I’ve been thinking a lot about porn lately. How’s that for a confession? But it’s true. Whether it’s a work related video, article, news story, or personal conversation, porn seems to be popping up all around me (similar to being on an unprotected website).
With so many different views and opinions, it is sometimes hard to choose a concrete stance where pornography is concerned. I used to feel pretty undecided at times about whether I thought it was harmful versus liberating, degrading versus empowering, or encouraging versus discouraging of “delinquent” sexuality. However, the more I am exposed to the truth about the industry and its effects on society, the more disheartened I become. The documentary that I recently watched, The Price of Pleasure, left me tearful and disturbed. The images it showed got so grotesque and traumatizing that I couldn’t even make it to the end of the video. Apparently violence and torture (although already more than prevalent) are the future of pornography and I will never be able to get those images out of my head.
No matter how a person feels about pornography, I do not understand why or how violent and degrading actions against women (or anyone) are enticing. It changes the way men view women, sex, intimacy and decency. A psychologist at the University of Alabama, Dolf Zillman, found that watching violent pornography produced some behavioral and attitudinal changes among young male viewers. They were more likely to subscribe to various rape myths (such as women say no when they mean yes, and that women eventually like it when they are forced to have sex) and they were more likely to acquit rapists in mock trials. That is so discouraging! As the fight for women’s rights and equality grows stronger, it seems that porn is an ever strengthening, damning undercurrent in the battle. How do we respond? How can we fight back? These are the questions that follow me home when I leave work at the end of the day.
I like this quote by poet David Mura. He writes, “Underneath all the assertions of liberty and ‘healthy fun’, lie the desperation and anxiety, the shame and fear, the loneliness and sadness that fuel the endless consumption of magazines and strip shows, x-rated films, visits to prostitutes”. Are these the issues that lie behind the growing demand for pornography? There has to be a better way to cope with the difficulties in life than turning to violent, degrading, and dehumanizing depictions of women.
