from their loneliness—even temporarily.
That being said, it is important to acknowledge that pornography reinforces the messages about gender roles, widely led by the mass media and represents a detached attitude toward sex. The result of unrealistic expectations will affect men and women equally. For females, it might be more obvious from the way sex appeal is defined by porn. To an extent, it may motivate young women to maintain their bodies appropriately; however the reasons behind plastic surgeries, breast implants and fake tanning are usually wrong. Rather than undergoing countless procedures to feel more confident and beautiful – women do it to fulfil the expectations of their partner. On the other hand, while the effects on men seem a lot more subtle and are less discussed they can be just as destructive. Many young men will end up feeling disappointed and insecure despite their ability to recognise the artificial elements of porn. It has been suggested that they may find their use of porn as “crippling, in the sense of being routinely frustrated that the sex they end up having doesn’t look anything like porn.”
In the recent scandal, at Teesside Crown Court, 15-year-old’s boy’s obsession with internet porn has been appointed as a cause of a heinous rape on a 14-year-old victim. Attack took place in April 2012, in Hartlepool, where a schoolgirl was bound, gagged, beaten and raped by a 15-years-old predator. Allegedly, the boy has been intending to mimic sadistic scenes from hardcore pornography, viewed on the internet. The revealed information from psychiatric reports indicated boy’s obsession with sadistic pornography, watched regularly in the months leading up to the attack. The teenage attacker has been sentenced to three years in juvenile detention, after court’s hearing of his heightened and unfulfilled interest in sex.
Despite the horrendous case, there is not enough reliable evidence to show that pornography can be blamed as a cause of sexual offence. The causes of sex crimes and violent behaviour, as suggested by Ronald Dworkin, an American philosopher: “lie mainly in childhood, before exposure to pornography can have had any effect, and the desire for pornography is a symptom rather than a cause of deviance.”
The individual effects can’t be determined beforehand but perhaps even too much of a good thing can have destroying impact on certain people. As to pornography, personally I am open to the idea of people engaging in a range of sexual acts but the concern about the industrialisation of sex and its consequences is still there.
On the brighter note, I am quite glad that boys in secondary school discovered it so early. I simply can’t imagine the horror of being stuck for six hours a day with a bunch of sex-starved, hormonal teenagers.
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