The majority of people in our pornographic-obsessed world will recall their first encounter with
pornography.
For the Playboy generation, finding a hidden magazine stuffed under a mattress or concealed
in a dresser drawer would have been their first taste of it.
Too many of today's Pornhub users discovered it while playing an online video game, reading
through social media, or as a result of a Google Image search gone bad.
Maybe a friend pulled out their phone at a sleepover and showed you pictures you never
knew existed until you saw them for yourself.
Pornography is more accessible, cheaper, available, and anonymous than it has ever been, and this
is a major concern.
And, given the explosion of freely available internet porn in the 1990s, you don't have
to seek very hard to find porn; it's just a click away.
It can be accessed with no effort on any mobile device, and there are no restrictions on what
users can find.
And, though it may appear that the customer has complete control over the situation whenever
they browse porn, this is far from the case.
1.
The industry has the upper hand.
The adult entertainment industry strives to give customers a sense of control.
Consumers would love to keep hitting play and watching their material day in and day
out on free tube sites and premium subscription sites.
These websites are unconcerned about their customers' mental health, relationship state,
or professional ambitions.
It's all about money, and it's always been about money—how they can keep viewers hooked
for longer periods of time and keep them on websites for as long as possible.
Consider it this way: Who is in charge when customers become addicted to hardcore pornographic
content and are unable or unable to give it up, even when they claim it is not harmful?
The answer isn't the consumer.
Regardless of how many times the pornography industry claims that their goal is “sexual
freedom,” science and study continue to show the opposite reality.
The pornographic industry continues to be scientifically demonstrated to have a significant
impact on people's sexuality in a variety of ways.
This is especially true for kids and teenagers.
The pornographic industry makes no attempt to keep its products out of the hands of children
and teenagers.
Our generation and future generations are growing up with ideas and understandings of
sex that are heavily influenced by pornography.
What does that have to do with being healthy?
Furthermore, only the pornographic industry stands to win monetarily from interfering
with people's sex life.
The notion that the pornographic industry simply reflects rather than shapes sexual
culture is naive.
2.
Not everyone who works in the entertainment sector does so voluntarily and/or consentingly.
The pornographic industry also wants its customers to believe that they are gaining useful knowledge
such as sex suggestions and how to be a great lover.
Not to mention the desire for consumers to assume that everyone who appears in hardcore,
abusive videos is having a good time and enjoys their work.
Porn sites offer individuals as sexual commodities without actual wants, without actual goals,
families, or challenges they face in real life, video after video, with categories like
"gang bang" and "teen."
This is, once again, a complete fabrication.
Many men and women are coerced into the profession, either through coercion, extortion, or phoney
"modelling" contracts that force them to have sex on camera for money, which the ordinary
customer is unaware of.
Alternatively, established performers are frequently coerced or deceived into filming
sex acts they are uncomfortable with or simply do not want to undertake.
This is on top of the reality that many performers suffer from mental and physical health issues
as a result of having a job that requires them to engage in rough, unprotected intercourse
with several individuals on a weekly basis.
In order to numb the physical pain of recording scenes, many porn actors develop hard drug
or alcohol addiction problems, or even prescription drug addiction problems in order to continue
performing unrealistic sex acts.
Like this woman who arrived onto a pornographic set and was immediately provided medication
to aid in the production of what she had no idea would be a rape scene:
'"You're going to be a star,"' says the narrator.
That's what he said as he offered me a couple of Xanax and a muscle relaxant.
'Trust me, you're going to need those,' he replied.
Can any of you tell me if you've ever been told to take medicines because you arrived
at work on an empty stomach?
Something isn't quite right.”
The truth is that when people visit extreme porn sites, they may be contributing to the
suffering of others.
We're not implying that all porn isn't consented to.
We're just pointing out that part of it is and some of it isn't, and there's no way to
tell which is which when you're watching it.
So, if you learned that some, but not all, of a company's products were created utilising
child labour, would you buy from them?
Would you support a business that mistreated some of its employees but not all of them?
How can it be ethical to assert that “porn is ok because participants consent,” when
we know that some—probably far more than you think—do not?
3.
Pornography has a detrimental impact on customers.
The industry's negative repercussions, however, do not stop at endangering the lives and health
of its workers.
The $97 billion worldwide industry would love to snare young consumers as lifelong customers,
and they don't care whether porn makes a compulsive user's life more difficult, or if their product
makes depression and anxiety worse.
The industry doesn't want you to realise that watching a lot of porn for a long time can
make people less excited when they're in a real-life setting with a real partner, or
that porn sex techniques aren't very useful for having good, healthy sex.
The truth is that the way men and women have sex on camera is set up so that the viewer
at home can see what is going on, and that's it.
After all, just because something looks good on camera with precise lighting, editing,
and angles doesn't imply it will feel good in real life with a real person.
I Thought Watching Porn Would Make Me Great In Bed, But It Did The Complete Reverse
Romance, intimacy, and touch are all part of true love and healthy physical relationships.
True love isn't about mechanical, scripted sex moves.
Hand-holding, caresses, embraces, conversation, and an emotional connection are all signs
of true love.
Pornography ignores all of this, instead portraying sex as a forceful act of dominance, abuse,
violence, and humiliation.
Pornographic sex is rough and abrasive, and it would never feel pleasant in real life,
but pornographers want people to believe the fantasy and purchase the lies.
However, this is an issue because porn promotes the notion that relationships aren't worth
the effort.
As a result, some consumers would choose to have a relationship with their laptop rather
than an actual relationship with a person, because a true relationship requires work,
whereas porn would never reject you.
That, however, is neither cool nor healthy.
One of the most tragic things that the pornographic industry does to people is to make them forget
that they are hardwired for true relationships.
Porn may take away the romance and excitement of developing a committed relationship, turning
the consumer into a lonely creature who would rather be glued to a computer screen than
go out and have a meaningful experience with another person.
What does that have to do with being healthy?
There is reason to be optimistic.
But there is always optimism, no matter what the industry says.
You have the option of refusing to watch porn and instead fighting for true love.
You can choose to see people as humans rather than sexual objects, and you can put an end
to society's need for sexual exploitation.
You don't have to believe the industry's lies about how relationships aren't vital and how
everyone "loves their job."
Finally, watching isn't worth it, and it's always feasible to forego porn and choose
for reality.