Priceguy (-8.50/-5.33) doesn’t remember what he ticked and has no clue what he’d tick now, but he cannot bring himself to tick anything without a dis in it.
My opposition to pornography has nothing to do with moralism, purism, conservatism or anything of the sort. I have absolutely no hangups or reservations about sex. I’ve been to a swinger’s club, I’ve done S&M and bondage, I’ve done everything I’ve been physically, mentally and practically able to and I loved almost all of it.
I also love watching pornography. Like most people, certainly most men, I get aroused by it. Mainstream pornography doesn’t inspire in me feelings of revulsion, or horror, or guilt.
Finally, and most importantly, in a perfect world, I’d have absolutely no trouble with pornography. In a world where all participants were fully consensual and all viewers understood at a fundamental level that what they’re seeing is fiction, pornography would be great.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe we live in that world now. First of all, I do not believe that all participants in the porn industry as it exists today are fully consensual. I trust nobody denies that a disproportionate amount of porn stars has a history of abuse. Correlation does not prove causation, of course, but there has to be some reason why the abused are more likely to go into porn.
The ardent feminist view is that an abused woman loses her self-esteem and believes she is good for nothing except being abused, so she gets herself a job where she keeps being abused. Whether I buy that explanation I don’t know, but at least I agree that many porn stars are there because they’ve been abused and I have to wonder if allowing such a person to work in porn helps her or hurts her. If it hurts her, she is indulging in self-damaging behaviour, much like a mentally disturbed person who cuts herself. We “rescue” the latter, but not the former. I cannot see the difference between them. In both cases, mental problems lead them to commit harmful acts.
The other factor is the viewers. I would certainly not support the video Shodan describes. I would not support it even if all the “it’s real” myth were stripped away, and the woman appeared to be 35 instead of 14. I would not do that because I believe we are affected by watching such material. I have certainly noticed it in myself, and not just in such blatant cases as the one Shodan describes. I change. My tastes change, my attitudes change, and I have to make a conscious effort not to. My experiences with other people lead me to be fairly certain that many people don’t bother to make that conscious effort.
Several comments by accused rapists and the like lead me to believe that many men have taken a large part of their worldview from porn, which in turn influences their actions. Whatever we may think of porn, I think we can all agree that it does not, generally, depict reality.
There is also the issue of where porn is being sold and seen. No Jew, for example, would (or should have to) accept having to see a magazine at their local store with a picture of a Jew and the words “World’s biggest, most hooked nose!”, but women have to accept seeing magazines with women on them and the words “World’s biggest, roundest tits!”.
Now, on to the legal question. Should porn be banned outright? I believe not. I don’t believe it would work, and I believe it would create a worse situation than what we have today. To be honest, I have no clue what to do about the problems I’ve described. That’s why I didn’t identify what I tick above. If I take the test again, I guess I’ll have to pick the “fork n the eye” option (they still have that one, right?) rather than pick Agree or Disagree.
…donning asbestos suit…