Porn - I use it and feel bad - help convince me porn is wrong

Some other thoughts

"Probably the first thing I?ve learned is how difficult it remains to talk about the existence, let alone the widespread consumption of pornography unless you start from a position of complete condemnation. Early on in the research we all did a bit of media about the project and I was struck by how black and white the debate often gets. Pornography is so often wrapped up as if it all belonged in the same box.

The second thing I?ve learnt from this project is that pornography and porn consumers are now almost as diverse as sexual attitudes and behaviours in the real world. There is definitely misogynist porn but there is equally lots of sexually explicit material that shows real people with real bodies enjoying themselves having sex and a lot of that material is exchanged for free by amateurs these days. The pornography that gets most of the attention in the media is not representative of what many people enjoy."

I noticed no-one commented, so I thought I'd post from the Porn Report, posted by some Australian Academics

Here's something from one of the links

"From this study I learned that many of our common sense assumptions about pornography are based on ignorance and prejudice rather than facts. A few points stick out.

There?s bad porn and good porn. Bad porn involves anything, at any point in the production, that is non-consensual. Good porn is consensual. But beyond that, there are no simple yardsticks for making value judgements. We found out from our analysis of best selling videos that good porn can have lots of complicated storyline to get you to the sex, or nothing except sex, sex, sex; no characters, or complex characters; straight sex or kinky sex; no music at all, or through scored soundtracks. This is because different audiences like to see different things, and so there are many different types of mainstream pornography. Two important strands are fantasy pornography and girl-and-boy-next-door-pornography. They are both very popular, but they are very different.

Fantasy pornography is what people think of when they think of Playboy ? unrealistically attractive men and women, with stereotypically beautiful bodies, the women with lots of make up and the men with big muscles, in expensive videos that have proper storylines and characters.

By contrast, girl-and-boy-next-door pornography features people who look like amateurs ? they have normal bodies, they aren?t very well groomed, and there are often no plots but just many scenes of people having sex in suburban rooms. So whenever somebody makes a general comment about porn (eg, it?s full of stereotyped beautiful bodies), they aren?t describing the real range of popular mainstream pornography.

I was also amazed from our survey of consumers of pornography by just how important it was to them that they want to see people who appear to be genuinely enjoying themselves in the videos. There?s so much talk about the violence and aggression in pornography that you?d imagine this is all porn consumers want to see. And that?s not true. It?s not political correctness that means porn consumers can?t see rapes ? the truth is that it just doesn?t turn them on. The viewers get turned on by porn actors who look like they?re turned on by what they?re doing. It?s common sense when you think about it ? but whenever you hear people talking about porn and its consumers, they never seem to get this simple point.

And in terms of production, it was a bit of a revelation when our research revealed a strong motivation for people making porn was that they are exhibitionists who were turned on by having sex in front of people. Again, hearing that, it?s one of those moments where you say ?Duh!?. Of course it makes perfect sense. It?s just amazing that nobody?s pointed it out before.

[http://www.thepornreportbook.com/]

they have a rota, I expect

inane

buzz off, fly

Aach Eggy & Beach you are wimmin in the extreme

& the rest of the world??

Yep Beach - spend all my evenings googling porn - 'tis my Daily Mail dead miscreant glory.

They deserve it don'tcha know

How profound

Spiderslegs, you are talking in riddles and not contributing to the discussion in any useful way.

Good lord - any behaviour is harmful.

If we behave in a way that hurts us.

If we behave favourably - we will be pleased.

Is it that hard??

Spiderslegs did you find this thread because you were googling porn by any chance?

For the 'I demand evidence that abuse is harmful' crowd.

Another depressing read I'm afraid.

www.shelleylubben.com/sites/default/files/pornstarsspeakout.pdf

I do

Yes - humans is as humans does.

& they should not because?

We says it is bad

& wrong

& dirty

& harmful

So yes Aye

Is that all you have to contribure after reading a 600 odd post thread, spinderslegs?

Really??

Am neither anti nor pro-porn.

but to bastardise a human behaviour beacuse 'we think it's filthy men stuff' is, quite frankly, self defeating, childish, idiotic nonscence.

Why should men not like to look at naked women??

Doing - stuff...???

Really??

& is it beyond your comprehension that some women may, for better or worse, gain a living from providing such a thing???

I mean that it's the mental (SFW ) image of the moment the buzzkill happens that keeps me reading and learning.

I know, dittany, and that's why I thank you and all the others with more stamina. My hope, along with seth's much more noble ones, is that we ruin the buzz for a porn user who has previously read one of these threads and actually starts to see the abuse. Because reducing the demand is just as (or more) important as tacking the supply end of things.

typo - all fine and everyone does it

The "porn is legal therefore you have to prove it does harm" argument is particularly callous and blinkered isn't it?

Stoning raped women for adultery, is legal in Saudi Arabia - I think most of us can see that such a practice causes harm.

I'm giving up for tonight. The most depressing thing is that exactly the same argument has been going on with different people on the thread in AIBU.

still, something has just occurred to me. At least the title of this thread has been visible in active convos for ages, raising the possibility for people who think it is all find and everyone does it, that 1. some porn users feel guilty and 2. some people think porn is wrong.

And, don't forget, that all concerned are choosing to earn their living this way.

You lot have more patience than me. Thank you from a lazy (or maybe just approaching burn out) lurker.

www.shelleylubben.com/porn-industry

"Out of about 1,500 performers in California, 37 people that we know of died from AIDS, suicide, homicide and drug related deaths between 2007 and 2010. 20 more died from medical causes to include lung disease, heart failure and cancer. These are only the deaths. There are many more living with diseases and cancers which are too numerous to count.

That is a total of 57 premature deaths. No other industry has these kinds of statistics, not even the music industry which is at least 10 times bigger than the porn industry. (Read my book for more statistics.)

When the deaths of 129 porn performers over a period of roughly 20 years were analyzed it was discovered that were an unusually large number of premature deaths from such causes as drugs, suicide, murder, alcohol abuse, accidental death, and disease. It was also discovered that the average life expectancy of a porn performer is only 37.43 years whereas the average life expectancy of an American is 78.1 years."