Pornography
Sexual education for children that perpetuates a form of sexual autism.
A product that contains almost no real information that has exploded in popularity due to our system of limbic capitalism.
Louise Perry, writer, New Statesman columnist and campaigner against male sexual violence, says the following:
“Porn is to sex as McDonald’s is to food. These two capitalist enterprises take our natural appetites, pluck out the most compulsive and addictive elements, strip away anything truly nutritious, and then encourage us to consume more and more. Both products are…exaggerated versions of naturally occurring stimuli, that tap into an evolved longing for nourishment, excitement and pleasure but do so in a maladaptive way, fooling the consumer into gorging on a product that initially feels good but in the long term does them harm.
…On the one hand, [women] have a sexual script that has become increasingly aggressive and loveless. But, on the other, we have a group of men who are so stupefied by porn that they are (sometimes permanently) impaired in their ability to have sexual relationships with real people. Put simply, the porn generation are having less sex, and the sex they are having is also worse: less intimate, less satisfying and less meaningful.
…The porn industry…destroy its workers and consumers alike.”(1)
Porn may have a place in some contexts, but it is damaging the capacity of our children to develop healthy sexual relationships.
Our sons and daughters will look at one another, completely confident about how this dance is done while equipped with all of the wrong moves. They will harm one another in the process while receiving constant reinforcements from the porn they consume due to how engaging and exciting it is.
There is an incredible amount of denial regarding the availability of deviant and illegal pornography. Some parents dismiss any concerns, while others try and manage their expectations imagining that the porn their children are watching is relatively tame. Young adults, men in particular, are among the most curious about deviant sex whilst being the least risk averse. The menu of violence, bestiality, child pornography, and degradation is available for them if they know where to look. All of this culminates into shaping their perceptions of what sex can, does, or should include. We probably do not know what our children are watching or how it may be influencing them, and they are not likely to share it with us. This is a worthwhile concern.
While objectification may be arousing in some settings, your partner is not an object - they are a person - and the escalating passions that emerge between two people are to be met with a mind bent on discovery and reciprocity.
Like fast food, we should reduce how much porn we consume, and when we do consume it, remember that it is a magic trick: an illusion designed to engage and then disappear without a trace.
(1) Perry, L., The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, 2022, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK.
Posted: 18 Feb 2023
