Porn is and porn will be

[Stinky The Clown]

This post is neither in support nor opposition to porn.

Porn is. Going forward, porn will be.

Even if there were a latter day Carrie Nation of porn, porn will still be.

Porn is not a modern phenomenon. The only new aspect of porn is the delivery system, which is much more egalitarian than it has ever been. A great deal of today's porn is now free of charge. It is harder to avoid it than to see it. It is ubiquitous.

Porn is and porn will be.

Again, this post is neither in support nor opposition.

[LiberalLoner]

1. Speaking only for myself, I have no wish to ban porn (except for kiddy porn.)

I only wanted to talk about specific types of porn that upset me, because I am a survivor of rape and abuse. Seeing rape and abuse porn being such big sellers, it makes me wonder, do the majority of men get off on violence being done to women? And when I wonder that, I feel less safe, and it triggers my PTSD that is due to having been raped as a child and again as a grown woman (along with other non-sexual assaults.)

I didn't come out in an effort to shame men who like porn. I like porn myself - the type that doesn't involve causing physical harm to women, anyway.

But porn that says it's okay to hit women or cause her severe physical harm....that upsets me and unless people are being deliberately obtuse, they must surely understand why.

I'm not even calling for a ban on rape porn. I'm a supporter of the first amendment, free speech.

I'm asking to be heard. I'm hoping to be understood.

I'm asking whatever men consume violent types of porn, to think about how they would feel if their mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, lovers, were treated like that. Not asking you to stop watching the porn. Just asking you to reflect on it for a little while.

That is all I was trying to do.

And right now I feel like I came out of the porn wars with 3rd degree burns all over me.

And here I go again, I guess, ready to be ridiculed again. But still just pleading for someone to hear me, and to understand.

[Fawke Em]

6. THIS!!

[hifiguy]

2. I suspect that some sort of representation of sex

was one of the first thing cave dwellers put on the walls shortly after they painted buffalo hunts. Egyptologists have found porn graffiti in the Temple of Hatshepsut that was carved by the builders some 3600 years ago. It's as old as the human race which is why it will never go away.

[4th law of robotics]

4. They've found cave paintings

with pictures of genitals and prey animals. And that's about it.

It seems from the very beginning we've cared about precisely 2 things: food and sex. After the invention of agriculture and settled life you can add booze to that list.

[zazen]

5. it's when living people are abused and then filmed

That's not a representation. It's a documentation of a crime.

Even if we could establish that all of the persons in pornography circulating the Internet are of age, how do we know they're not trafficked or being held hostage by a pimp-boyfriend through violence and drugs?

That's not paternalization.

If it's regulated, I might not like the themes of violence (in fact, I detest them), but then it becomes an issue for education (or of civil litigation, perhaps, but not a criminal matter).

When it's unregulated, men may be getting off on actual documentation of rape, torture, and child molestation. Why anyone would want to actually take physical pleasure from that is beyond me.

Know your source. Don't use the products of slave labor.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

3. People objectifying other people is also as old as humanity

We can pass laws against it but that doesn't cure the underlying malady of the soul. We definitely shouldn't tolerate it but if we fight about it but that only causes acrimony. We can only keep ourselves. I try to do whatever I can to break out of the ages old habit of objectifying others (I'm not perfect, I'm very fallen myself) and along the way I hope to encourage people to do the same and for those being objectified I want to let them know they are important to this world and there is a place for them as peoplpe, not as simple stimulants for hormonal excitement.

I used to be the objectifier and I let myself be an object. I thought it made me free and open. It didn't, it just made me used and it made me a user. Looking back, I'm not very proud of myself. I'm not going to browbeat people but I will say I know we can do better because I'm trying.