The Pornagraphic Mind

A force that is proven to structure life on earth, that enables a mother lion to raise and protect her cub to adulthood or the love of a couple willing to share the responsibility of making a child, is love. It can motivate one to do countless tasks just for the sake of another person’s affection and even give the strength for some people to keep living, when struggling to move forward seems impossible. This feeling that is bestowed within all humans is what drives some to sexual behavior with others, and reproduction itself is what continues the human race entirely. Sexual behavior is apart of a human’s natural being that allows one to feel pleasure beyond regular stimulation that often involves two parties in love, but does not require love to have it. Sex is also an objective identity unique to each person, that cannot be defined black-and-white by the Oxford dictionary. Therefore when the time comes appropriate for one to have sex there is no right answer stating “how to do it.” However, more recently in human history meaningless sex and masturbation increasingly consume an enormous part of today’s culture that has evolved into the commercialization of pornography and pushed its transition to the internet. The current pornography available on the internet unquestionably affects the world’s youths who watch such material pre-maturely and especially the teenage to adult men who use porn as well.

First of all, pornography is not a bad, god-condemned, satan riddled voodoo that should be eliminated from modern human society. Also, sex is something that is defined by everyone differently, and some points in this research generalize modern women and men to comment on the absurdity of some of the norms in the porn industry, but realize not everyone feels the same about sexual behavior. For some using Sexually Explicit Internet Material (SEIM) are benefiting in their sexual health by allowing themselves to feel pleasure when a bodily companion is not available. Seeing that the human orgasm releases chemicals like dopamine and endorphins that stimulate the brain, similar to other drugs or overwhelming satisfaction (ScienceBlogs, LLC). Nevertheless, pornography has also shaped the minds of many who have grown up being able to access millions of sites stock-full of videos and pictures of fairy tale sexual fantasies and morphed sexual stigmas that can negatively affect someone later in their adult sexual life.

Living in this modern Industrial Revolution, also known as the internet age where 64% of America (Pew Research Center) has a small computer attached to their hips at all times alerting them when someone favorites another one of their self-glorifying, obnoxious tweets or allowing people to feel like they have a life outside of their mortal body (their internet identity). However, not all is bad with the internet since its creation; science, medicine, and the speed of communication/information have advanced greatly propelling computer and internet savvy intellectuals of this time into a Renaissance of new technology and inspiration. For the long-time sexual temptations humans have possessed since walking this earth, pornography is able to appease those feelings and may even subdue those who suffer from sexual frustration. Nevertheless, the odds have stacked up against the multi-billion industry, and the observations over years of studying the porn industry, sex on the internet, and the porn users themselves, the information correlates pornography to a lot of negative effects to the psyche of a person.

In order to assess pornography at a first glance, the first thing to acknowledge is that its total revenue is $13.3 billion dollars annually, which is more than what Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, eBay, and Netflix make in a year combined according to a 2006 study (Ropelato 2006). Next, look at just the networth of the porn industry’s most popular actress, Jenna Jameson, who as of 2013 made $30 million off of her pornographic efforts (The Richest). In further, Top agents of the porn industry that assist in the booking of each video/shoot, transportation, and care of the women being exploited can rake in upwards of $250,000 a year off of the videos they distribute. Whereas the women in the videos themselves make a reported $1,000 off of a male-female sex video (Business Insider). According to Mark Spiegler, porn’s most successful agent, in the same article as cited above he says, “there is a relatively straightforward scale for performances by an in-demand actress: $800 for a girl-girl scene, $1,000 for a guy-girl scene, $1,200 or more for anal sex, and $4,000 or more for ‘double penetration’ scenes” (Business Insider). Which poses the question, for those who star in pornographic videos and just scrape by, how far will they comfortably go into the deep rabbit-hole of the porn industry before they feel violated? Through such evidence one is clearly able to see that there is a huge lack of compensation for the women who are casted in these videos, and the lack of freedom can be lost within this industry.

Along with the insufficient compensation and gaudy amount of billions the industry makes yearly, the most important thing to know is that the viewers fuel it! According to Jerry Ropelato, 28,258 of the world’s internet users are viewing porn every second, which correlates to 72 million internet users worldwide visiting pornographic sites monthly. All those hits on one site allow advertisements and other visual offers to make money for the sites each time their ad pops up, along with the actual revenue of the videos themselves. Each time internet users open these websites more and more money is funnelled to the porn industry, illuminating the fact that the consumers of the pornography are what is continuing this unruly internet phenomena.

To conclude this introduction to porn, one must finally observe that just like film, music, and art, pornography changes. Due to the extreme commercialization and streamlining of porn right to a handheld device, the sexual entertainment has sought more and more “edginess” to their videos and other material. Categories such as child pornography, almost-underage women, bondage, and other dehumanizing behavior are very common now, which has a powerful impact on its viewers alike. In addition, the sex being depicted in most pornographic scenes is a lot more hardcore and rough than most sexual situations that can morph teenage minds into thinking sex is something that it is really not. Lastly to put internet porn into retrospect, the videos that millions are watching everyday, and in turn masterbating to, are really just moving digital pixels and bits depicting two bodies of meat slamming against one another with a horribly written story-line thrown in. The viewers are essentially “getting-off” to little colored pixels moving in different directions that are the replication of what ACTUALLY happened: sex.

The reason for the research’s more specific focus on males is because they are pornography’s main attraction. In almost all pornographic videos online today, women are being used for the male’s pleasure, as you can note the lack of foreplay, sexual intimacy, and erotic situations. The women are usually in a submissive position while a man is the dominant figure who controls all aspects of the situation, which over time young teenagers have assimilated this view and it has transferred to modern reality as the aggressive, misogynistic culture of being a “bro.” A large sect of a generation that believes sexism is still a joke and women belong in the kitchen is plaguing the millennial generation is partly stemmed from chronic pornography usage.

In a study done by Dr. Sylvain C. Boies of 760 University students who watch porn online, he figured 67.6% of men pursued SEIM versus 45.1% of women pollers, showing the imbalance of the two genders watching the material. In addition men were more likely to masterbate while online than women with a 71.6% versus 22.1% polling rate (Bois). Additionally research done by the Covenant Eyes Internet Accountability and Filtering showed that of the young adults online, 68% of men and 18% of women access internet porn once a week. Furthermore a study done in 2005 by Dr. Elisabet Haggstrom-Nordin that studied 718 Swedish high school students reported 98% of the male and 76% of the female population had consumed pornography (Covenant Eyes). Even more so almost all the research on pornography today concludes that men are the big driving factor of the testosterone fueled business.

The main access to internet pornography among young adults and teens today is right on their mobile devices! The Covenant Eyes also reports that 1 out of 5 mobile searches are for pornography or some sexual material, along with 9 out of 10 internet porn users prefer to use free sites over paid services, which are easily accessible on cell phones (Covenant Eyes). Like the computer, the cell phone is also used as an open portal for pornography to stream right to your fingertips, and even more likely the teenage users because they’re constantly on them. The internet is partially based on drawing in the male eye using sex, in a post by the CNN blog The Chart, Ian Kerner explains that some men premeditate their porn use, while another, “guy could be hanging out on his computer, checking out his favorite sports site, when up pops an ad with a sexy woman in a bikini and, bang, next thing he knows he’s trawling porn sites in search of sexual release” (Kerner). Knowing that, we can see how easily a young teen could be drawn in by just a click of an ad or a search of such material that is readily available to them from various sources.

With a sexual revolution throwing morals out the window in the 1960’s, films like Deep Throat promoting a “porno chic” movement (1972), and the internet boom of the 1990’s, sexual content has been mainstreamed in society for the better and for the worse. The advantages of heightened sexual conversation and behavior in culture today has allowed better birth control to the healthy preparation of young adults for the complications of intercourse. However, with the ability of streaming pornography right to every teens fingertips, there is a possibility of increased aggression towards women and "promotes a (cultural) climate in which acts of sexual hostility directed against women are not only tolerated but ideologically encouraged" (Malamuth & Ceniti 1).

In a study titled, “Repeated Exposure to Violent and Nonviolent Pornography: Likelihood of Raping Ratings and Laboratory Aggression Against Women” done by Neil M. Malamuth and Joseph Ceniti two main finds were prevalent throughout the research. First the study showed that the “exposure to messages in violent pornography suggesting that aggression against women has positive consequences, is justified or is erotic, may implant and/or strengthen these ideas in the audience as well as stimulate certain arousal processes that might ‘energize’ aggressive responses” (Malamuth & Ceniti 6). In addition, sexual aggression is prevalent in those after immediately watching the material, however if later stimuli were to “reactivate violent pornography's messages when a later opportunity to aggress exists” (Malamuth & Ceniti 6), aggressive tendencies increased. Seeing that pornography’s abusive depictions have damaging effects on those who watch such material, it is shocking to reveal that almost of all mainstream pornography shows physical aggression towards women.

In an eye-opening article by Michael Flood reviewing the Australian book entitled, “The Porn Report,” he points out some fallacies within the book's contents, however he also illuminates the fact that porn is very aggressive towards women. In 88% of today’s top grossing pornographic videos physical aggression towards women was depicted in ways like: spanking, open-hand slapping, hair pulling, choking, and bondaging of women. Further, out of those videos 48.7% showed verbal aggression toward the women like name calling and yelling derogatory commands. To bring it home, from all that aggression 95% of the women responded pleasurably or neutral to the aggressive act (Flood), brainwashing young men to believe “if they do that to another girl not only will she be okay with it, she’ll like it.”

Similarly in a study done by a University of Oklahoma professor, John D. Foubert, “Pornography Viewing among Fraternity Men: Effects on Bystander Intervention, Rape Myth Acceptance and Behavioral Intent to Commit Sexual Assault”, he exposed that “41% of the most popular mainstream pornography movies today are scenes in which a man puts his penis in a woman’s anus followed immediately by placing it in her mouth so that she can taste her own excrement, known as ass to mouth” (Foubert 4). With all these scenes of physical and verbal discrimination of women overtime creates a stigma of superiority towards women instilled in young males and allows for the increased acceptance of violence towards women.

To tie in the effects of such aggressive material, one must see how the women on the receiving end feel. In an article by “Fight The New Drug” (FTND), an anti-pornography organization that surveyed 10 ex-porn stars about some of their most popular scenes, exposed that none of the stars like what they have to go through in order to thrive in the industry. One account came from a woman named Alex, who described a scene with a male performer with a known hatred for women who punched Alex several times during the scene. “If you noticed, [he] had worn his solid gold ring the entire time and continued to punch me with it. I actually stopped the scene while it was being filmed because I was in too much pain” (FTND) said Alex, who also noted she tried to forget this scene “due to the severe abuse that I received during the filming” (FTND). The research stacks up against the aggression towards women and the correlation with obsessive pornography use, especially violent porn, to the point that enough is enough.

From the same organization, Fight The New Drug, Dr. Harry Fisch, MD was interviewed on the topic of porn and relationships, which he insisted, “Porn isn’t just risky business; it’s a killer for your sex life” (FTND). He explains that when watching porn men can begin to experience problems in the bedroom, and may even compare his live-woman to the stars he’s watching online, which results in a loss of intimacy and attraction during intercourse. Fisch went further to say, “If he can only have an orgasm when watching porn, and if he becomes accustomed to having orgasms only in a certain way or while watching a certain thing, he’s in trouble…” (FTND). Constant use of the porn usually leads to less and less satisfying sex in reality, meanwhile the virtual sex world is thriving due to the amount, variation, and quality of the sex portrayed online. In sum, Fisch states, “Porn can set these men up for very warped and hurtful encounters with women who won’t ever play by the totally ludicrous rules of porn” (FTND) which is a message that each young porn user should know when watching pornographic material, “WARNING: THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WILL GET IN REAL LIFE.”

Seeing that there are proven harmful negative effects of obsessive use of pornography, the accessibility of the material to the public and specifically the youth, and the discrimination inflicted upon the actresses of the porn industry it is a shame to see nothing has been impactfully done to reform such a system. Luckily organizations like Fight The New Drug and Enough is Enough and legislation like the Children Protection Act of 2001 which filtered the internet for schools and libraries for federal funding, are making the first steps to reducing the harm of pornography in the United States. Even more focused and organized than other Western countries is the United Kingdom which has had a very successful run in limiting pornography, especially violent porn. In Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act of 2008 (CJIA) some types of violent pornography was punishable up to 3 years in prison (CJIA). In 2006 the UK government even announced plans to ban the material entirely, but retaliation from BDSM (Bondage/Discipline and Sadism/Masochism) and civil rights group killed the movement.

After All pornography in the United States is not protected under the first amendment, and confirmed in Supreme Court cases Miller v. California, Roth v. United States, and Memoirs v. Massachusetts. In Miller v. California, Marvin Miller a Californian mail-order businessman who vended various pornographic materials, and advertised through public handouts and mail was arrested due to the graphicness of the material. The case definitively set standards for how to access the obscenity of given material using a three-pronged test called the Miller Test. The modified test reviewed material based on: (a) whether 'the average person, applying contemporary community standards' would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest. . . (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (Oyez). With the viewing of most pornography, any user is likely to note that top porn sites like PornHub, XVideos, and XNXX do not show videos that encompasses “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

As said before the purpose of this message is not to strike down pornography or entirely denounce the industry, but instead to show how this realm of sex commercialization can be harmful to everyone involved. There are men and women in this world that can view pornography, masterbate to it, and watch it incessantly but still walk away without it having largely impact their life. On the other hand, as research shows there are a lot more who are harmfully affected by watching such material, especially young teenagers. With the knowledge of this report, one can analyze their sexual behavior, needs, and desires to see if their pornography usage is excessive or appropriate to their personal relationships. If the usage of such material desensitizes emotions and feelings, causes scrutiny of one another’s bodies, or becomes a “hook-up” type relationship then porn may be a likely source of the problem (Dame Magazine). Dr. Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, and founding member of Stop Porn Culture notes in an article with Dame Magazine, “The average 12-year-old boy is not putting ‘porn’ into Google because he wants to see ‘gag me and fuck me,’” says Dines. “He thinks he might see breasts or naked women, then he gets catapulted into this world of violence. Remember they have not had sex before. When you’re 12, it’s the only thing you’ve got to measure against” (Dame Magazine). So the exposure to such videos and the abundance of it renders young viewers helpless to the harmful effects of pornography. Sex is something that is up-close, personal, and intimate which modern, popular pornogophy does not promote. So in all, pornography is always a choice of the user, but one must be aware of the harm it can be doing to their perceptions, relationships, and psyche.

SOURCES

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