Porn has moved from being a taboo secret you keep to yourself to becoming popular in mainstream media.
There’s no denying porn has both positive and negative aspects when it comes to its effects on our society. Personally, I think it’s okay for people to legally indulge in porn to learn how to be intimate with their bodies and what sexual interests they’d like to pursue.
Adults who consume porn reported to be less sexually repressed and more tolerant toward other people’s sexualities, according to a 2007 Australian Journal of Communication article.
For so long, people were told to repress their sexual feelings and view them as something wrong and shameful but in reality, we should be teaching our society about tolerance and acceptance.
Matthew Capriotti, San Jose State associate psychology professor, said while porn is ubiquitous, his research indicated it’s not causing societal problems.
“The vast majority of people using pornography do so without having much of a negative effect,” Capriotti said in a Zoom call.
He said he believes if porn was causing problems in society, there would be more documentation of it.
“There were some studies I read that showed . . . 98% of men and 75% of women have accessed some form of pornography in the last six months,” Capriotti said. “There’s not much clear evidence to say that porn is causing problems.”
Capriotti said he also thinks the positive effects of porn consumption are under-reported.
“Pornography can provide a place for people to explore what they’re interested sexually in ways that are private and reasonably safe,” Capriotti said.
There’s an obsessive narrative that porn ruins relationships, that it kills love, changes people’s view of what sex actually is and is the root cause of society’s detriment.
Instead, those same people pushing that narrative are hiding what’s actually killing love, relationships and society. It’s not porn, it’s the hyperfocus and continuous, thankless need to produce value for society.
Let’s turn our attention and look at Japan’s porn industry for example: It’s estimated worth is around $20 billion, according to a March 2, 2015 GQ article.
GQ is a part of Condé Nast, an organization that covers various topics including news and entertainment, according to its webpage.
While Japan is producing and selling a lot of porn, they understand porn isn’t the reason relationships are not being formed and love is being killed.
Adults in Japan are suffering from overwork. Japanese workers are not taking time off that they’re entitled to because of the workaholic culture that has been instilled in their society, according to a Jan. 17, 2020 BBC article.
People can’t find love and build relationships if their “free” time is used excessively for work.
The same thing is happening in China, a country where porn has little influence on society.
The Chinese government continuously censors pornographic material, whether it’s visual or literary, according to a July 9, 2020 South China Morning Post article.
South China Morning Post (SCMP) is a Hong Kong-based news organization that reports about China and anything related to it, according to its webpage.
Even with the Chinese government continuously censoring porn, adults are still making the choice to move away from work and relationships.
Young Chinese workers faced a severe working culture known as “996,” which means working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for six days a week while not being able to afford a home, according to an Oct. 24 SCMP article.
As we see again, this time in a different country that doesn’t allow porn in society, people are being overworked and have no free time on their hands to even try to build a relationship.
Young Chinese workers responded to 996 with “lie flat” or “tang ping” in Mandarin. “Lying flat” means to do the bare minimum and do what is absolutely essential for one’s survival including no relationships. The lifestyle is causing the Chinese government to worry about economic growth and lowering birth rates, according to the same SCMP article.
So, if the problem of forming relationships is happening simultaneously in one country that is a porn hotspot and another that bans it, why can’t Americans see that porn is not a detriment to society? The constant stress from overworking is the problem.
People should not feel alone or ashamed by consuming porn.
I freely admit to using porn in order to be intimate with myself and find out what interests me. People should have the choice to use porn as a means to explore themselves sexually.
