HAVE HUMANS EVER RENEGED PORN?

Throughout history, from primitive to modern civilizations, humans have always attempted passing on sex life with whatever they have got — from signs, languages to anything capable of tabulating such activities.

Everything happens for a reason, so does porn. Before breaking down this inherently deep-seated issue, the best advice is to fence off emotions — for every of which is good for nothing. On one hand, given the far-reaching subsistence of oodles of against-the-grain practices — such as pornography, prostitution, and drugs — no human “pungency” could have straightforwardly done away with any, let alone the fact that the latter, nevertheless, hails from the perpetuation of the former — deep-rooted customs and contemporary social values.

After all, it seems our personal emotions towards certain events, per se, are not that “personal”, but the projection, recreation [and manifestation] of social prejudices on the so-called “individuals”.

Instead, we hereby offer autonomy: while zeroing in pornography, we suggest ferreting out its wellspring, along with every reason for its cataclysmic prevalence — to eventually take heed that its subsistence is an inherent part of ourselves, as well as our society. Only then can we come to our own conclusions — for not until we have fathomed an issue could those turn out judicious and fruitful.

The overt expressions of emotion — contorted to prejudices and societal worldviews — on the other, spell out no difference with those of the brainwashed soldiers, under the command of dictatorial generals. Given that a such logical flow — by evading the ultimate truths — is seldom weary, nor arduous, its critical drawback is, nevertheless, engendering a life not only remote from reality, but also heedless of sudden death.

1. The human “adaptability”

Throughout history, from primitive to modern civilizations, humans have always attempted passing on sex life with whatever they have got — from signs, languages to anything capable of tabulating such activities.

Before languages, drawings took the wheel. Evidence varies, from as early as nude cave paintings, which dated back to ove 2.6 million years ago, to primordial scrolls (Turin Erotic Papyrus) during the Ramesside kingdom of Egypt (1292–1075 BC) in which heterosexual activities were logged [1], [2]. Not until the 1860s did the erotic Roman sculptures and murals (27 BC — 476 AD) were unearthed [3] by the Victorians, who in turn were so dumbfounded and ashamed of their predecessors’ “civilization” that stowed away such discoveries. Back then, they took fierce pride as the intellectual inheritance of the Roman Empire — who had been born as pure as angels, thus, could never fan out kinky cultural products as such [4].

As soon as languages popped in, literary works and poems on human desires also breezed in alongside. Among which were such epics as the Kama Sutra — the ancient Hindu document on sexual positions and bohemian lifestyles [5]; Hymn to Aphrodite — the lyrical Greek poem, the first to gain reputation as a lesbian erotic work [6]; The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight — the 15th century Arab sex manual [7]; or Fanny Hill — the first erotic English novel by John Cleland in 1748. His work, nonetheless, is one of the most fiercely prosecuted and banned books along the history of English literature for it “disgraces the King’s villagers” [8], which sounds no less familiar.

Howbeit, not every artwork depicting sexual scenes or nude figures is pornography.

Back then during the early days of ancient civilizations, records of sexual activity often emblematized religious, spiritual rituals or cults of the gods. For example, nude figures of both genders were unearthed by the shrine of Inanna the Sex Goddess of Sumer since the early 2nd millennium BC [9]. There have also been discoveries of disguised, erotic works brought about by French revolutionaries for political purposes [10].

To put into perspective, pornography definitions, oftentimes, are subjective and vary between different historical, cultural and geographical contexts. Every so often, one’s exalted statue of the goddess Venus can end up others’ masturbation material. On the whole, the standard formula of a pornographic product is as follows: (1) a writing or visualization of sexual or erotic acts using human bodies that showcases (2) intentional violations of social and ethical norms, and aims at (3) evoking sexual desires. For the most part, such works date back to the 1600s [11].

Then came the dawn of technological advents wherein pornography was hastily incorporated and fervently “upgraded”.

By 1839, Louis Daguerre invented the daguerreotype — the first photographic technology with each daguerreotype being a single photograph saved on a silver plate. Albeit ousted since the 1860s, as soon as a such invention rolled in, it gave way for the very first nude and erotic images. The earliest surviving erotic daguerreotype, in this manner, is a 1846 photograph demonstrating an intercourse [12].

In a like manner, when public cinemas punched in by the late 1800s, they indeed came hand in hand with short pornography, such as “Le Coucher de la Marie”, a 1896 French erotic product, thereby ushering in the Golden Era for this genre until the 1970s. Thereafter, by the 1980s, the advent of cameras, as well as family projectors, allowed users to record videos directly onto VHS tapes. Consequently, anyone who owned a personal camera could since shoot their own amateur porn tapes. This has since marked the heyday of porn [13].

Recently enough, as soon as VR technology, albeit yet completed, rolled in, VR porn also unveiled. Priorly, it even took shapes of animated, 3D-ed videos, or those imbued in a host of kindred technologies [14].

Withal the ardent development of video-recording technologies, others have also vehemently enhanced user experience. While grandparents had formerly no choice other than renting erotic magazines, books, and movies, their grandchildren are instead homing in personal computers and smart phones with ultra-high-speed connection to ensure 4K-quality masterpieces.

Over time, porn has unveiled every potential of an auspicious, all-powerful industry. Demand on this market is onerous, up to snuff with individualism and the developmental pace of technology, let alone the unlimited consumption capacity. What we should puzzle over, is not its exponential growth, but why should such a fortune be prohibited? Take heed that a host of nations has already legalized the production, storage and application of pornography — a de facto global sovereignty of porn.

According to statistics from a notorious pornographic site, there were 42 billion visits in 2019 alone, which spelt out an average of 115 million searches on a daily basis; 6.83 million videos had been uploaded — which amounts to some 169 years to slog through the new 2019 content only [15].

Though the market volume of which seems equivocal (since the majority of products are private, nor is there any uniformity in definition of ‘adult’ videos). To date, heaps of reports estimate the current net worth of the global porn industry is some 97 billion USD (in which the US market accounts for 10 to 13 billion) [16].

That said, this “industry” is not so peculiar from those of alcohol and tobacco — they are all potentially cataclysmic (which can indeed be proven).

Ambiguity about which, nevertheless, turns out woefully trivial to the profits and customer satisfaction.

Porn, after all, is inherently pernicious. But how pernicious?

2. Not-that-straightforward cataclysms

No one would ever puzzle over every 21st century technological advent “whether it is pernicious”: we indeed are subsisting amid a safe world which abears oodles of hazardous inventions. From the traffic to eating habits, everything is, and always comes hand in hand with tons of “instructions for use”. The safeguard to which, however, is that humans have stayed heedful of each. In this manner, before scrutinizing pornography, we must adopt the perspective of a rational user, instead of a sex maniac. Straightforwardly enough, that is not how life works.

On the whole, porn breeds two major inflictions: to consumers, as well as “producers” within this industry.

For users, there have recently been heaps of studies on online pornography addiction. However, researchers have yet determined ì this is a pathology (or behavioral addiction). Indeed, this addiction may imply an overlapping pathology (sex mania) with a bewildering variety of symptoms [17].

Even though we can intuitively spell out every such pornographic mischief — akin to rote learners dully responding to teacher’s questions — these are no less poles apart with actual scientific research. Claiming it “addictive” and psychologically detrimental, we have yet laid any ground for that proclamation — for to date, no medical organization has de facto declared it an addictive behavior, even the most severe signs have only been classified as “compulsive” (akin to masturbation or door locking, those with such compulsions are reasonless about their behaviors) [18].

Controversially enough, there is yet any research to establish a direct link between pornography and mental harm (causality). Instead, pornography is deemed the “consequence” end rather than the “cause”. One, for example, evidences the more lonely one is, there more he tilts towards porns [19]. A 2018 study on 1600 people, on the other hand, indicates that it is the guilt, disgust, and discomfort upon committing this behavior porn that hobbles viewers’ mental health [20].

Another 2017 study even purports signs of depression within porn consumers who perceive it as morally wrong, whilst others, except for high-intensity porn viewers, rarely developed similar symptoms. Strikingly enough, this study also asserted that the depressed, on the other hand, did not discern porn as an against-the-grain practice — they often turned to these videos to do away with their volatile psychological state. In other words, this study concludes that men with depression, as a rule, often home in porn with high intensity [21].

Intriguingly, viewers who perceived it as morally decaying (but still savored it) often gnawed at themselves, per se, as addicts, however much they actually consumed [22]. Worse still, the more people reckoned themselves as porn maniacs, the more likely they were abearing some symptoms of depression [23].

On the contrary, a host of research even indicates the majority of porn viewers rarely experience any adverse effects [24].

However, porn is not entirely innocuous. It, accordingly, can spoil actual experience upon inflicting false expectations. A 2018 study found that those homing on it too often may perceive their sexual life as drearily dull [25]. Other research, worse still, even proves its onerous impacts on first sexual experience [26].

This makes sense, for not only porn, but pert-near every other genre of pop culture leverages factual magnification that engenders woefully falsified expectations. For example, some are oftentimes at loss upon bigoting self-helps which puffs up and romanticizes reality, or Korean movies that often distort our perception of love. Pornography, by the same token, also miscontrues the way people actually delve in, or “feel” during sexual activities. Above all, living amid a society that tolerates mediocre sex education, seeing porn as the instructors, indeed, might turn everyone sexually depraved [27].

Whilst the user harm is yet straightforward enough, the internal pitfall within this industry is. The production of porn, accordingly, comes hand in hand with a host of consequences on sexism, sexualization of female figures, precarious working environment, so on and so forth [28]. Behind the scenes that are over and over remade and arranged in alignment with the director’s will — lie the physical and mental damage to the actors/actresses [29], let alone bold risks of running these companies into illegal activities — to best satisfy the customer taste — such as ch1ld p0rnogr4phy, or sex traffickings [30].

Bizarrely enough, humans are still sticking to a heinous part, per se, of themselves, however civilized this society is.

On the balance, the problem lies more within us than porn.

This article, nonetheless, is not to back porn consumption — for it is illegal. Rather, we argue why the actual problem, for the most part, is the consumers of which. Without porn, they would still excessively consume sugar, stay addicted to Facebook, alongside heaps of games, or lying still while doing all these. It is every such behavior that, mutatis mutandis, has been proved more cataclysmic than porn.

As for those who indulge themselves in porn movies upon reading this article, take heed of your, if any, psychological problems. Porn maniac is merely one manifestation of such hazards.

Having learned porn is not really detrimental (as rumors have it), rarely can I ferret out any motivation to watch it more often — for I, straightforwardly enough, have de facto no reason to.

For truths are always entangled, while a life is never wrecked by some movies alone, nor could halting the latter better the former.

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References:

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