The Positive Benefits Of Pornography

Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.

It today’s society, pornography is a fast-growing epidemic that is evident in families, marriages, and teenage lifestyles. Supporters of pornography claim that it can be used as a tool to teach students about sex education. However, critics claim that pornography is unjust, influential, and dehumanizing. Pornography is unjust because it has the potential to break down intimate relationships and marriages. It can also have negative effects on children in particular young boys. More and more young boy’s minds are being influenced by pornography which is leading to misinterpretations about how to have a healthy sexual relationship. Most importantly, pornography dehumanizes women and it exploits children. Women and children are being victimized for the sheer pleasure of someone viewing pornography.

It’s a multi billion dollar industry, it easily accessible by adults and adolescents, its addiction rate is very high. Its not video games or cigarettes it’s Pornography. Pornography is tearing the fabric of society in half and the demand for it is higher than ever. Some people think pornography is just the simple viewing of scantily clad women but it is more than that. The psychological and mental state it puts people in is the worst. Some people think that there isn’t a problem with it but it takes a toll when you don’t notice the effects it is having on your character. With the introduction of the computer and/or internet, the distribution and viewing of these images is easier than ever. The time has come to eliminate the bonds between

In “Pornography, Oppression, and Freedom: A Closer Look”, Longino argues that porn is immoral because it is harmful to others and can mentally and physically affect an individual. In this essay, I will argue that porn is not immoral because the benefits of watching pornography outweighs the consequences. Aside from this, I will share my thoughts, with respect to Wicclair, on a better alternative with dealing with pornography.

Pornography is easily accessible through mediums such as the internet, DVDs, pay-per-view TV, and the print media, infiltrating every facet of popular culture including music, fashion, advertising and movies. In this essay, I will demonstrate how the ease of access to pornography and sexualised images has helped mould the personality and social perceptions of the individual. Pornography has become an acceptable part of mainstream society taking its place in popular culture. However, groups advocating for the banning of pornography such as church groups, social advocacy groups, women's groups, and members of the Government cite pornography as a danger to women and children, and responsible for the erosion of the moral fabric of society. ***expand??

Victor B. Cline who specialized in treating patients with pornography addiction writes, “The first change that happened was an addiction effect. The porn-consumers got hooked. Once involved in pornographic materials, they kept coming back for more and still more…. The second phase was an escalation effect. With the passage of time, the addicted person required rougher, more explicit, more deviant, and “kinky” kinds of sexual material to get their “highs” and “sexual turn-ons.” It was reminiscent of individuals afflicted with drug addictions.… The third phase was desensitization. Material … which was originally perceived as shocking, taboo-breaking, illegal, repulsive, or immoral, in time, came to be seen as acceptable and commonplace.… The fourth phase was an increasing tendency to act out sexually the behaviors viewed in the pornography, including … frequenting massage parlors (Cline).” American culture has normalized addictive behavior by saying it’s “healthy” and “educational.” Pornography teaches boys and men to dehumanize women and children and turn them into objects of sexual fulfillment. It is threatening to society when young boys and men are in create find fulfillment from sexual gratification whether it be through pornographic content, paid sexual encounters, or forced sexual intercourse. When men actively engage in pornography it creates a narcissistic personality. Rather than seeing a young girl with

The different conceptions of pornography are mainly associated with the meaning to give to “obscene,” “erotic,” “pure,” and “decent,” in relation to the representations or descriptions of sexually-explicit materials. (Sanchez, 234). This leads to mentioning how the feminist debate on pornography implies a challenge to the different assumptions on what is or what is not ethically permissible regarding sexually-explicit materials. Radical feminists argue that sexual intercourse by itself is dangerous, because it implies perceiving and treating a woman merely as a sexual object, and not as a person or as a subject with dignity that deserves respect. In addition, they claim pornography is an example of how in a patriarchal culture, a woman is not free to reject heterosexual intercourse, resulting in a public spectacle of exploitative and violent pornography through sex, denying a woman’s autonomy and subjectivity and forcing her to remain silent (Sanchez, 235). In contrast, liberal feminists are shown as the traditional defenders of the rights to produce and consume pornography and in general agree with J. Stuart Mill’s harm principle for ethical guideline. Moderate-liberals claim that some forms like violent or degrading pornography should be

Thesis – Multiple outlooks have been taken on the ethics of pornography, and the means by which it may either negatively influence power in sexuality, or actually provide some sort of social value and worth. These different ethical perspectives display the flaws in the industry and what it represents; yet they also end up proving the fact that it can be modified with positive influence and that pornography is not something to be deemed utterly unethical.

The majority of modern pornography is not art, and by using a selective definition of Leo Tolstoy’s version of art, and John Dewey’s theory of art as experience, we can determine that pornography is nothing more than shallow entertainment that exacerbates social inequalities of society’s gender roles. Despite this, pornography has the potential to become art, and should therefore not be censored.

Pornography is a term derived from Greek writing on prostitutes and is currently considered as any material such as words or pictures that is sexually explicit (West, 2004). Notably, this description includes different kinds of material in divergent contexts because of the different consideration of what sexually explicit material is from culture to culture. In some cases, pornography is described as sexually explicit material that is basically developed to produce sexual arousal in its viewers.

The demand for porn is evident. It has become a huge U.S. industry, not only for businesses directly associated with the sex industry, but for many other unexpected businesses. Americans spent

Lindsay Rohland (2015) defined an ethical dilemma as, “a complicated situation in which one must make a difficult choice or decision in the face of conflicting morals.” The choice between right or wrong may seem a challenging but a person’s morals are typically influenced by religion. Christianity has answers for every dilemma a person could be facing. The ethical dilemma of pornography will be analyzed by the Christian worldview, and compared to the perspective of the pantheistic worldview.

Pornography has, more than any other type of media, been on the bleeding edge of technology. Pushing new mediums to their limit, usually in the last way they were ever intended to be used (Gross, 2010). We start off the 20th Century with the Half-tone printing process being only two decades old. This was the first process that allowed images to be inexpensively reproduced. Magazines were the leading pornographic medium, and they were only available by mail. Then, with the advent of film, the Stag films were first produced in Germany and Latin America. With the arrival of do it yourself film equipment in the 1940’s anyone could make a film. The problem was it required a lab to make mass copies, and since porn was

MacKinnon asserts that pornography is ‘more act-like than thought-like’. In other words, it is an illocutionary act, in which the act of expression itself constitutes the intended action of silencing and subordinating women. It silences women by privileging the male perspective to such an extent that the female perspective disappears; it subordinates women by placing them in the role of a mere object to be used for the sexual satisfaction of men, thus enabling men to exert power over women. The dehumanising aspect of pornography functions by eroticising the removal of social values that are accepted as essential to human dignity. It is only to the extent that self-respect and the avoidance of pain are accepted as part of being human, that

Pornography is usually sexual content intended to arouse and give sexual pleasure. Pornography hasn’t always been an open subject for conversation. It’s an activity that people enjoy in private, but avoid discussing in public. Pornography has been around for many years, even before it was acknowledged has pornography. It dates to prehistoric times with the presence of nude sculptures. However, the 20th century was the actual wake of pornography, it introduced films, magazines, and porn sites. There were many obstacles that stem from the emergence of pornography, but it resulted in the success today. The perception of pornography has evolved tremendously over its existence, and it will continue to develop with time.