Sorroche1
MoroniSorroche
ENG 2010-068
Professor LoreenBessire
December 1st, 2013
InvestigatingToday’s Pornography Problem
Interestingly, solutions aren’t in all problematic instances the thing to be found; at least not at first. In some cases of problem solving, the problem itself is difficult to pinpoint even though it is obviously there. People realize they are falling short of something but cannot or will not identify the source of the problem. This is precisely the position that people with addictions hold; no different is the positionofthose addicted to pornography. Though it is understood thatdifferent people are more inclined to having certain addictive tendencies,all of us don’t have to be victims of our compulsions and do have the capacity to overcome them.It is appalling when people will justifythe consumption of such material to be ‘harmless entertainment and victimless’.They say as long as parties, the one viewing it and the producers and distributors are consenting adults, it is all within the law.For a long time though, studies have shown that this material is harmful and terribly addictive. The advent of Internet pornography transformed pornography and made it more sophisticated andalthough still under research, it is concluded that the advent of Internet pornography has transformed it into a morehardcore experience for the viewer, and due to Internet’s efficiency and ever-increasing speed connection, more quantitative as well, blowingup to now immeasurable proportions the harms which come from it.
Obscene pornography and its heinous effects are wide-spread into society. Instead of using the Internet for being more efficient with their everyday tasks, the user of pornography is using it as a tool to finding his own demise. It is reported that men are looking at pornography more than they look at any other subject matter online.Pamela Paul who is an award winning author and journalist, in her 2005 book ‘Pornified:How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships and our Families’,writes:
The number of people looking at pornography is staggering. Americans rent upwards of 800 million pornographic videos and DVDs (about one in five of all rented movies is porn), and the 11,000 porn films shot each year far outpaces Hollywood’s yearly slate of 400. Four billion dollars a year is spent on video pornography in the United States, more than on football, baseball, and basketball. One in four internet users look at a pornography website in any given month. …And 66% of 18–34-year-old men visit a pornographic site every month. (71)
For someone that wants toargue that porn is in any way an ‘aid’ or sexual expression, we must ask them if they think these numbers depict an entertaining habit or something that is unhealthily getting a hold of some people. Whatever the answer maybe be, we can study the findings and explore the effects, and hopefullyagree on some common ground on what should be genuinely desirable and embraced by the individual and society.
One of the effects of exposure to obscene pornography is that the user will lose sensibility as to how appropriate his alluding to sexual behavior and language really are. The place to draw the line is not the easiest thing to do, but we know a line must be drawn. Not everything can be dismissed as a question of preference, especially when our everyday living along with the studies on it, demonstrate that these attitudes and behaviors are affecting us all. Deeming the problem of pornography viewing as harmless entertainment is just a way to not address the consequences. Ana J. Bridges from the department of Psychology at University of Arkansas writes,“what is considered normal (that is, what the average person does) is skewed for heavy users of pornography in such a way that they are unable to recognize just how uncommon their own behavior may be.” Such normalization leads to an over-estimation of how frequently certain sexual activities are actually practiced (6).” This is a good example of how appropriate learned behavior gets mixed up with what is seen in pornography, thus distorting accurate notions of propriety for the user.Learned behavior means that it is acquired from observing others.To illustrate, we can tell that a person does notstand on a chair at a restaurant, not because he had some traumatic childhood experience with his parents telling him not to do so, but simply from seeing that others are not doing it.The way we behave and the social norms we acquire come from observation. In other words, we develop appropriateness when we are exposed to behaviors which carry good sense. We inhibitsome behaviors mainly because we don’t see others doing it, and as for behavior done away from others’ eyes, there is danger for developingtwisted ideas about the appropriateness of it. With often subconscious comparison we are able to agree on norms for behavior that we’ll carry; and at different points in life we cease the practice of other behavior to conform to social norms and existing principles. When it comes to so called ‘private matters,’ people would at least get a better idea of how normal their behavior really is if they were to talk about it, butpornographyis definitely not one of the things people like to disclose about;particularly not about how often they view it.
Unquestionably this ‘sexy’ cultural mood we have been experiencing and normalized to accept is defining for a lot of us just how normal some of these behaviors that stem from porn consumption are. In an article by Gina M. Wingoodet al., she investigates about the exposure of adolescents to X-rated movies in relationship to various contraceptive-related behaviors, pointingout,“Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that higher exposure to sexualized imagery and pornography is associated with earlier initiation of sexual activity, increased sexual risk-taking behavior, and increasingly tolerant attitude towards sexual promiscuity (1118).”These examples of sexual behavior seem to be so normalized in our culture today that discussion on the matter has become out of reach and taboo. These days a person can easily be deemed an extremist and a violator of other’s rights, or at best ‘too old fashioned’, if he is to raise questionsof morality concerning sexuality. Even when taking these matters lightly it is indispensable that people are awarethat this is public health concern (not to mention well-being) and not at all harmless and victimless. These attitudes and behaviors do reach and affect more than just the ones taking part in it.
Kids as young as ten are now having instantaneous access to pornographic images at any time on their computers and smart phones. Given that we’ve already covered that early initiation of sexual activity is public health concern, doesn’t this knowledge jolt us into reconsidering this availability?Have we asked ourselves what the implications are about making this so available to all of us and especially to children?Why is it that only now we are seeing the idea that porn should be opted-in rather than just another thing on the internet? That is topic for a different time, but I think worth bringing up for the sake of a self-inquiry, because for a lot of these problems not only is it not simple to connect the cause with the effect, but also due to the pervasiveness of online pornography even if one has recognized it as a problem, there is a tendency to be stagnant and remain hopeless about coming up with a solution for it.
Pornography addiction makes lasting changes to people’s brains; in fact, anything which can gives us instant exciting pleasure without satisfying a real need will do that, and pornography is obviously one of those things. Pornography addiction is deceiving due to its nature of imperceptibility.We think of addiction and routinely imagine attachment to things like alcohol and drugs, I guess for the popularity of theseproblems, but also because these examples are about tangible things which are just simply more easily observable than pornography’s effects. There is a popular and truly fascinating book on brain plasticity by psychiatrist and researcherNorman Doidge, M.D., called ‘The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science’, in which he educates us about the malleable nature of the brain for overcoming but also for developing unwanted brain maps when dealing with prejudicial addictive things like pornography;he writes:
Pornography is more exciting than satisfying because we have two separate pleasure systems in our brains, one that has to do with exciting pleasure and one with satisfying pleasure. The exciting system relates to the "appetitive" pleasure that we get imagining something we desire, such as sex or a good meal. Its neurochemistry is largely dopamine-related, and it raises our tension level. The second pleasure system has to do with the satisfaction, or consummatory pleasure, that attends actually having sex or having that meal, a calming, fulfilling pleasure. Its neurochemistry is based on the release of endorphins, which are related to opiates and give a peaceful, euphoric bliss. (107)
The viewing of explicit pornographic images hyper-activates only the ‘exciting’ pleasure system in our brain, that’s why even with the bizarre variety of Internet porn that is out there, the viewer is never satisfied, and in fact keeps moving on to more deviant material. The Internet contributes to most of this. The easy accessibility and ever-increasing sophistication of the material is due to consumers building tolerance and moving one to harder and odder types of pornography. No matter how much of it people get they are never fulfilled precisely because of the nature of it. Still, strangely enough people practice it in such a way that they think themselvesto be satisfying a real need, butwhich is never found.
Problems with the viewing of pornography are many; with it there’s a rising number of psychological disorders and physiological dysfunctionspeople are developing. In the 1988 control group studies of Zillman and Bryant, they had already concluded the complete falsified idea that porn served for anything, they state, “Pornographers promise healthy pleasure and relief from sexual tension, but what they often deliver is an addiction, tolerance, and an eventual decrease in pleasure. Paradoxically, the male patients I worked with often craved pornography but didn’t like it (439).”The demand forInternet pornography as stated in the beginning is increasing. Not only that but also the profile of the typical consumer are kids in the age range of twelve to seventeen years of age, which is alarming!There is also an increasing number of nine and ten-year-olds who are even checking themselves into treatment because they have been experiencing the full range of theseterribleeffects. Somehow there needs to be better directive about what people are readily exposed to on the Internet. If we aren’t seeing much talk about this issue out there in the media and from those around us, it has to be because they are unaware of the seriousness of it. Out of everyone who could share the blame for this, children are the least to blame because they simply don’t know much better. They are the new generations thatare being born amidst all this technology that also serves to harm them deeply.Remembering that the Internet indeed is an environment; one that we did not have to deal with growing up. That is the biggest difference between our generation and theirs. Undoubtedly they will thank us in the future if wemake these efforts now and lengthen their years as real kids.
Works Cited
Bridges, Ana J. "Pornography’s Effects on Interpersonal Relationships." The Social Costs of Pornography.Department of Psychology: University of Arkansas, 2007. Print.
Doidge, Norman. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. New York:Viking Press, 2007. Print.
Paul, Pamela. Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families.: New York:Times Books, 2005. Print.
Wingood, G.M, et al. “Exposure to X-rated Movies and Adolescents’ Sexual and Contraceptive-Related Attitudes and Behaviors.” Pediatrics. 107.5 (2001):116-119. Print.
Zillman, D., J.Bryant.”Pornography’s Impact on Sexual Satisfaction.”Journal of Applied Social Psychology18.5 (1988): 438-453. Print.