Is Pornography Bad for Society

I think that in and of itself porn perhaps is not bad but it is bad when men allow themselves to be influenced by the images they see in some of these horribly done porno films laced with cruelty and abuse of women.  After looking at those films and the way men treat women, could you imagine what they might be thinking of their  female bosses or female co-workers?While we cannot get into people’s head, some of these behaviours spill over in heated conversations. For example when a man confronts a female boss who is trying to demand respect for the position she holds, he may well call her a bitch or some such thing.

Men who engage in porno, I think has problems sexually. He cannot be aroused neither he does not have the confidence that he can arouse a female so he needs to check what other men are doing in films.  These men might also be latent homosexuals trying to deny who they are. These can be the most dangerous as in trying to hide their sexual problem they may blame women for not being sexy enough and this might lead to physical violence. 

What do people need porno for?  What is it that they are looking for to turn them on.  If a man and a woman in love cannot turn each other on something is wrong. Perhaps they should not even be together.  That’s crazy.

Robert Jensen in his book

Pornography is a mirror that shows us how men see women, writes Robert Jensen in his latest book, Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity. And with mainstream porn becoming increasingly degrading and violent toward women, looking into that mirror can be unsettling.

and a rebuttal to that by Michael Bauder for Alternet: I believe context matters a lot, especially when cruel or degrading scenarios provoke intense excitement, both sexual and violent. On a concrete level, a lot of kids and some isolated guys do use porn as a kind of “how-to” manual for sexuality. Porn’s getting more extreme could lead them into some very unfortunate blunders. Plus, there’s a long and sorry history of men rationalizing the sexual abuse of women with the words, “She really wanted it;” “She was asking for it.” Is there a risk, even if just for some men, even if just at some times, in reinforcing a fantasy that women really want to receive the cruelties some men imagine inflicting on them?

Clinical psychologist Vivian Dent: I also suspect there are psychological consequences to seeing repeated enactments of violent sexuality, of fantasies that until recently existed pretty much exclusively in our imaginations. Sex and violence share a slippery boundary. At Abu Ghraib, young soldiers’ anger and fear became sexualized violence in very short order. How much do we really know about the tipping point where emotional pain turns to satisfy itself in sexual cruelty? Bader’s right that “We can’t get maximally aroused if we’re worried, guilty and responsible,” and that feeling confident of the other’s pleasure offers one source of relief from these fears. But he neglects the fact that denying the humanity of the other can stifle guilt just as effectively — at least for some people, at least in some circumstances, at least some of the time.

 Conclusion

The pornographers are not a deviation from the norm. Their presence in the mainstream shouldn’t be surprising, because they represent mainstream values: The logic of domination and subordination that is central to patriarchy, hyperpatriotic nationalism, white supremacy and a predatory corporate capitalism.