It’s important to realise that Porn as an institution thrives on this repeated feeling of loss, on the double separation between viewer and representation and between the fantasy sought and the fantasy offered.
The question now is, what is pornography? To objectify a graphic image means to transform it from a subject into an object so that the person or group depicted in the image can be commodified, circulated, and consumed without regard to its status as a subject. Pornography is the process of turning a graphic image or person into an object. Pornography can range from soft-core photographs of attractive models to graphic depictions of kinky sex practises, and from profound explorations of desire to overly stereotypical sexual explicitness.
Pornography is a large industry that’s worth billions of dollars. According to estimates provided by the industry, the earnings of the pornographic industry globally are estimated to be one hundred billion dollars.
The widespread production and distribution of pornographic materials shows that people’s morals and traditional values are changing in a bad way. Insofar as it encourages “immature, masturbatory” sexuality, pornography makes it hard for married people to get close to each other, destroys the idea that sex is mainly for reproduction, and corrupts people by showing them indecent, offensive sexual behaviour. When pornography is allowed in a society, it hurts people’s morals and makes people look bad.
How does porn affect men?
Exposure to pornographic content makes men less sexually interested in women, less sensitive to violence against women, more willing to believe rape myths, and more likely to act aggressively towards women. These may include engaging in pornographic behaviour, having negative attitudes towards women, engaging in sexually violent activities, having mental health difficulties, or anything else that porn can effect.
The first study to look at porn over a long period of time found that men who start watching porn after they get married are twice as likely to get a divorce. Other studies have shown that watching porn makes the brain smaller and slows down neural activity. There is now solid evidence that porn is addicting and that it causes violence. Porn is especially bad for men who are having trouble being men. When a guy is with a real woman, he is more likely to watch porn when he doesn’t feel like a real man. Porn consumption really has the opposite effect on guys, making them less manly.
When a man is caught watching pornography, it should serve as a red flag about the status of his mental health right now. For instance, if a man begins to engage in excessive pornographic viewing, this may be an indication that he is experiencing emotional distress and may benefit from speaking with a psychologist or another trained specialist.
How does porn affect women?
It is not just men who are damaged by viewing porn. For women, in every instance, the mere perception that a woman had viewed pornographic material was enough to cause emotional and psychological harm to her. Because men are typically more visually sexual, a woman who has had less experience with porn will be significantly more influenced by it than she would be otherwise.
As a consequence, there is discrimination on the basis of gender, as well as a gendered hierarchy in which “man” is synonymous with “dominant,” and “female” is synonymous with “submissive.” The usage of hierarchies in pornography contributes to the dissemination of falsehoods about women and their status in society.
Women who work in male-dominated occupations have also been harassed in the workplace by male coworkers through the presentation of pornography in the office. This type of harassment occurs when women are objectified as sexual objects.
Those at risk
People with low self-esteem, a skewed view of their bodies, untreated sexual dysfunction, or a history of sexual addiction are more likely to become addicted to sexting or pornography. In fact, addicts do a lot to hide what they do online, and they often feel guilty or ashamed because they hurt their real-life partners without them knowing.
The reported adverse effects on children include exposure to online pornography, objectification of women and men, or masturbation, involvement in parental conflicts, lack of attention, and breakup of the marriage.
How to break free
It is not unusual for a person who is addicted to pornography to claim something along the lines of “I don’t even like looking at porn anymore and don’t know why I do it, but I can’t stop doing it.”
Start by making a clean break, removing (as much as possible) access to porn and setting up checks and balances to keep you removed. Imagine that, instead of being “enslaved” by porn, you might be neurologically “enslaved” to purity. You will likely feel worse before you start feeling better. The impulses will eventually become less intense if you keep at it. The secrets to success are tenacity and stubbornness.
Keep in mind that porn is not intended to fulfil every male urge or replace intimate relationships. Its purpose is to keep a person in servitude.
Further reading:
Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender, Volume 2 – Judith Worrell
Jezebel’s War With America: The Plot to Destroy Our Country and What We Can Do to Turn the Tide
Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality – Nancy R. Pearcey
Masculinities, Gender Relations, and Sport- Jim McKay, Michael A. Messner, et. al.
Perspectives in Male Psychology: An Introduction – Louise Liddon, John Barry
Pornography: Film and Culture – Peter Lehman
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