Lifestyle

Is porn bad for society?

WRITTEN BY
03/24/21
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Fact Box

  • The origins of pornography can be dated back to ancient Greek and Roman depictions of sex and phallic imagery and Japan’s visual erotica in the 17th century. Modern Western pornpography began in the 18th century with the Enlightenment and exploded in the 1990s with the creation of the Internet. 
  • In 2017, PornHub tracked 28.5 billion visits, 25 billion searches, and 7,000 gigabytes of uploads per minute. 
  • The porn industry is valued at a net worth of $97 billion. In comparison, Hollywood movies make $10 billion annually. The porn industry makes more money than Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA combined. 
  • Children and teens are likely to stumble upon pornography with 65% of 15- and 16-year-olds reporting to have seen it, even as early as age 11. In the survey, over half of boys and 39% of girls believed porn to be a “realistic depiction of sex.”

Bre (No)

To say that porn is bad is nothing more than a matter of personal opinion, as the vast and varied class of content can categorically be labeled neither good nor bad. Porn is a tool, and whether its impact is positive or negative depends on the individuals creating and consuming it. Since the scope of work encompassed by the term is so wide and assorted, it simply cannot be designated as fundamentally bad.

With a rise in popularity over recent decades, many producers, directors, and actors have observed glaring under-representation and opportunities within the porn industry and are now successfully creating more ethical, diverse, inclusive, respectful, and female-pleasure-focused material than ever before.

Viewing porn, especially non-exploitive or romantic films, can foster closeness in couples and aid in developing sexually. It offers empowerment, leisure, and a stress relief outlet that's been shown to positively contribute to well-being, all while promoting the de-stigmatization of sexuality. A Danish study discovered benefits of moderate porn viewing, with more hardcore content surprisingly linked to more positive views on sex. While some assume extreme or violent porn might influence similar behaviors in society, no such link has been established. Conversely, porn may be associated with reduced sex crime incidence.

Those who've proposed additional regulation and registration of sex workers have been faced with outrage from the adult industry, a proud collection of countless hard-working professionals whose very livelihood depends on the genre's existence and success. These individuals often love what they do—as so do their target audiences, it would seem. 


Marie (Yes)

Religious conviction aside, porn is detrimental to society. Period. It's perfection-centered, dehumanizing, and destructive. The media has created unachievable beauty standards which the porn industry exploits. Those who start watching porn at an early age are exposed to the lie that the body is flawed. Plastic surgery, makeup, and video filters place rose-colored glasses on reality. In a recent survey, 60% of women believe porn sets an 'unrealistically high bar' on beauty. Body image issues manifest in breast augmentations, labiaplasties, and penoplasties.

While many boast that porn enhances sex, it does more harm than good. In marriages with porn use, chances of divorce doubled for men and tripled for women. Porn-free relationships are stronger, with better communication and higher sexual satisfaction.

There is no question that porn consumption is linked to aggression. The Journal of Communication referenced 22 studies from seven countries correlating violence and porn. Porn users of both violent and nonviolent porn are more likely to use 'verbal coercion, drugs, and alcohol to coerce individuals into sex.' Hardcore porn is synonymous with serial killers like Ted Bundy. The FBI and other police departments found that about 80% of perpetrators had porn content in their homes.

Porn results in objectification. Love and intimacy become an afterthought, and sex becomes a transaction. The porn industry capitalizes on the trade of sex for money. It is valued at $97 billion globally, while the sex trafficking industry totals $99 billion a year, exploiting 5.5 million children. Porn fuels a need for explicit material that turns into violence, bondage, master/servant mentality, bestiality, and other unspeakable acts. Porn is the absence of love, connection, and relationship. Porn ultimately destroys the 'human' in humanity.

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