Pornography is a click away these days. There appears to be no way to accurately assess just how much of Internet traffic is porn-related, with estimates ranging from 10 to 70%, but there is little doubt that porn sites are visited frequently.
Is pornography a healthy way for men and women to learn about sex and fantasize or is it a pathway to sexual addiction, violence, perversion and disfunction? The answer is most likely complicated.
Religious groups have mounted an almost hysterical campaign against pornography and brandish frightening statistics about the amount of viewing, the impact on children, the exploitation of women, the endorsement of sexual violence and extreme practices, and the effect on family life. They portray pornography as one of the key components in a perceived moral decline of our society.
On the other hand, many psychologists and sexual health workers feel that this portrayal is highly exaggerated and that pornography on some level is a healthy outlet for our sexual curiosity and desires.
The subject is rather complex and multi-faceted. Here is a list of some questions I would pose:
1. Is exposure to pornography a problem for children? Does it hamper or distort their natural progress into the sexual awakening of adolescence and adulthood? Does it create an early addiction in vulnerable minds.
2. Does the porn industry’s focus on sexuality without relationship and/or love contribute to the growth of purely recreational sex? Is that a problem for society?
3. Are women in the porn industry generally exploited or are they simply sex workers who have chosen this path for a variety of legitimate reasons?
4. Does pornography encourage more extreme forms of sexual interaction and lead to increasingly risky or violent behavior?
5. When is pornography viewing harmful? At what point does it become an addiction or an illness?
A series of Netflix documentaries have painted a rather disturbing portrait of the porn industry. The most well-known – Hot Girls Wanted – is a grim chronicle of day-to-day life as a novice female porn video performer. I watched the series and came away feeling rather disheartened about the whole affair. What saddened me is that young women (typically recruited soon after their 18th birthday) chose this path with the exciting prospect of getting views and followers on social media or porn sites and escaping what they perceive as their hollow or depressing existence in their home towns.
Regardless of their motivations for signing up, their lives as porn stars struck me as horribly shabby and soul-sucking. This may be partially my own bias and somewhat sexist, but I felt so sorry for these young women. I could not shake the feeling that their involvement was a desperate cry for a better life that would never meet expectations and only lead to longer term disappointment for most of them.
There was no profile of the men involved in the sex industry. Would I feel similarly about their lives? Are they exploited or reveling in their opportunity to earn money having sex? Are men fundamentally different from women in their sexual nature? Am I perpetuating a double standard by viewing women as victims and men as untroubled participants?
Even if we come to the conclusion that the porn industry has many negative implications, how can it be regulated? Censorship is a fool's errand and is generally doomed to failure unless draconian steps are taken. Even the task of preventing impressionable youth from accessing porn seems daunting and unlikely to succeed, given the current state of personal technology that almost every child possesses.
We are still struggling as a human race to come to terms with our sexuality. It is clear that a repressed, guilt-ridden view of sexuality is neither healthy nor practical. But is it ‘healthy’ for sex to become just another form of recreation with no holds barred? As in much of life, there are no easy answers. If sex, like any other part of our lives, becomes an obsession, then it is unlikely to provide positive experiences. But drawing a line or making ‘rules’ is also tremendously difficult and likely to fail in its intent. We are, as always, faced with ambiguity and the challenge of finding the best path possible in a changing world.
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