I was thinking about porn today. No, not like that. Pervert. I was thinking about the effect of porn on society. What I am about to share are my own thoughts; they are not supported\u2014to my knowledge\u2014by any studies or articles.<\/p>\n
As a Mormon (whatever that means), it probably should not come as a surprise that I think sex should be reserved for marriage. I think this should be the ideal, but at the very least it should be reserved for committed relationships (although for the purpose of this post, I will refer to these relationships as \u201cmarriage\u201d).<\/p>\n
I think this because I think the purpose of sex (not including reproduction) is to deepen the physical attraction of a couple, bring them closer together, and enrich the love they have for each other.<\/p>\n
Porn threatens all this. It threatens the deepening of a couple\u2019s physical attraction; it threatens the bringing of a couple closer together; and it threatens the enriching of the love they have for each other.<\/p>\n
Porn does all this by distorting the purpose of sex. Porn convinces people that the purpose of sex is to ensure personal sexual fulfillment. If we use sex exclusively to meet our personal sexual desires, at worst we ignore the sexual needs of our partner and how to enrich each other and at best\u2014if you can call it that\u2014we use our partner in order to fulfill our own sexual desires.<\/p>\n
In addition, since sex should be reserved for marriage, watching porn means we are participating in sex (even if only as an observer) with someone other than our partner. Of course, those acting in porn are participating in sex that is not in a marriage, but also encourage (granted at the hand of the producers) the participation of viewers in sex outside of that marriage.<\/p>\n
All that being said, there are other reasons porn is wrong.<\/p>\n
Porn objectifies. It turns the actors in the films into objects used to obtain the goal of the viewer to meet personal sexual fulfillment. Porn creates a false image of not only the purpose of sex, but false expectations of what is required (or possible) during sex. It also reduces men and women from complex people with desires, knowledge, gifts, and talents to penises, breasts, vaginas, mouths, and anuses.<\/p>\n
Because the majority of porn viewers are men, porn is created for the male perspective. Lesbianism is reduced from the actual loving relationships seen in real life into something that titillates the male viewer. Women are portrayed only as objects designed to bring about male ejaculation, both on and off screen. Ends of scenes are determined by male orgasm, rarely (if ever) female orgasm.<\/p>\n
There is no redeeming quality to porn. It fills no inherently good purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"