The culture of pornography

ACMRox wrote:

Eman wrote:Again, all of western culture objectifies sex; porn isn't the cause of this stuff.

But it sure helps to promote that message. Especially considering <95% of males watch porn, a percentage that music pertaining to clubbing and unemotional sex can hardly compete with.

And girls don't get off porn too?

I was searching for a source or a number for that statistic because I find that ridiculous, and in searching found this little paragraph:

There were slight differences between the viewing habits of single men and men in a relationship. Single men indulged for 40 minutes, three times a week, while those in relationships watched it 1.7 times a week for around 20 minutes. The study found that the porn did nothing to alter the men's sexual preferences, as they quickly discarded material they found offensive. Comments Professor Lajenesse, "Not one subject had a pathological sexuality. In fact, all of their sexual practices were quite conventional. Pornography hasn't changed their perception of women or their relationship, which they all want to be as harmonious and fulfilling as possible"

Source

I just thought it was a bit interesting.

Can I get a source on the statistic of men who watch porn (REGULARLY, I stress)? because I couldn't find one, or a reliable one.

When did sex start requiring emotional attachment and respect? And how is sex without these things bad?

ACMRox wrote:

Eman wrote:Again, all of western culture objectifies sex; porn isn't the cause of this stuff.

But it sure helps to promote that message. Especially considering <95% of males watch porn, a percentage that music pertaining to clubbing and unemotional sex can hardly compete with.

As if 90% of females don't watch porn. Also, to Emans statement: all of Eastern culture objectifies women as well, it's really not a porn problem, it's a loooong tradition of male dominance in most cultures.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

ACMRox wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:
Well of course I don't like it, but 12 years olds see that in pop music videos, tv shows, etc, as it is. Porn is not going to make a 12 year old into a misogynist.

A Taylor Swift song and porn are hardly the same. While the former no doubt is a bad influence, the latter is ten times and dangerous and a much bigger problem.

Which is why it's ironic that you won't find anyone here praising Taylor Swift songs, but you'll find people claiming porn is good for you...

That's because it is bro. I just read an article claiming that an orgasm a day could expand your life by up to 10 years. I might have to start looking at more porn

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20111116/Sex-during-adolescence-can-have-negative-effects-on-body-and-mood-well-into-adulthood.aspx

VivaStPauli wrote:
As if 90% of females don't watch porn.

lol at this . It's not that I was implying women didn't watch porn, it was that the statistic I knew that was actually legit (there are like 20 different figures for this) was focussing on males.

Also, to Emans statement: all of Eastern culture objectifies women as well,

Source

Women are incredibly more objectified in Western civilization, between 'sex sells' the motto of every business man, clubbing being the only thing pop artists can think of, and porn. That's not to say women aren't objectified in Eastern cultures as well, but it's definitely not as extreme.

kiranr wrote:When did sex start requiring emotional attachment and respect?

Since we started viewing women as more than just playthings that required neither dignity nor respect.

Firstly not having emotional attachment or respect does not mean you view women as playthings. When you have sex with a person for the first time, it is usually in a relatively short while after you have met the person. There is definitely not enough time to develop emotional attachment and respect for the person. Does it mean you won't have sex? No.

Selling sex is not equal to objectifying women or treating them as play things. I watch porn and i am sure lots of people here watch porn too. And i don't view women as playthings.You know very well that women are people like you as well and just watching porn is not going to change my mindset about it.

And i can definitely say that Eastern culture objectifies women a lot more than western culture. You should just see the concept of "arranged marriage" here to understand how women are objectified in Eastern cultures.

VivaStPauli wrote:Also, to Emans statement: all of Eastern culture objectifies women as well, it's really not a porn problem, it's a loooong tradition of male dominance in most cultures.

I was aware that Eastern culture objectified women, but I was unsure of whether it objectified sex (the word I used) as much so that's why I kept it to Western culture in my statement.

ACMRox wrote:

kiranr wrote:When did sex start requiring emotional attachment and respect?

Since we started viewing women as more than just playthings that required neither dignity nor respect.

There is no reason you can't have sex as a kind of "recreational" activity.

In all honesty the girls want that as much as the guy many times...

"Sex without emotion is an empty experience. But as empty experiences come, it's one of the best." - Woody Allen.

Nothing wrong with it.

kiranr wrote:
Firstly not having emotional attachment or respect does not mean you view women as playthings. When you have sex with a person for the first time, it is usually in a relatively short while after you have met the person. There is definitely not enough time to develop emotional attachment and respect for the person. Does it mean you won't have sex? No.

While I am in the minority amongst my guy friends, I am not a fan of emotionless sex and find it to be pointless. I disagree with this notion and while I do not place the blame solely on men, I think your statement is ridiculous. How long does it take for you to respect a women? I have no issue with consensual sex, but I know there are guys out there who will deceive women in order to accomplish a one night stand - that is where I draw the line. There are definitely women out there who enjoy casual sex, so there is no need to trick people into giving it up.

The idea of a one night stand has always turned me off because I cannot help to think of how many others this women would just go out and have sex with. We should treat our bodies with respect and I fear that many people do not consider this when they go out and sleep with people they barely know. Anyway, this was a bit off-topic, so I will look to cut this short.

As long as it takes for me to respect a man. Do you start respecting people just after a few meetings itself?

It all depends on the person and the length of said meetings. But I am the type of person who respects others until they give me a reason not to.

Do you not find it weird to have sex with someone you do not respect? Seems like you might be lacking respect for yourself (not to mention your body, which is a temple)

That is where our outlook differs. In my opinion, respect is something that grows over a period of time and not everyone you meet is deserving of your respect right from the start.

I don't understand why there is so much fuss about sex. It is a recreational activity shared by two people and as long as you go about it in a fair manner, there is no requirement for emotional attachment or respect for the person.

Treating your body with respect, in my opinion, means you should not abuse it. Smoking, or other vices like that, means you do not treat your body with respect. Having sex with people you do not know well does not pose any such risk to your body, does it?

Sexually transmitted diseases. If some chick is willing to bang you, I'm sure you are not the first. Would you sleep with a chick if you knew she had a disease? Protection is an option, but that is besides the point. Would you sleep with a women who told you she had a STD? You could always rubber up, bro.

I don't mind if people want to bang each other left and right, but let us not act like it is nothing. I am more respectful of casual flings where both parties know the deal, but I know that is not always the case. I am not the most knowledgable on this subject, but I believe that most animals do not participate on recreational sex.

I read this article ages ago and found it a very interesting read.

Now I've read through the discussion and found it unrelated in some ways but equally interesting.

Particularly interesting were some of Arq's comments in his long post about what this all could lead to. Very well thought through and highlights some of the problems.

However, the problem with porn, I believe, is the mental ramifications it can have on the viewer. Key word here: "can". Note in a lot of the surveys that word is there; its there in RG's and he seems to have put it there as damning evidence.

These ramifications come about when you develop an addiction. Porn cannot be labeled as a problem, but it CAN be a problem for some people. Its only a problem when a person lets it become one.

Thus I don't see how its so different to eating, or drinking alcohol. If you lose self control of your diet, that also effects you mentally and physically, as does an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Food and alcohol are not, however, BAD things.

It takes self control. Only you know if it is affecting you.

Maybe this means like alcohol, smoking etc. there should be more support groups or counselling available for people with porn addictions, because lets not ignore the fact that it CAN be a serious problem for people.

If we stopped looking down on people with problems and started helping them maybe we'd be on the right track.


Finally, I'll say that despite all of what I've said I do believe that porn contributes to sexism and other societal problems. But as Red hints at, so does religion and day-to-day life. We aren't in Elizabethan times, but prejudice of many types still exists.

RealGunner wrote:http://www.news-medical.net/news/20111116/Sex-during-adolescence-can-have-negative-effects-on-body-and-mood-well-into-adulthood.aspx

Given that men and women have been having sex during the teenage years since the dawn of man I find it hard to believe that it could be so damaging.

ACMRox wrote:

kiranr wrote:When did sex start requiring emotional attachment and respect?

Since we started viewing women as more than just playthings that required neither dignity nor respect.

This is implying that all women require emotional attachment and respect to have sex which is, needless to say, a load of bull

Plenty of women enjoy casual sex just as much as men

I hate porn personally the reason being is it stops people from having sex, a long time ago when you were horny and the girl was you just rooted and that was the end of it now days alot of people use it as an excuse to not sleep with each other. " just wank" " ill see u another time i cbf just have a bat"" send me a pic of my dick and ill send u a pic of my tits" how many times do you here that?i get regular sex so no sour grapes hahaha but those excuses piss me off to all ends so to conclude i hate porn

Should, could the EU ban online porn?



Could the EU really ban porn online? Next week, hundreds of European parliament members will vote on a report that calls for banning pornography across 'all media' - including the Internet.

The report, called 'on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU', calls "calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media."

This is pretty vague wording, written at a time when the commercial Internet was just getting going. Google and Facebook didn't even exist at the time. But the Internet is still a form of media.

So are ebooks, come to that. It turns out that the Kindle is also a haven for porn. An investigation by CNET turned up a whole bunch of gritty, pixelated books designed specifically for the Kindle, produced and self-published by amateurs.

Amazon has a content publishing policy that forbids porn in self-published e-books, but many are still slipping through. A quick search here turned up titles such as "Bottoms Up" from Camera Erotica, and lots of cleavage titles offering for four bucks what porn seekers can find for free online.

Amazon does its best to scan for this stuff, but it uses proprietary software, and in some cases, manual scanning. So many books make it through the net.

If nothing else, this shows how difficult it is to police porn. If Amazon can't do it effectively on a platform that it controls, how would the EU ban online porn, given that an awful lot of it is hosted outside the region?

It sounds like another example of politicians not understanding technology.

If they did succeed, it could signal a complete cessation of all pixel-based visual naughtiness, mortifying one-handed surfers everywhere. What do you think? Could the EU ban online porn? More to the point, should it?

I honestly don't think my girlfriend would survive this.

VivaStPauli wrote:I honestly don't think my girlfriend would survive this.

Your GF? man how can I make my girl like porn? she almost broke my laptop when she found out I watching porn before she came over. I forgot to close it and clear history.
I have friend and his GF loves watching porn during sex, I tried to bring up with her and she did not like it. The funny thing is my friend and his gf watch porn right in front of other friends, so jealous.
She is really open about sex, she told my friend she has had 3somes before with guys.

I have no issue with my girl enjoying porn, but I would have no interest in watching porn while having sex. Also, you cannot make your girl like porn and if you were going to try and make your girl like anything, it should be sexual things in the bedroom, no? I personally do not like doing things that my partner does not feel comfortable doing. Perhaps you should just search for a girl who wants to do such things as opposed to encouraging your current girlfriend to try them...
How would you react if your girl asked you to do something you had no interest in?

You got me all wrong. My GF doesn't like porn. My last two did, though.

The point is, if I didn't have access to porn anymore, she would have to replace it.

Oh Viva, you never disappoint, do you?

In response to the question about banning pornography: I see no reason for this to be done - I can think of way more pressing issues that need to be tended to.

Raptorgunner wrote:Should, could the EU ban online porn?



Could the EU really ban porn online? Next week, hundreds of European parliament members will vote on a report that calls for banning pornography across 'all media' - including the Internet.

The report, called 'on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU', calls "calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media."

This is pretty vague wording, written at a time when the commercial Internet was just getting going. Google and Facebook didn't even exist at the time. But the Internet is still a form of media.

So are ebooks, come to that. It turns out that the Kindle is also a haven for porn. An investigation by CNET turned up a whole bunch of gritty, pixelated books designed specifically for the Kindle, produced and self-published by amateurs.

Amazon has a content publishing policy that forbids porn in self-published e-books, but many are still slipping through. A quick search here turned up titles such as "Bottoms Up" from Camera Erotica, and lots of cleavage titles offering for four bucks what porn seekers can find for free online.

Amazon does its best to scan for this stuff, but it uses proprietary software, and in some cases, manual scanning. So many books make it through the net.

If nothing else, this shows how difficult it is to police porn. If Amazon can't do it effectively on a platform that it controls, how would the EU ban online porn, given that an awful lot of it is hosted outside the region?

It sounds like another example of politicians not understanding technology.

If they did succeed, it could signal a complete cessation of all pixel-based visual naughtiness, mortifying one-handed surfers everywhere. What do you think? Could the EU ban online porn? More to the point, should it?

I highly doubt they could successfully ban porn, but as should be obvious to anyone who's read my posts here, I think they should try.

People will always find ways around bans like this, but it will make it a lot harder and hopefully decrease the negative impact porn is having on our society.