Porn

What is porn?

From my perspective, pornography is whatever you want it to be. Of course it is material that is sexually explicit or arouses sexual emotions, but what exactly that picture (or video, etc.) is, is ultimately up for us to decide. Before informing us that there is no specific and legally agreed upon definition for pornography, our textbook defines it as “material produced with an intent to elicit erotic responses from a consumer, to sexually arouse a consumer, to degrade or demean women characters in a sexual manner, or to portray unequal power in a sexual activity.” Wow. That last part sounds kind of scary, huh? I also don’t completely agree with it.  

Our book also discusses erotica, and how this is basically the same thing as porn without the unequal power-play and subordination, and more with sex being an equal and sensual act. Personally, I think anything that involves sex is considered pornography, whether it be sweet and loving, or rough and hard (pun intended). Erotica can be seen a subset of pornography.

After our class discussion about Belle Knox and that insightful film that we watched, it would be naïve of us to believe that women are completely degraded when they are involved in the porn industry. For many, they gain a sense of empowerment that they feel they couldn't find anywhere else or doing anything else. Some simply feel the best that they have felt and even harness a sense of pride in the line of work that they do, much as others would with any other type of professional career.

As much as some of these women are trying to convince us that porn isn't that horrible of a career path, I don’t think it is considered as much as a “good” thing as they try to make it out to be either. More specifically, I don’t see much good coming out of watching porn on a regular basis. This nationwide issue is brought to our attention in the media in the 2013 film Don Jon.

The main character, Jon, objectifies all of the meaningful aspects of his life, such as his car and his house, and has unrealistic expectations for the women in his life, the latter being influenced strictly by his addiction to pornography. Once Jon meets a woman whom he falls head over heels for, he needs to learn how to function without porn in his life in order to seek out true happiness instead of empty self satisfaction. Although this is ‘just another movie,’ I think it is focusing on a very real and quite common problem that many are facing today. The somewhat lighthearted thought, in this film, that porn addiction is an everyday issue for some people goes to show that it is something that affects individuals deeply and on such a level that it is difficult for them to even function in society with their distorted ideals.

In pornographic videos and imagery, women are usually being objectified, typical gender stereotypes are being reinforced, society’s view of the perfect body (female and male) are being portrayed, and the focus is all about oneself rather than a mutual relationship when watching porn. These all pose a huge problem for young adults when they come across this type of material.

So how can we stop the negative impacts of porn? One of my biggest worries with porn is what it is teaching children and how it is influencing their sexual decisions. If a pre-teen has never been exposed to sexually explicit imagery (besides what the media and advertisements shove down their throats-but that’s a different topic for a different day) and they see a pornographic video, what are they going to think? Those images are probably going to stay with them for the rest of their life, and they are most likely going to think that that is how sex is supposed to be. Hopefully said video won’t be anything too crazy (like the movie we watched in class), but even if it isn’t and falls more into the category of “soft porn,” there are still messages being sent to the viewer and gender roles that the viewer may feel they need to uphold.

Google is taking a big step in stopping porn from getting into the wrong hands by filtering websites in their search engine results that have pornographic advertisements. This feature will make it more difficult to just ‘stumble upon’ porn through a web search and requires the user to be actively searching for porn specifically.

I honestly think that the easiest way to reach out to the younger generation and help teens understand that porn is not the real world, just like television is not the real world, is just by teaching them this. Incorporating the topic of porn into the sexual education curriculum in high schools will give adults an opportunity to talk about porn and even just briefly explain that these are actors just like in normal movies. There is consent from both parties in a legitimate pornography businesses and a general agreement on their part in the role they will be playing. I think that people in general get too caught up in the idea that they are there with the actors while watching porn, which is understandable since it is made to elicit such a strong response. But everyone needs to keep in mind that it is just a movie no matter what kind of reactions we may get from watching it. Watching porn occasionally (or not at all) and recognizing that it must be segregated from real life will ensure a normal functioning life, compared to a life of suffering the negative consequences that porn can cause, including addiction.

Word count: 957