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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Porn. Not a thread about a thread so much as a thread ^inspired^ by a thread

267 replies

allsquareknickersnofurcoat · 22/02/2011 10:36

From what I have seen on MN, it seems I am in a very small minority not to have a problem with porn? Its a complete non-issue to me whether my DH uses porn.
I just dont understand it? Yes, I am aware that women can be exploited, but that is true of so many other things too. And it seems to be the porn itself that is the problem, rather than the working conditions that bothers people anyway.
What is so bad about watching people having sex? To anyone that says its poorly acted, why does that matter so much? Lots of TV programmes are poorly acted, that doesnt stop people enjoying them!

I obviously dont think AIBU, but am curious to know why people would think I am? And okay, part of me is hoping that the use of porn will have a less extreme reaction away from the Relationships board?

OP posts:
MogadoredMemoo · 22/02/2011 12:15

A high percentage of porn actress were sexually abused as woman.

I can show you stories of woman given cocaine and booze to 'get them in the mood'

The worse story I have read about was a Brazilian woman, forced to act in a porn film because they were holding her daughter hostage and threatened to hurt her if she did participate.

ShirleyKnot · 22/02/2011 12:15

Argh. I can never get my head round the scat stuff. Argh.

I don't like going into a bathroom where someone's had a shit let alone...argh

worraliberty · 22/02/2011 12:16

Maddonna my point is acting is acting. Personally I find lots of acting a bit disturbing like soap storylines for example. I think how it comes across is totally down to how professional the actors are.

ShirleyKnot · 22/02/2011 12:18

I would imagine it would be hard to be professional while having some bloke fuck you up the arse while you suck on someone elses cock.

Making a comparison between people acting in soaps (as vile as that may be) and people "acting" in porn is just..well, a bit mental IMHO.

PlentyOfParsnips · 22/02/2011 12:19

I think with porn, there are a load of different issues that get jumbled together in people's heads in a less than helpful way ... is it wrong to want to look? Is it threatening to a relationship? Is it necessarily exploitative? What are the effects on young people's expectations and on wider society? etc.

Leaving aside the production issues and the wider societal effects (for a moment - I'll come to them later) - I don't mind DP using porn as long as it's not instead of having sex with me and as long as it's not excessive (I do think it can be addictive). Visual porn doesn't do much for me but I can thoroughly enjoy a smutty book and my wank fantasies are no less hard-core than a lot of the stuff that's out there (do any of us really just think of our hand at these times?) I think porn is to do with fantasy. That's why it is full of unreal-looking women with exaggerated proportions and highly unlikely, excessive scenarios. I'm pretty sure most men would be terrified at the idea of a threesome in RL, for example, and I've never met a man who prefers plastic boobs (of course they could all be lying Hmm).

I think men are more visual than women in general but that doesn't mean they have to use porn, any more than I have to read a smutty book, or even just a romance novel. I don't think anybody should have to put up with their partner using porn (or books) if it bothers them. Anybody who just has to use it obviously has a problem. On the other side, I think it's unhelpful to brand men who are caught using it as perverted monsters, especially if it's never been discussed in a relationship. IME, most men, and quite a large proportion of women, will at some point have used it and enjoyed it.

So ... onto the wider issues:

I am fully aware that it's a pretty ugly industry and that a lot of the people involved are horribly exploited and sometimes raped but it's simplistic to pretend this is the whole story, or that this is the only exploitative industry out there (did anybody watch the programme about the mass rape of women in the Congo? That war is a lot to do with the control of mineral resources used in all our lovely high-tech toys). I don't think porn is going to go away, so I'd like to see it a lot better regulated and controlled - I'd like 'fair-trade' porn to be available and easily recognisable.

I hate the everywhereness of it too and am actually more concerned with the 'soft' and 'glamour' end of the scale here, right down to page 3. If porn was only available through licensed sex shops with blanked-out windows, I don't think it would be nearly so 'normalised'. It's the drip-drip-drip of lad's mags and the pornification of more mainstream media that does most of the damage to society's attitude towards women, IMO.

Thankyou for starting this thread. I wanted to say something on the other thread but it wouldn't have been right to. Please nobody link to that thread - for those who are curious, it was a very sensitive family/relationship problem that got hijacked Sad

bupcakesandcunting · 22/02/2011 12:19

"I would imagine it would be hard to be professional while having some bloke fuck you up the arse while you suck on someone elses cock."

You'd be surprised.

Cadmum · 22/02/2011 12:20

I have serious issues with the entire industry. I am happy to be married to someone who shares my views.

I would have a hard time maintaining a relationship of any kind with someone who would rather live in a fantasy world that exploits other human beings for the profit of those who exploit them.

Interesting article here with a perspective I have not seen here: nymag.com/nymetro/news/trends/n_9437/

bupcakesandcunting · 22/02/2011 12:21

"I can show you stories of woman given cocaine and booze to 'get them in the mood'"

This is also true. The one porn film I ever watched (aged 20, just to see what all the fuss was over) featured a girl so glazed over you could have shaved her head and she wouldn't have noticed. THAT played on my mind.

madonnawhore · 22/02/2011 12:22

worraliberty ok, so accepting that porn is pretend, it's just acting, men pretending to be aroused by cumming on a woman's face, and women pretending to be aroused by being doubly anally penetrated: given that that is all a contrived pretence, why is that a turn on?

madonnawhore · 22/02/2011 12:25

Very interesting post parsnips, thank you.

chandellina · 22/02/2011 12:25

as other have said very eloquently, it's not so much the having sex part, it's the misogyny and violence, and the way it shapes attitudes of what is normal and desirable.

I also agree with the view that it shuts men off from reality and porn becomes an easier way to fulfill their needs than dealing with a real live woman. (much like sex tourism ...)

ShirleyKnot · 22/02/2011 12:26

Someone showed me part of a porno once which was a woman kneeling on the floor on black bin liners while about 10 blokes stood around wanking and jizzing in her face.

The acting was appalling

I mean, seriously, the girl was so out of it she might as well have been a dummy. Poor, poor thing. How fucking awful.

worraliberty · 22/02/2011 12:27

Why are you asking me? Madonna lol. People get turned on by all sorts of things. A case of each to their own.

I would imagine it would be hard to be professional while having some bloke fuck you up the arse while you suck on someone elses cock

Oh I'm with you there! I guess that's where the skill of acting comes in.

DuplicitousBitch · 22/02/2011 12:30

porn is shite and people who use it are shit. amen

Malificence · 22/02/2011 12:30

If all you want to see is people actually having sex, there is lots of educational material available that is, for one thing, realistic and for another, it actually looks like the people involved are enjoying themselves, The lovers guide set actually has real life couples in it for example.
Sex - how to do everything, featured some real couples having real sexual experiences - I dont object to that type of sexual material.

The people in porn aren't having real, enjoyable sex, the positions are ridiculous, the men look angry and the women are dead eyed and are just depicted as fuck toys for the men to slap around.

I like erotic spanking stories, my husband knows I like them and is fine with that - if he wasn't and had genuine distress at the thought of me reading them then I wouldn't do it, at all.
No-one needs porn, not when it's at the expense of your partner's feelings.

madonnawhore · 22/02/2011 12:31

I find it disturbing and abohorrent that someone could be turned on by watching a woman pretend to enjoy being sexually degraded.

That is my priblem with porn.

madonnawhore · 22/02/2011 12:33

*problem

DuplicitousBitch · 22/02/2011 12:34

people should go dogging, fresh air, nice walk, watching some strangers arse going at it like a demented bike rack whats not to like?

worraliberty · 22/02/2011 12:36

It's interesting from reading this thread how many people who don't watch it, claim to know so much about it.

the men look angry and the women are dead eyed and are just depicted as fuck toys for the men to slap around

How many films are you basing that opinion on? I mean have you watched more than say 1 or 10? Either way if those were the sort of movies you watched, then yes that does sound awful.

bupcakesandcunting · 22/02/2011 12:36

I'll call for you in ten, Duplicitous Wink

DuplicitousBitch · 22/02/2011 12:37

[puts on sensible shoes and cagoule]

DuplicitousBitch · 22/02/2011 12:39

the men look angry and the women are dead eyed oh sounds like eastenders on a good day

Malificence · 22/02/2011 12:40

Oh don't DB!
I googled a local country park at the weekend and now know far too much about the best dogging spots and the gay cruising network - What's this fascination they have with public toilets? In Asda of all places! Confused
DH and I were Shock at some of the places and I will be suspicious of any men walking their dogs alone from now on.

DuplicitousBitch · 22/02/2011 12:42

mmmm the smell of an asda loo i enough to get me going

madonnawhore · 22/02/2011 12:42

DuplicitousBitch, sounds spectacular except for the whole 'it's illegal' thing.