Pornography

I feel that it is finally the right time for me to write about this subject. It's a subject that plagues me, to be honest. It makes me feel dirty and unworthy of pretty much everything. This is saying something since, when I really look at myself, I would not bring the same relationship problems we are told most guys bring. This is due mostly to temperament and not really due to my trying terribly hard. I'm easy to get along with because that's kind of how I'm built. I naturally tend towards the peaceful route and this has its own problems. However, that's not what this post is about.
This post is about Porn and why I find it unacceptable and can never call it good. Yes, I realize that masturbation is supposedly very healthy for you--and that may be so--but I don't think that this makes Porn a good and service by extension. Masturbation itself is still to be considered a dubious or questionable practice at best. Why? Simply because it teaches us the wrong messages about sex, things such as: the pleasure is simply for us, you don't need the opposite sex, etc. It can have some practical purposes (particularly for women who tend to have a harder time reaching orgasm than men for physiological reasons) but the messages you subconsciously receive I do not think are terribly worth it unless it is done in moderation. The simple fact is that people need each other and I, for one, would rather remember that than selfishly forget that.
Anyway, I digress. Porn. Why is it bad? There are many philosophical reasons, and I'd like to highlight the first of those right here: It's created for the soul purpose of masturbation. This is meaning that it isn't created for art, because the business is masturbation. I'd also like to take this chance to extend the definition of masturbation because, in actually, I find it is not enough to just regulate it to one touching one's self until orgasm. It may seem harsh, but using a prostitute or seducing someone just for the purpose of getting yourself off would seem to be achieving the same goal of masturbation i.e. the pleasuring of one's self. The other person there is just changing the "style," if you will. They are not there as a person, however willing a participant they are. Willingness does not negate the fact that one person is there as a simple object. In the case of mutual one-night-stands for the soul purpose of hooking up, both people are making themselves into an object for the other person whilst they objectify their sexual partner. Here I am being a good Kantian, in that I am adamantly claiming that an action cannot be good if it is using another person. Strict yes, but definitely truthful. The gray area only comes into plays when people actually have feelings for each other. However, I am mainly speaking about the situations where no real feelings are involved, and since when do feelings good or bad change the consequences of an action. That's for another time though.
Anyway, this is using another person for your own sexual gain and takes no account of their personhood. Their compliance is irrelevant because there are many cases where a person will choose to do a sinful or bad thing for various reasons. Them choosing it does not mean that you are no longer sinning because they accept it. From a Christian standpoint, and actually a lot of religions, sex is something for marriage (whether polygamous or monogamous). There are various reasons for this that have been documented over time, particularly that the natural result of sex(all things going well, or not well depending on your viewpoint) is children. This is the natural order of things and, in this sense, nature is not fallen. Though, the fallen aspect of nature may rear its ugly head in terms of the various complications that can happen in the attempt for children.
I bring all this up, because porn--in its essence--is cleaner, safer, higher paying prostitution that has somehow become almost admired and garners actual fans. This makes it seem like people are enjoying the person of these Porn Stars, but the reality is they are objects of lust who get paid handsomely for it. Objectification is the real issue here. Whatever their reasons for doing porn, these people have chosen to become objects, specifically sexual objects (duh).
Some may defend porn by saying that some of the movies are beautifully made, funny, and or have good stories. This is true, in some cases, but the overwhelming amount of porn is not well made in a film making type sense. It isn't art. Playboy centerfolds are not compiled for the sake of true admiration i.e. gazing upon a beauty shape that was made beautifully. It is made for you, the viewer, to fantasize and pleasure yourself into orgasm. That's it. Filling a magazine with interesting articles and dirty jokes and comics does not change the fact that you are selling women's bodies for the sake of lust. Nudity done as art was done well in past ages where the erotic was more understated and the focus was actually on the beauty. There was no need for exposing the most private areas of a human body and the sentiments of love and a lover's embrace could be expressed fine without seeing its consumation. People know how it works. People have been having sex for centuries (there has also been porn for centuries, it just wasn't as widespread and considered the domain of deviants). Porn is not bringing anything that new to the table except for possibly inventing new fetishes or giving pre-existent fetishes a platform for...sharing. Fetishes in themselves can be fairly harmless, but some can be cause for concern. Such as the dominating aspect. That can be okay for a play with force within the sexual relationship, part of the game. But, if it becomes an obsession it can be quite horrific and I find it strange that there are people who have to be choked to have an orgasm. How could someone have equated those two things together? Anyway, fetishes happen and indulgence in them should be given over to wisdom. We shouldn't keep anything that necessarily points away from what sex really is or anything that objectifies the person.
Additionally, porn companies have begun to made casts of famous starlet's vaginas. It is simply the vag and the buttocks on this things the slight shape of a pillow. Sometimes it has hair, sometimes it doesn't. The point is that it is for putting one's member in and imagining it is the real woman. This obviously further bolsters my objectification claim and begs the question where are we going to draw the line for sexual perversion? It seems like we've been pushing the line back for years, and almost anything goes. The line is actually becoming arbitrary, which it wasn't initially. People took their cue from nature and the family. It made sense. Now, we have little choice than to go here is where we'll draw the line...and then push it back later.
As far as porn teaching people about sex goes, it is self explanatory. People figured it out and probably had great sex lives before their even drew things like the Kama Sutra. People probably occasionally talked about it, which isn't bad in itself. Fathers probably told their sons tricks to try or Mothers did the same for their daughters, which was embarrassing for all. I myself gave myself to a wonderful woman nearly 4 years ago and could not see what all the fuss was about. Getting the deed done isn't that tricky...how can you be bad at it. Granted, with kids you'll have less time to figure out the moves, but still. Come on, people!
Okay, this has gone on long enough and is no longer reading like I was planning to write it so...in closing...Porn is bad. For these reasons: it's a business of lust and masturbation (of the explicitly bad kind), it objectifies people and turns them into just their sexual components, it encourages improper thinking about sex, and is not artistic...like at all. Sex can be done artfully and not explicitly. People know what goes on...when you're showing it full on you're obviously just doing it to arouse them and get their money. It's safer prostitution, which was another reason. Finally, I'd like to make a point about clothes. Yes, clothes. Humans are the only animals who wear them. This is not just because we're pansies who get cold, though we do. This is because clothes are part of our essence as a person. Why else would we spend so much time trying to look the way we want to look. Granted, some men (and women, grody) don't take this as seriously, but humans have always liked looking presentable. Particularly when living in civilization. As C.S. Lewis once said, humans are the only creatures least at home when we're naked. DO NOT BRING UP NUDISTS!