Opinion: Porn Always the Boogeyman

sshadow64 1 month ago

There's always been this deep rooted concern that excessive consumption of porn leads to negative consequences. Been a big rise in the nofap communities hitting mainstream as I have noticing them in influencer content

Senior Ranger 1 month ago

Protection Racket?

Sorry to begin on a pedantic note, but I reject the use of the term “pornography” as descriptive of adult entertainment. I know “porn” is an easy shorthand, but to me it’s offensive when applied to sex work when done for entertainment purposes. To be clear, Merriam-Webster defines the etymology of the term “pornography” as: “Greek pornographos, adjective, writing about [sex selling], from pornē ["p" word] + graphein to write.” Adult video entertainment is neither about writing nor about selling sex. Merriam-Webster, again, defines the “p” word as: “a person who engages in sex acts and especially sexual intercourse in exchange for pay.” Adult entertainment is not sex for sale, it is acting — the portrayal of a fictional role. You would not call Marlon Brando a murdering gangster because he acted as one in a movie. And with that out of the way, now on to the current state of the assault on adult entertainment.

I’m in the U.S. and know little about what other countries are doing or not doing about adult entertainment. I do know I can’t access JAV directly since I am not in Japan, and I don’t like that. The U.S. is currently in an authoritarian chaos so anything might happen. From my perspective, I believe there is a genuine possibility of governmental collapse in the next few years. At that point everything worldwide is up in the air. Anyway, given the arguments advanced in the blog….

The education argument is, of course, vacuous. No one would argue the purpose (or even collateral consequence) of adult entertainment is education. That said, it has always had educational value. My first such education, as a less than adult, was National Geographic magazine. We would pass around the ones showing African tribes where women were topless — and for the first time we got to see real tits! Moving on, we could always find copies of Playboy magazine our fathers would stash in hiding places. As less than adults, word of mouth and personal experiences filled in the blanks. You haven’t lived unless you went to school on Monday morning and had one of the guys sticking his middle finger under your nose — because he hadn’t washed it since Saturday night when he got it up Sue Ellen’s pussy! Students at testosterone high school!!

While “sex addiction” may not come under the medical “disorder” category, it is a recognized thing. There are support groups, and it is recognized in courts as a possible mitigating or aggravating circumstance. However, connecting it directly to adult entertainment cannot hold up in any reasonable argument.

The “moral decay” argument is the religion card. Fortunately, organized religion is declining in adherence. Yet there are still some willing to use it as an embarrassment more than anything. From a pure sociological perspective, adult entertainment is far down the list of things that weaken the foundations of marriage, fam and society in general. Drugs, greed, immaturity, gambling, stupidity, poverty, lack of education, etc. are all more decaying to society.

Finally, rather than a blog about the assault on adult entertainment, I’d prefer a thoughtful look at the future. Again, I’m in the U.S. so I only know what I see here, but I’m hopeful and confident (given that the government does not collapse). Anecdotal, yes, but I see far more openness and acceptance of sex as entertainment. I also see many women who are amazingly smart and emotionally mature finding a way to make good livings in sex entertainment. Some I’ve known for 10-20 years and they’ve managed to get themselves financially set for life at this point. Whatever assaults society throws at them I’m confident they can weather. Also, the adult entertainment business is a substantial industry, and if we value anything in capitalism, it’s business success — they won’t want to do anything to cause real harm overall to a large segment. A few condescending pinpricks here and there won’t cause any real harm.

Peefle 1 month ago

1) Porn hasn't been studied to the extant of other things. Gaming addiction wasnt classified as an addictive disorder until 2013, being on the list of behavioral disorder since the 80's. If gaming cn diagnosed as a behavioral disorder, I don't see much of a reason porn can't. I think the increasing parasocial aspect changes things as well. Which brings me to...

2) I think a unique problem with today's porn especially JAV is no one is taking the context of current society. Fundamentally porn is like other mediums, but in the world of loneliness and parasocial relationships, JAV can get weird fast. I find kpop and jpop idol industry to be unhealthy for many reasons, and those reasons are now shared with AV idols. A lonely society can uses certain things like a sedative, in a way other things can't. And if porn has obvious drawbacks, what are the good things it brings that couldn't also be brought with sex education and ACTUALLY going out with romantic partners, or porn-less masturbation?

3) You said that these actresses arent the demons or idols we make them out to be, but who's the one making sure we percieve them as angels? Well, the JAV industry, the actresses, and even sites like.... Zenra? This is like when Idols bitch about fans that THEY themselves helped inappropriately nurture.

4) Age verification laws arent crazy. The average age of consumption is 9. It may prove useless but i dont see that as "war on pornography". We already give tons of personal information online,(credit cards, social security number, address) so i dont buy the paranoia on that.

-slightly modified by admin