In the above video, youtube user anewchristian72 essentially tells us that porn affects young men's sexuality by filling them up (npi) with unrealistic expectations about female sexuality. I won't go into the fact that he equates porn with heterosexual porn, and bad het porn at that (and how about written erotica? How about comics?). Let's let him pass on that.
While it's not surprising that a christian rants against porn, I would like to point out a few aspects that I found particularly interesting with this little video:
One is that he only talks about the unrealistic portrayal of women in porn. I won't deny that this is true for the vast majority of heterosexual pornography (one absolutely amazing exception being comstock films - if you have additional examples of porn that is actually good, please let me know). I would like to add, though, that the portrayal of men in het porn is at least as unrealistic. If we are to assume that this wrongful imagery influences young men in bad ways by way of false expectations, then shouldn't we assume that the portrayal of their own gender, with extremely huge cocks that are always ready, always erect, and their owners always horny and willing no matter what, is even more devastating to those young souls?
I was about to write, in accordance with anewchristian72's opinion and feminist mainstream, that the portrayal of women in het porn is a lot more denigrating than that of the male protagonists - but is this indeed true? Men are reduced to sex machines who have nothing on their minds except fucking women - how is this not supposed to be denigrating to my gender? Maybe there is some difference in quantity here, but certainly not in principle.
A second observation: He does not present any facts, he doesn't quote any studies, he doesn't even reference personal experience. I'm always amazed when that happens. How does he know what he claims to know? How can we test his claims to be true? As mentioned before, I like it when people qualify their claims with regard to their supposed ontological status.
Thirdly, I find it interesting how people just assume that young minds are impressionable, and therefore, whatever they see in whatever erotic product of their choice will be directly reflected in their sexual behaviour. I wonder if that is indeed the case. People don't go all panicky just because of some sci-fi flick. People don't run into the streets with guns after watching Die Hard. On the other hand, people are affected by advertisement, of course. I would like to know things like that in a little more detail, before starting off with sweeping judgments about the whole erotica industry based on a lot of ideology and little factual knowledge.
So, yeah, that's it. No punchline here, as I have to go home now and spend some quality time in bed with my girlfriend, the porn star.
Video games cause school shootings. It is a fact because I said so.
ReplyDeletePorn causes rape, see above.
I wonder how it is those who oppose porn are able to convince themselves that those who view are unable to discern fantasy from reality? Especially when the product is often explicitly marketed as a fantasy? And, as you said, I don't watch a violent action film and then go buy a gun. I leave the theatre and go home and continue to be the bleeding heart liberal pacifist that I am.
I wonder how many who oppose porn have ever asked someone who views porn if they like the denigration of women in some porn, or if they aren't bored by it and would prefer something more respectful and humanizing?
I wonder if those who criticize porn ever stop to consider that such critiques often come from those of middle or upper middle class backgrounds, and that such critiques may have more to do with their own perceived roles as moral guardians (see Chris Hedges http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20091011_the_victims_of_pornography/ as an example of this). Funny how the temperance movement and the anti-porn crusaders tend to draw from the same class. That prissiness, as much as moral outrage, might be their motivation.
Like drugs, it's naive to think there are no real social consequences or individual trajedies (most recently the Miss Delaware "scandal") that can be laid at the feet of these two "vices". Or even that both activities can be a nesting ground for criminal behaviour (again, Miss Delaware).
How does a society promote the production of healthier forms of erotic expression? How do we curb our tendecies for class prejudice? How do we protect participants in the industry from violence or harm, without turning concern into a moral crusade?
And so much more could be said...
At any rate, I hope your porn star girlfriend is helping you to work through your "faith worse than rape" issues.
I wonder how it is those who oppose porn are able to convince themselves that those who view are unable to discern fantasy from reality?
ReplyDeletePerhaps because, many many times, those very same people adhere to ideologies that can hardly be described any other way than "being unable to discern fantasy from reality". It's simple projection, really.
At any rate, I hope your porn star girlfriend is helping you to work through your "faith worse than rape" issues.
You have no idea...