Porn is something that was originally created in magazine and VHS tapes... and now, its anywhere and eberywhere on the internet, available for anyone to use at any given time. Not only this, but webcam chat rooms, phone sex, virtual reality women and men and viritual sex is very quickly becoming more and more popular. So, is the question is, what is the wide availability and digital age porn sites doing to our society as a whole? should we ban porn? or should we accept and emrbace it for what it is?
as someone who discovered porn at age 7, i can fully attest to the fact that porn has shaped my life, whether i like it or not, and the main problem i think society sees with porn is just this— that kids are watching it from a very young age. But can you blame them? In our American society, sex is an extremely taboo subject, and so is porn for that matter, even when the majority of our population streams it on their personal devices. In our society, porn is used as a sex education course (especially for the LGBTQ community who have an extreme lack of sexual education in the education system) a way to learn and understand about one’s own body and sexuliaty, among many different ones
when examining and looking at the most basic form and structure of pornography videos, some of the most searched and poplular sites are those dedicated to ”gagging” and ”extreme anal penetration“ for those of you who dont know, gagging is a form of oral sex, when the male chokes the sexual partner with their penis, shoving it deep down their throats. These videos usually dress a girl with massive amounts of mascsra to visually see her tears coming down her face from being choked so deeply. Some comments from pornsite producers about extreme anal penetration have read things like ”by the time were done running a train on her her asshole will be ready to burst and never be used again.” Comments and videos like these are what is wrong and unethical about pornography in the digital age in my opinion. For kids like me who watched and discovered porn at such an early age, i believe these kinds of examples are harmful to their existence and adult lives as they discover & practice their sexuality. What kind of messages are these examples sending to everyone about masculinity and femininity?
On another note, I do not think that porn in general is a harmful or threatening thing to our society, as like ive said above, this is typically used as our sexual education in America. So what can we do and what is being done to positively change these messages? Well the answer is ethical or feminist pornography. This idea, is that performers are treated with more respect by being asked about their personal sexual preferences, who they would like to perform with, what toys they are or arent comfortable with using, etc. These producers are focusing more on filming more natural and real situations, and focusing on the experience of all sexual partners, not just for the viewing for straight males. There is much debate among feminists about whether porn is harmful or not to either society, or the performers themselves. Some say people who perform in adult videos have no other option for a career choice, are self absorbed and self sexualized and objectified, and are just trash for persuing the idea. Others say its a woman’s choice, and many man and women actively and independently choose to perform in the adult industry to safely explore their sexuality. The only problem currently with ethical porn, is that most likely, most viewers are not going to waste their time searching out whether the porn they are viewing is ethical or not.
So what can you do about your stance on this issue?
Open your mind, listen to the people in the industry, listen to others perspectives, find the ones who promote ethical pornography, find the ones who don’t, open the communication within your family about skewed societal messages and ideas, and stay true to what you believe in!