So what exactly is degrading about porn?

[Jersey Shortie]

Lets just call it like it is. These are the two major mentatlities of porn:

 

 

1. Women are just sexual objects who should spread their legs on command without a man having do anything but "be" and this of course makes the woman very happy and fullfilled just to give this man all the pleasaure he wants. She is nothing.

 

32. He is everything. Men are the BEST most wonderful things in the world and if they want to gag a woman on their penis the woman should thank their lucky stars that such a wonderful man is at least paying attention to some part of her. Isn't she lucky that such a superior male is giving her some scraps of attention?

 

Please tell me that I'm wrong. We all know I am not. That's the mentality of MOST porn.

[Engadget]

Lets just call it like it is. These are the two major mentatlities of porn:

 

 

1. Women are just sexual objects who should spread their legs on command without a man having do anything but "be" and this of course makes the woman very happy and fullfilled just to give this man all the pleasaure he wants. She is nothing.

 

32. He is everything. Men are the BEST most wonderful things in the world and if they want to gag a woman on their penis the woman should thank their lucky stars that such a wonderful man is at least paying attention to some part of her. Isn't she lucky that such a superior male is giving her some scraps of attention?

 

Please tell me that I'm wrong. We all know I am not. That's the mentality of MOST porn.

 

The second one is wrong. You seem to think all porn is like that, and it isn't. At all.

 

If women choose to take part in porn, they choose to take part. If they make women look bad, that's their fault. However you seem to believe people who watch porn are so stupid and impressionable that they think the real world works just like porn.

 

It doesn't.

[Jersey Shortie]

The second one is wrong.

 

It really isn't. But the fact that agree with the first comment is enough. But hey, it's okay for men to keep looking at porn because women are worthless. That's the message men are sending. Male sexual pleasure is MUCH more important then how women are treated.

 

You seem to think all porn is like that, and it isn't. At all.

 

If women choose to take part in porn, they choose to take part. If they make women look bad, that's their fault.

 

Yeah you're right. It's all women's fault. Forget all the men out there that choose to support the porn industry or the men that treat women poorly in the industry. After all, she is just a woman, she deserves it. She deserve to be treated any way a man whats because she got into the industry to begin with. Men on the other hand have no responsiblity for anything they also choose to do and give money, attention, and defendation of.

 

Yes, there are women that choose to do porn. But that is a very small subset of women. Most women don't choose to do porn. And I think it's understandable to see why a woman would be bothered by how women are represented inthe industry considering what a big draw it is for men and boys.

 

And the women that do get in the industry? Are usually either very naive about the industry or have little options. What isn't a small subset is the men that view and support the industry. The husbands, fathers, brothers, boyfriends..all those men with families and women in their lives that would NEVER want the woman in their lives treated like women in porn are but are HAPPY and sexually excited to see other women treated a certain way.

 

However you seem to believe people who watch porn are so stupid and impressionable that they think the real world works just like porn.

 

It doesn't.

 

You don't understand anything about what I believe.

 

Lets put it in these terms. Do you know why companies spend millions of dollars on advertising? Because it works. Do you know what the biggest objective of advertising is? Branding through repitition. If a human being sees something enough times, it chanages their thought pattern. If they've seen this advertising since they were kids, there is an emtional level to that product tied in. McDonalds continues to be the top fast food restaurant not because it's food is higher quality then other fast food resturants but because they have been around longer then any other. You might think you are highly above it, but you would be amazed at the level of subconcious advertising we are all drones to. I work in the advertising world, I know.

 

So apply those to pornography, and you can see the same mentality. If you are exposed to a medium enough times, since you were a young boy/girl, especially in those years when your growing, it changes you. you might not want to admit it, but the proof is in the pudding. Look at the things we find acceptable now that we use to not.

Edited May 20, 2010 by Jersey Shortie

[fral945]

Here's an interesting article about how pornographers market male vs. female porn:

 

http://www.netnanny.com/learn_center/article/122

 

http://www.netnanny.com/learn_center/article/117

 

I think the problems with porn can be traced back to male/female sexual wiring. The fact is that the majority of people that find it degrading are women (who don't watch it) and the majority of people that don't find it degrading are men (who by a landslide are the greatest consumers and viewers of porn). Male sexual nature is variety oriented with a strong emphasis on visual stimulation. Women are just not wired the same way, and I think that is where the problems start.

[Engadget]

When I see the words "Women don't choose to do porn" and a link to netnanny.com, you know it's pointless to even discuss this.

[JackJack]

"The fact is that the majority of people that find it degrading are women (who don't watch it) and the majority of people that don't find it degrading are men."

 

 

I'm a man, and I have said it before and will say it again. I find it far more degrading than what it used to be. Yes, I do think its gotten worse over the years, and yes I've seen my share over my life time, and yes, its alot worse.

 

I find this statement funny "The fact is that the majority of people who find it degrading are women WHO DON"T WATCH IT" Well guess what, these women who you feel find it degrading, must have watched it at some point to feel that way.

 

And for these ppl who keep chiming on and on about how the women in porn chose that path, no one is disputing that and that isn't even the issue. BUT finger pointing and blaming seem to be the thing around here. I mean I guess someone has to make themselves feel better to blame others for their choices. Thank goodness there are choices in the world. That way, if you learned over time you made a wrong one, you can go back and pick another choice. Like stopping or getting out of something you no longer like/enjoy.

[EnigmaXOXO]

And the one question everyone seems to want to avoid:

 

If on some small level you didn’t feel it was exploitive, belittling, disrespectful, and/or degrading towards those individuals involved… then why would not feel equally as enthusiastic about your own daughters and sons participating in an industry you clearly support and enjoy?

[Jersey Shortie]

The million dollar question that all too often gets talked around or avoided. No man with a healthy attitude of love towards his family wants to see his son or daughter in porn. I think that is espcially true of fathers for daughters. But it's okay for him to view and objectify other women. Because the message too many men are sending is that they find women worthless beyond t&A.

[LucreziaBorgia]

 

If on some small level you didn’t feel it was exploitive, belittling, disrespectful, and/or degrading towards those individuals involved… then why would not feel equally as enthusiastic about your own daughters and sons participating in an industry you clearly support and enjoy?

 

Liking porn doesn't mean you like the idea of your child doing porn. To suggest that if a person likes X, that by extension they would be ok with their kid participating in X is a fallacy. One has to do with what you like personally on a sexual level, the other has to do with parenting and protecting your child.

 

We as adults do things that we would never want our kids to do. Porn is no exception. Same for binge drinking, drugs, risky casual sex, getting involved in inappropriate relationships, etc. - all things that we personally might like to do despite the risks involved, but would not want our kids to do.

 

It isn't hypocritical, it basically just comes down to a simple fact: we aren't nearly as protective of ourselves as we are of our children, and we are far more protective of our own children than other children.

[SarahRose]

I'd like to add, to the posters who said most porn is pretty vanilla....there is an ABUNDANCE of WEIRD porn on the internet. You'll find a lot of porn involving violence, abuse, women being spat at, beaten, women crying, smacked and also an alarming amount of porn involving animals....in school people passed around links of a girl and a horse, a chinese girl and some weird fish and a girl with an octopus in her a**. There might be vanilla porn but an increasing amount of porn is becoming dangerous, immoral and almost circus freakish. There is a link between regular use of porn and needing to watch more shocking videos to get off. I'd like to add....that porn DOES effect SOME men and their sex life's. My last ex (the rebound ex) and i'm sorry to share this...without asking tried to give me a*** sex out of nowhere as though this was just taken for granted and in the middle of sex hit me hard around the face (again...just assuming he was allowed to) Of course this isn't all men, i'm not even saying its necessarily 10%, I don't know statistics...all I know is, it DOES effect SOME mens view of women and sex and their moral code.

 

What did you do when he did this to you?

[PandorasBox]

I will never really understand why some people think it is degrading. It is just that person's opinion, doesn't necessarily mean it is a fact. We humans were made to be sexually active, that's the way I see it.

 

 

I guess some people will never understand why its NOT either. But you're right its just an opinion.

[Taramere]

Well, I see "degrading" as meaning "reduced to a lower level of existence." Ignoring or disregarding a person's humanity.

 

With porn films, the point isn't to create a plot or develop characters you care about. It's purely to depict the sexual act with the aim of getting the viewer off. Porn deliberately objectifies the actors in the film, to make it easier for the viewer to get off. The point isn't to get them to sympathise and connect with the actors. They're objects to jerk off to, rather than people to relate to and care about. I mean, perhaps there are some viewers who develop some kind of emotional connection to specific porn actresses, but I don't think the primary aim of those films is to encourage the viewer to care about the characters who feature in it.

 

Lapdancing, escort services, the sex industry generally degrades those who participate in it....but there are many other ways in which people can be degraded. I think that it really boils down to deciding "yes, by general consensus this person is probably degraded in their occupation - but provided they consent to doing that job, it isn't really anybody else's concern." When it comes to nasty, violent porn, if there's any greyness about the consent issue then I would regard that as a serious matter that is society's concern. If, for instance, an actress has got into a situation she wasn't prepared for, and is being intimidated into doing a scene she doesn't want to do. As per the documentary "hardcore" which I've mentioned before on this board.

 

Also, if someone is placing a lot of pressure on their partner to re-enact something they've seen in porn, and humiliates them for refusing to go along with it....then in that sense porn is used to degrade people. You can't legislate against people degrading and humiliating eachother, and using porn as a weapon in doing so though. I think there's got to be a mid-point between the one extreme of pressurising women to embrace porn in their lives, and the other extreme of encouraging them to feel victimised by porn.

 

The fact that something's generally regarded as degrading doesn't mean you shouldn't do it if you think it might be fun, and you're not harming anybody. I've yet to hear a compelling argument, though, that porn isn't degrading. If it's not degrading, then rather than being porn it's probably more like an erotic film that engages the viewer on a number of levels (including emotionally) rather than simply being mindless, jerk-you-off porn.

[JackJack]

"They're objects to jerk off to, rather than people to relate to and care about".

 

I completely agree with this statement. And while that may be the case, there are alot of people in porn who no longer want that for themselves. They no longer want to be "objects" for others to jerk off to. They are hitting rock bottom for their choice, and getting out of the industry because they are realizing they are more worthy and are actually wanting to be treated like a human being. Yes, there are many porn stars still in the business and their self esteem probably helps to create not minding to be viewed as a object, so maybe one day they will wake up and get out of the "dollar sign" and I'm a "Object" fog. JMO.

[Taramere]

"They're objects to jerk off to, rather than people to relate to and care about".

 

I completely agree with this statement. And while that may be the case, there are alot of people in porn who no longer want that for themselves. They no longer want to be "objects" for others to jerk off to. They are hitting rock bottom for their choice, and getting out of the industry because they are realizing they are more worthy and are actually wanting to be treated like a human being.

 

Yes. The fact that they come to that conclusion might not automatically mean that working in the porn industry wasn't something that was right for them at that earlier point. Or something that helped them to redefine who they wanted to be.

 

Frankly, I think life has its way of degrading most of us at some point. It doesn't necessarily have to be sexual degradation. Look at celebrities who are down on their luck, and who decide to raise their profile by going on programmes like "I'm a celebrity - get me out of here!" I recall a bf sneering at me because I was hooked on one series of that show. He lectured me about watching such inane sh*te. Talked about the degradation of the people on it.

 

"A bit like your porn then?"

"Oh. I suppose. You're not masturbating to I'm a celebrity get me out of here though, are you?"

"No. Would it be more acceptable to watch it if I were?"

"Yes."

[sweetjasmine]

We as adults do things that we would never want our kids to do. Porn is no exception. Same for binge drinking, drugs, risky casual sex, getting involved in inappropriate relationships, etc. - all things that we personally might like to do despite the risks involved, but would not want our kids to do.

 

All of those things you listed are harmful and damaging. So what's harmful and damaging about doing porn?

 

Why would people not want their children to work in the industry even if they decide to do it as a fully informed adult? What makes it different from working as an actor on a soap opera?

[Jersey Shortie]

I think the ugly truth that most people don't want to admit that society has an acceptable standard that it's okay to degrade women for male sexual pleasure. That men with daughters and wives and gfs on some level, who enjoy the industry of porn, find it acceptable to degrade women on some level.

[JackJack]

All of those things you listed are harmful and damaging. So what's harmful and damaging about doing porn?

 

Why would people not want their children to work in the industry even if they decide to do it as a fully informed adult? What makes it different from working as an actor on a soap opera?

 

The majority of those people in that industry come from really bad backgrounds. No, not all, but alot. I've read about some of this stuff. Does it make it right for them to choose to get into that industry because of their upbringing, no, and yes they could have taken a different path. However, for whatever reason, false glam and money would be my guess. They thought that would make their life better and take their troubles away. It didn't, if anything it probably added to it. I would think too the main reason they are in it to begin with is, money, fame and most of all lack of self esteem/respect.

[LucreziaBorgia]

All of those things you listed are harmful and damaging. So what's harmful and damaging about doing porn?

 

Doing porn can be risky, as to be expected when you are having sex with multiple partners. You can also wreck your chances of a legit career later down the road if you don't 'make it' in porn. Some porn actors find themselves surrounded by and eventually succumbing to some pretty nasty drug habits. Just like in Hollywood, the industry can chew you up and spit you out and the ones who 'make it' are pretty far and few between, particularly in this day and age where cheap and free 'amateur' porn is overcoming the larger budget studio shot stuff.

 

Just the act of having sex for the camera? I don't find that in and of itself a harmful or dangerous thing - it is mostly the business itself and the 'side effects' that can be.

 

I wouldn't want my daughter getting into it for any particularly moral reasons so much as I would not want to see her grinded up in the 'acting business/entertainment industry' gears in general.