posted
<resists temptation to start hatrack porncon>
Been thinking about Belle's post. I'm not sure if this has been suggested already (I haven't read the entire thread), but doesn't it make more sense that the causality is the other way around?
Isn't it more likely that people who have societally unacceptable sexual desires, and particularly those with illegal ones, would turn to pornography in search of greater stimulation without crossing moral or legal lines by acting out? Then, when this fails, they actually become the people we talk about in these statistics.
Doesn't that make more sense?
Isn't it more likely that a serial killer would enjoy a violent video game that simulates being a serial killer than that such a game would influence someone who had no desire to do that into doing it?
In short, shouldn't we be viewing *abuse* of pornography as the symptom, not the cause, here?
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I think it's both. Certainly intense use of porn can signal a deeper problem. I also think that a person with very mild addiction can become worse when encouraged by the porn to seek out more and more.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Don't forget, there's also the interesting idea that porn isn't bad in and of itself, but because some parts of society label it bad and, thefore, it's consumption as 'bad', this causes the person viewing it as seeing themselves as 'bad'. A kind of 'objectification'! OMG!
Of course, you know, our objectificationists are freedom fighters, yours are terrorists. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I don't see how the porn encourages someone to seek more and more.
I can see how someone might go after more and more intense pornography as they discover it out there, but that's because the less intense porn isn't satisfying to them... not because the porn somehow leads them to it. The only way that would happen is if the titillation of doing something "wrong" is the attraction... and, if that's the case, the defect is with the person, not the porn.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
PSI, I didn't say that shotgun weddings was condoning premarital sex, but the fact that the marriages weren't forced and that there were "teachers" of love (in the physical sense) is an indication that premarital sex was not frowned upon. More in-depth reading of the Puritan lifestyle will show you where they encouraged young love, including physical love. Like I said, however, they didn't endorse rampant sex between everyone. I'm not going to go into all of the history lessons on the Puritan lifestyle, because it's totally off-topic and is better found by visiting your local library.
Posts: 779 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Jim, your theory does not fit with the experiences of the man that Belle described.
As to if someone would need harder and harder things to get a titillation high, everything from reality shows trends to the height of roller coasters answer that question.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:As to if someone would need harder and harder things to get a titillation high, everything from reality shows trends to the height of roller coasters answer that question.
katharina, I do not know enough about how other people's private relationships work to be speaking with authority about them. I want to be clear about that, especially in such a delicate matter. I can, however, just speak for myself.
For me, reading erotica is no more compulsive in that sense than is just having sex, or eating a great indulgent meal, or reading an Orson Scott Card novel, or any other of the pleasures which lie within the boundaries I've proscribed myself. Just as "just having sex" doesn't become "not enough" merely by the repitition, no do the others.
On the other hand, should I want to become frenzied by something purely for the sake of enjoyment, I make it forbidden in my mind. I'm currently involved in just such a relationship with the "Who is John Galt?" bumper sticker on my neighbor's car. (I'm not being facetious, BTW, and I'm not trying to make fun. This is a confession. ) The depth and obsessiveness of my brooding about how unkind it would be to deface it, how cruel and yet how sweet. It would be Bad,and those times I want to be Bad, I dwell on the possibilities.
However, I do know that I probably won't give in, and if I should, I would give him another copy to replace it, along with a note of apology and explanation. Anonymously, though.
There isn't something about erotica itself that has magical powers, at least for me. Instead, I use it as a tool to find out more about myself and -- in sharing -- more about my husband instead. He loves me to be happy, and he loves to have me figure out what makes me happy at various times in my life. This is all in the context of a very clearly defined priority of caring for one another and maintaining the exclusivity of our intimacies.
Actually, probably sharing as much as I have would make him uncomfortable, so let me just but out for awhile. We do both feel pretty strongly about the importance of examined sexuality (of whatever sort, deliberate celibacy included) in the leading of a mentally and physically healthy life.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
Hey, <shrug> if you guys don't get it or agree, that's fine.
I particularly find the roller coasters a poor comparison... or a good one if you like:
What we are talking about is like saying that roller coasters are bad because they lead people to have thrill issues and do dangerous and illegal things like free-climbing in cities or playing chicken.
While it's obvious that people who enjoy playing chicken would probably also enjoy roller coasters, it would be silly to say that riding roller coasters causes chicken matches, though I bet if you surveyed a hundred people caught playing chicken as to what their favorite amusement park ride is, I bet they'd all be thrill rides.
Edit to add thanks to CT and Belle for sharing so deeply from their personal experiences.
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