Pornography. You either love it or hate it. You either watch it alone, with a partner, or not at all. Whatever your opinion is, it’s a part of life. The statistics on porn in the United States are wild. Nearly 40 million Americans regularly visit pornography sites, and 1/3 are women. (Internet Pornography by the Numbers, n.d.). Every day, 68 million search queries are related to porn.
What qualifies as pornography? Pornography is sexually explicit material that a person views offline or online on the Internet. It depicts sexual activity in unconcealed ways. There are three different types of pornography: erotica, nonviolent pornography, and violent pornography. We’re going to investigate the long-term consequences of nonviolent pornography. So, what does nonviolent pornography mean? Nonviolent pornography is the sexual activity among casual acquaintances, by satisfying sexual desires and fantasies. (Gruman et al., 2016). It lacks passion and sensitivity between partners, that’s found in erotica film.
Meta-analysis research has discovered that exposure to nonviolent pornography in males can lead to negative attitudes about women. Other research has concluded that the more pornography a male consumes, the higher the possibility they would have negative attitudes about women. However, others argue that a person’s attitude may precede consumption. This is basically saying that men with more negative attitudes tend to consume more pornography.
Okay, this blog post isn’t to bash men and their porn consumption. In fact, watching nonviolent porn can affect attitudes towards family values in both men and women. Family values include the parental commitment and nurturance of children. Nonviolent pornography shows a lack of emotional involvement. Does watching porn conflict with a person’s family values? A study concluded that it does. 70 men and 70 women watched nonviolent pornography. It consisted of six one-hour videos over six weeks. At the end of the study, the participants were less sexually satisfied, more accepting of myths related to health risks of sexual repression, more accepting of nonexclusive sexual intimacy, more accepting or premarital and extramarital sex, lowered their value on faithfulness in relationships, and wanted fewer children. (Gruman et al., 2016). One can say these are serious and negative consequences, over the period of six weeks.
Other individuals who watch pornography find it “sexually liberating”. (Collins, n.d.). A study conducted by Weinberg and colleagues found that men and women who view porn, associated it with feeling empowered and confident within their intimate relationships. Men and women felt more comfortable with their sexual knowledge, feelings about sexual activity, and their perceptions of the opposite gender.
Where do you stand? Do you think porn can negatively harm a person’s perspective on women and their family values? Or do you find it empowering?
Works Cited
Collins, R. (n.d.). Effects of Porn: A Critical Analysis. PhilPapers. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://philpapers.org/rec/COLEOP
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Internet Pornography by the Numbers: A Significant Threat to Society. (n.d.). Webroot. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.webroot.com/us/en/resources/tips-articles/internet-pornography-by-the-numbers#:%7E:text=40%20million%20American%20people%20regularly,of%20porn%20viewers%20are%20women.
In general, I believe that it conflicts with family values. I’m not anti-pornography but I do believe that it can have effects on family and intimacy. Yes, I do believe that some can find it sexually liberating however, in order to have this feeling of expression one must have a partner that feels the same way. I would like to see the number from a study of people that have married with extremely liberal views and what the divorce rate is in comparison to typical couples. The graph in our reading showing how pornography can affect intimacy and exclusiveness is something that makes sense of a relationship. I do not believe that it is extremely detrimental though, I believe that it may have an effect but that effect in most cases would be minimal.