When I was a child, they were known as 'Blue' Films; later on they were called 'mojos', 'smut', 'porno'. My early sight of a porno film was at age 7 (I sincerely maintain by accident- the actual viewers had no idea I was in the room; early than that I found a discarded smut magazine (It's amazing what children find no thanks to careless adults). Pornography's in many forms- erotic pics, erotic literature, magazines like
Playboy,
Hustler,
Penthouse etc. and the movies themselves; Soft, Hardcore, Gay and the more very disgusting ones like Child Porn, S&M and 'Snuff'. In Nigeria, there was
Bubbles and
Lolly ; sex cartoons and some nude photos.These days, viewers don't even need to buy tapes or Dvds; when the Internet has more than enough porno websites anyone can easily logged into (the side effect being vicious malaware creeping into the computers' hard disks)
Mind... this post is
not to advocate for Porn but merely exploring how people see it.
In the view of Feminists; it's demeaning to women. 'Snuff' porn especially is a serious threat to women as Snuff films include violence. According to Feminist activist and journalist Gloria Steinem (step mother of actor, Christian Bale), Porn is totally different from Erotica( which is merely any artistic work that deals with sexually simulating subject matter), ''just as love is from rape, as dignity is from humiliation, as partnership is from slavery and as pleasure is from pain." She further stated that besides the female demeaning; Porn- be it Heterosexual or Gay- one person is basically the dominant master/ conqueror; the other is the submissive victim/slave. (I wonder if the porn viewers and addicts take the time in the middle of being sexually aroused to see it that way)
The general religious view simply is that porn depicts fornication, complete lack of morals and explicit acts of prostitution; therefore they are trash and sinful. It promotes Lust and carnal desires, corrupts the mind, body and soul into doing things forbidden- harboring impure thoughts, premarital sex, self stimulation (masturbation), adultery, rape, unhealthy obsession with sex and is dangerously addictive. To cleanse the mind, body and spirit- the evils of porn must be avoided at all cost. Simply put;
Don't watch it!
To some, and I mean those in the Porn Industry- be it magazines and films- it's a form of Free Speech. Okay...
free speech, as in the right to express your yourself or opinions in any form or impacting knowledge and info via different forms.
Does pornography portray the dos and the don'ts of sexual intercourse or displays the height of human sexuality- that we are capable of letting out our most hidden fantasies and carnal desires; or that we are simply human when doing what we never thought we were capable of doing in the bedroom? Desire, Intimacy and Sex between two people is normal but perversion is not; BSM, Snuff and Child Porn for example- it promotes sexual abuse, violence and human trafficking- so
no.
As for the ' necessary evil' view- those who support that notion would say that it is like marijuana- good and useful when used right. In Hospitals , Fertility clinics and Sex Therapy institutes- it is uses as a tool to obtain 'specimens' for fertility testing, artificial insemination and to help people with sexual problems. As it is viewed in a controlled, sterile medical environment and for a good cause; the viewers would feel a lot less guilty watching or reading it- especially if it's not one of the more perverted types. And from what I heard, petitions are being made to add to the Sex Education curriculum ; which is a very bad idea as while it would show them what sex is about, it could also give the students the wrong idea about intimacy and encourage early sexual activity or much worse.
What's your view?
