Another Shy One
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2002
- Posts
- 130
Okay, I have been dwelling on this subject for a long time and I wanted to know what other people had to say about it. I am aware that this is not the best place to ask such a question, as obviously the majority of people here like (or at least don't mind) porn. But, I will ask you anyways.
Is porn bad?
The first answer in my mind is "no, of course not. We are free to do whatever we want. Plus, the women or people in porn want to do it".
Ooooooooooookay, all right ...but there are some down points to what I have said.
1) Porn degrades women. In this case, I don't mean "degrading" as in putting down (which still happens, as you will see in my following points) but rather it gives women a different ... look. It makes them look different, it makes the general public (mostly men, but also women, which is sad, according to me) think of women as behaving and thinking in a different way (you know what I mean). Now, an advocate of porn would say that "Wait a second! But, a healthy human being knows the difference between the way women are in reality and the 'porn women' ". Personally, I think that's not correct. Even the healthiest person would start having a different perspective on women after watching porn. What I am saying has also been proved by experiments where men were exposed to porn. These men had previously filled a questionnaire on women and, after being exposed to porn, they were asked again to fill a questionnaire. Ujsuprizingly, they had a different view on women after having watched porn.. I can also give my personal experience as an example. I am a person who respects women a lot, however, porn did distort my view on women.
2) Due to porn there's more sexual violence. Now, I don't have any research on this exact issue in front of me, however I do remember about a study where groups of men were asked to fill questionaires on sexual harassment and abuse. After filling one questionnaire, they were given several novels to read and watched some movies. Both the movies and the novels were about women being raped (however, as most of you might know, these novels and movies portray the victims as coming to like it or as not minding being abused). The result? In the second questionnaire filled after being exposed to that material, the men saw the victims as not minding being sexually abused or even liking it. They saw the act as being less harmful than before being exposed to the movies and novels mentioned above.
Now, as you might have noticed already, there's a short way between seeing rape in that way and actually committing it if a man is the type of person who would do such a thing. I am not saying that porn is solely provoking sexual abuse, no. But, in my view, it certainly doesn't help it.
3) What's most sad now is that porn is like a "Hedonic Treadmill" (A treadmill where you can only increase the speed, making the person on the treadmill run faster and faster...). What is it? It's simple. We humans are very adaptable both in a physical and a psychological way. Therefore, we get used very quickly to the mental situation that we are in. Once we get used to these situations, they become "the norm". The problem is that, after some time, the norm is not enough and we want more. In such conditions, if you have followed the evolution of porn on the WWW, you might have noticed that it started witht the most popular trend being the normal "one on one". However, after the viewers got used to that, they wanted more. When there's a demand, there's always someone who can supply. So, the next step was the multiplication and the demand for "group sex". However, people got used to this too and they wanted more. You must have understood by now how come, depending on the year, you saw a certain trend in the world of porn. So far, nothing bad, right? Wrong! The latest level of this Hedonic Treadmill seems to be either women being abused (mostly young women) or women being tricked into having sex.
It doesn't mean that before there weren't any "material" on abused women or women tricked into having sex, but it wasn't as popular as the actual trend. So, the more popular and numerous such material is, the more potential to be dangerous porn can be, as I have shown you in point 2.
What's most scary is where will this escalation end up?
4) Is it really fair/correct/right for a woman, or a man for that matter, to get naked and use their bodies in a sexual manner to make money? I hope this doesn't sound too cheesy, but I have been dwelling on this issue for a long time and I haven't been able to find an answer. Yes, we live in a free country and yes those people do it by their own will, not to mentiona that some seem to enjoy it. But still, is it fair?
5) Porn can be extremely addicting, especially for lonely and frustrated people (mostly men). In their case, what porn does is reinforcing their loneliness and frustrationg, giving them a thing that they can hold on (an addiction). Counter argument: "Yes, but if they didn't have porn, they would have other addictions such as smoking, weed, booze,etc.". Counter-Counter argument (
) : all right, but in their case porn is just one more option from the addictive material they can choose from. Wouldn't limiting the choice of addictive agents do better? It would give researchers and people in general more time and energy to focuss on the few addicting agents to find a solution.
5) Not only does porn influence men, but it does so also on women. As you might have noticed, more and more women (especially young ones, as they are more receptive to the new trends) are "inspired" by the trend of porn. Therefore, they start dressing up in a more provocative way, they start using a "certain language" and they start behaving also in a more provocative way. I mean, how many of you can recollect reading such nicknames of "Janet_69", "XXX_Michelle_XXX", etc. (to give you an example related to the internet, a tool that we all use). I have known several girls like that. They are young and they want to look cool. They look (actually, they want to look) like they follow the trend, however, inside, they are simple (or "average") girls who are very easily scared and who are also fragile.
And I fear that this is only the beginning!
.... I think that there are more downsides to porn, but I believe that I expressed the most important ones. I had in mind to explain also the positives sides of porn, but I realized that they are few and they don't need to be explained as the ones above.
Positive sides:
1) Porn teaches people how to be better lovers
2) Porn generates a huge amount of money, thus helping the economy
3) Porn "might" empower women and make them more free (N.B. Keyword: MIGHT!)
I think that those are the only positive points on porn I have in mind.
Now, seriously, if you had to weight the positive and negative points that I have mention, you would obviously see that the negative ones outweight by far the positive ones..
So, I ask you: is porn bad?
I hope that you will consider my post seriously because I am seriously dwelling on this issue. I think that there's a chance that such a question has been asked before in this forum. However, I am unaware of it. Also, I have taken a lot of time to write this post so I would appreciate if you spend also more time at answering, elaborating your answers.
Thank you for your attention
Another Shy one
Is porn bad?
The first answer in my mind is "no, of course not. We are free to do whatever we want. Plus, the women or people in porn want to do it".
Ooooooooooookay, all right ...but there are some down points to what I have said.
1) Porn degrades women. In this case, I don't mean "degrading" as in putting down (which still happens, as you will see in my following points) but rather it gives women a different ... look. It makes them look different, it makes the general public (mostly men, but also women, which is sad, according to me) think of women as behaving and thinking in a different way (you know what I mean). Now, an advocate of porn would say that "Wait a second! But, a healthy human being knows the difference between the way women are in reality and the 'porn women' ". Personally, I think that's not correct. Even the healthiest person would start having a different perspective on women after watching porn. What I am saying has also been proved by experiments where men were exposed to porn. These men had previously filled a questionnaire on women and, after being exposed to porn, they were asked again to fill a questionnaire. Ujsuprizingly, they had a different view on women after having watched porn.. I can also give my personal experience as an example. I am a person who respects women a lot, however, porn did distort my view on women.
2) Due to porn there's more sexual violence. Now, I don't have any research on this exact issue in front of me, however I do remember about a study where groups of men were asked to fill questionaires on sexual harassment and abuse. After filling one questionnaire, they were given several novels to read and watched some movies. Both the movies and the novels were about women being raped (however, as most of you might know, these novels and movies portray the victims as coming to like it or as not minding being abused). The result? In the second questionnaire filled after being exposed to that material, the men saw the victims as not minding being sexually abused or even liking it. They saw the act as being less harmful than before being exposed to the movies and novels mentioned above.
Now, as you might have noticed already, there's a short way between seeing rape in that way and actually committing it if a man is the type of person who would do such a thing. I am not saying that porn is solely provoking sexual abuse, no. But, in my view, it certainly doesn't help it.
3) What's most sad now is that porn is like a "Hedonic Treadmill" (A treadmill where you can only increase the speed, making the person on the treadmill run faster and faster...). What is it? It's simple. We humans are very adaptable both in a physical and a psychological way. Therefore, we get used very quickly to the mental situation that we are in. Once we get used to these situations, they become "the norm". The problem is that, after some time, the norm is not enough and we want more. In such conditions, if you have followed the evolution of porn on the WWW, you might have noticed that it started witht the most popular trend being the normal "one on one". However, after the viewers got used to that, they wanted more. When there's a demand, there's always someone who can supply. So, the next step was the multiplication and the demand for "group sex". However, people got used to this too and they wanted more. You must have understood by now how come, depending on the year, you saw a certain trend in the world of porn. So far, nothing bad, right? Wrong! The latest level of this Hedonic Treadmill seems to be either women being abused (mostly young women) or women being tricked into having sex.
It doesn't mean that before there weren't any "material" on abused women or women tricked into having sex, but it wasn't as popular as the actual trend. So, the more popular and numerous such material is, the more potential to be dangerous porn can be, as I have shown you in point 2.
What's most scary is where will this escalation end up?
4) Is it really fair/correct/right for a woman, or a man for that matter, to get naked and use their bodies in a sexual manner to make money? I hope this doesn't sound too cheesy, but I have been dwelling on this issue for a long time and I haven't been able to find an answer. Yes, we live in a free country and yes those people do it by their own will, not to mentiona that some seem to enjoy it. But still, is it fair?
5) Porn can be extremely addicting, especially for lonely and frustrated people (mostly men). In their case, what porn does is reinforcing their loneliness and frustrationg, giving them a thing that they can hold on (an addiction). Counter argument: "Yes, but if they didn't have porn, they would have other addictions such as smoking, weed, booze,etc.". Counter-Counter argument (
) : all right, but in their case porn is just one more option from the addictive material they can choose from. Wouldn't limiting the choice of addictive agents do better? It would give researchers and people in general more time and energy to focuss on the few addicting agents to find a solution. 5) Not only does porn influence men, but it does so also on women. As you might have noticed, more and more women (especially young ones, as they are more receptive to the new trends) are "inspired" by the trend of porn. Therefore, they start dressing up in a more provocative way, they start using a "certain language" and they start behaving also in a more provocative way. I mean, how many of you can recollect reading such nicknames of "Janet_69", "XXX_Michelle_XXX", etc. (to give you an example related to the internet, a tool that we all use). I have known several girls like that. They are young and they want to look cool. They look (actually, they want to look) like they follow the trend, however, inside, they are simple (or "average") girls who are very easily scared and who are also fragile.
And I fear that this is only the beginning!
.... I think that there are more downsides to porn, but I believe that I expressed the most important ones. I had in mind to explain also the positives sides of porn, but I realized that they are few and they don't need to be explained as the ones above.
Positive sides:
1) Porn teaches people how to be better lovers
2) Porn generates a huge amount of money, thus helping the economy
3) Porn "might" empower women and make them more free (N.B. Keyword: MIGHT!)
I think that those are the only positive points on porn I have in mind.
Now, seriously, if you had to weight the positive and negative points that I have mention, you would obviously see that the negative ones outweight by far the positive ones..
So, I ask you: is porn bad?
I hope that you will consider my post seriously because I am seriously dwelling on this issue. I think that there's a chance that such a question has been asked before in this forum. However, I am unaware of it. Also, I have taken a lot of time to write this post so I would appreciate if you spend also more time at answering, elaborating your answers.
Thank you for your attention
Another Shy one
