Has the acceptance in society of PORNOGRAPHY and objectification of females and males (to a lesser extent) had

a negative effect upon how you evaluate the opposite (or same) sex?





Why I am asking this question:





A preoccupation with promiscuous sex that was first introduced to me through pornographic film shaped my younger mind in regards to what I found "attractive" in females and shaped my perception of what women were "good for".





What I'm about to say is NOT an ego trip as I'm not looking for admiration or disgust etc. I can't remember how many women I have slept with, I can't remember their names or even every face. My memory is fine in case you're wondering, I can vividly recount events that occured when I was four years old.





I once thought this was great but now I realise it is unnatural and I personally feel social engineering through the mainstream and pornographic media(which seem to be merging) has had an effect on my choices sexually.





I think pornography is widely accepted and permeates mainstream culture like never before in the history of humankind.

Has the acceptance in society of PORNOGRAPHY and objectification of females and males (to a lesser extent) had
Well, as a woman I agree pornography objectifies women, but I think fashion and many women's magazines also trade, to a lesser extent of course, on the flesh of women. That said, I don't think many men look at women's magazines. And I doubt that they would objectify women because of the images they saw there.





So, I've seen lust in men's eyes when they look at me. (Not bragging here.)





I much prefer desire in the eyes of the one I love.





Since men usually respond to visual stimuli, it makes since that they might want to look at porn. As is true of many things in life, too much of a good thing might not be so good after all. I plan to talk to my son about porn (when he's older-10?). I want him to know that it can become an addiction like any other: alcohol, drugs, overeating, or video games.





I'm not sure what it is about repeatedly seeing women with their clothes off that makes viewers of porn begin to devalue them. Perhaps, seeing someone literally disrobed gives the viewer a feeling of power that itself becomes addicting?





I think the whole porn transaction leaves much to be desired. I'm not sure how many of the models are proud of the pictures five or ten years later. What about the models' children? (If we're talking about film, I'm sure there are even more regrets.) Others, like you, have had their ability to relate to women damaged by their viewing of porn. It makes big money though, so it likely won't go away soon. Also, there is a continuing market for porn. Baby boys are born everyday.





I don't think porn was what made me have a negative view of the opposite sex. It was the times I've been hooted at on the street, groped (in junior high), sexually harassed on different jobs, had a pass made at me at church, and approached by strange men on the street when I'm out walking, minding my own business. (FYI--I dress conservatively too (no midriffs, low necklines, or short skirts.) Oh, I don't think all men are wolves, but there are lots out there.
Reply:no
Reply:I think media's idea of sex in general, not just porn
Reply:A great question. Well thought out and written.


A lot of things permeate our subconscience, that's what advertising is.


Pornography would be even more indelible.


However I often wonder what happened to ones own power of the mind.


This is obviously a huge part of your makeup, but you can take control of the rest of your life.


Don't beat yourself up so much.
Reply:It very much seems to me like you are asking a question that you yourself personify and exemplify





I was exposed to pornography as a child, and subsequently the world has gone crazy for it..it is everywhere. Yet, it is only you who can not remember their faces. I have been through my fair share of the ladies (and a few other peoples fair shares too, if truth be known) yet I have not forgotton their faces.





Is this a subconcious thing on your part, were the girls that forgettable or maybe you were and are trying to erase it? I genuinely have not had this problem - they have rocked my world, and I savour those memories.





You are so far off the mark in terms of society and psychology that it is quite staggering. People look for societal issues around porn all the time, but the links are tenuous at best ; it ultimately comes down to the personal responsibility that you seem to have none of - let's all blame society, it is so much easier!!....it is this attitude that is indeed ruining society - congratulations.





I look forward to your next question which I assume will be how watching Tom and Jerry as a child has stimulated your desire to kill pets and that this indeed is also not your fault.
Reply:I think pornography is exploitive and dehumanizing, and is a poor substitute for stable family relationships. I think people that use pornography lack creativity, social skills, and use sex to make up for all the other shortcomings in their lives. People can get all the sex they want, but it never will really give them what they are truly looking for. The first thing two people do after a one night stand is try to get away from each other and pray they didn't catch anything.
Reply:No, when I see the unimaginative sex in porn films it only makes me appreciate the person that's in my arms at that time more.
Reply:Find Jesus!
Reply:God so love the world that He gave us good looking people to gaze upon.
Reply:I wouldn't go in detials , My answer is simply YES.
Reply:Not at all. In fact, the plastic image of the shallow woman with a nice body has helped me to appreciate real women who have personalities a lot more. Granted, it does seem to make a lot of women seem "faceless" or have nothing deeper than their skin, and maybe the popular media has helped to foster this stereotype. But, it's a two-way street - you have to remember that the popular media is popular for a reason. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Reply:I have this debate with my friends a lot about sex, pornography and violence.





I think pornography normalises certain sexual behaviour and has made some forms of behaviour more mainstream and accetable in the same way that many life style and relationship behaviours are amplified and made fashionable through the media.





However pornography has always been around in European society in more or less public ways. Think about the difference between the puritanical lifestyle enforced by Oliver Cromwell and the opulent debauched reign of Charles the II and his many many mistresses. Mistresses and prostitution and gigolos and extramarital sex have always been common. Women have also been sexually objectified that's not new. At periods of time it is considered more acceptable for women to have affairs.





However what is constant is that women still have more to lose from their sexual behaviour, both their reputations - men are very rarely derided for their sexuality, their economic well beings and their health.
Reply:The simple reason why pornography has emerged incredibly and is goin on booming in the present world can be traced on to a very fatal vice of mankind GREED (both the greed for money and tht for physical satisfaction). What is porn?? JUST A KNID OF BUSINESS. And those who get into it are emotionally NIX, that's for sure. I do not know what kinda life ur leading. Sleeping around with women just for bodily pleasure might be very "normal" for some ppl. But in the long run, they feel soulfully low with not an iota of sophistication and morality.


Yes, objectification has had a very bad effect on how one evaluates the opposite sex. For eg, today i'm a teenager, but the fact that ppl are perverts disappoints me. In this filthy society how will I find the right person for me tomorrow? Bcoz there are just no chivalrous guys left in this world.


ANd as far as guys are concerned bcoz of the explicit portrayal of females today, they are respecting the whole opposite sex lesser and lesser each day.


I think it just depends on the way u've been brot up. my parents have been so particular abt my thinking, my attitude and behaviour that i'm NOT gullible to the pornographic media. I have a extremely BAD opinion abt it. i am a very persevered person spiritually. i understand the value of true love and i know that sex is a part of it. ppl like me are rare. but they DO exist.
Reply:Yes from the ages , most of the caves are full of sculptures , explaining numbers of positions .
Reply:We still are responsible for how we choose to live. Once you don't like something and want to change, it's on you. Move forward in a new manner if you feel so enlightened.
Reply:I suppose it depends on the person, as to what way they're affected. A weak-minded person would be more likely to let pornographic 'ideas' (I suppose that's what you could call them) take over their actions. A strong-minded person would watch it for what it is- carnal entertainment- and go on about their life without being adversely affected.





I've watched a good amount of pornography, of pretty much *all* kinds. I don't objectify either sex, and porn has never had an effect on my sexual life or choices. I would much rather have an intelligent woman who is a truly good person as my significant other, than a woman with a pretty body who has no other real assets than being pretty.





Porn has become a scapegoat for all kinds of bad things. A person is a rapist, child molestor, murderer? People will always make a remark akin to "oh, that person must have watched porn to make them do something like that". Criminals blame their crimes on having seen something 'perverted'. It takes the blame off the person and puts it onto something else, when the blame should good and well remain with the perpetrator.





Pornography in any form is an entertainment, just like music, regular movies, or books. Did you go out and kill someone when you read a murder mystery? Kill yourself after listening to Marilyn Manson? Go on a killing spree after watching a horror film? I didn't think so.





If you are a sex addict who doesn't respect women, blame it on yourself. Not your entertainment.
Reply:I agree with what you had to say!!! Sex sells and people have a messed up perception of each other...and greed does have alot to do with the industry of porn....we do have choices, but when a young mind is introduced to this so early in life, like so many are, thru various kinds of media, music videos, TV, movies.... internet....you name it......INSANITY!!!!


~PEACE~
Reply:For me personally, no. I was never promiscuous and have been in a completely monogamous marriage for 34 years. I'm far from being a prude, enjoy sex immensely, can discuss all aspects of it with ease and with anyone, and used to run a pornography exchange board back in the old BBS days (if you have to ask, please don't bother, lol). To be honest, although I still enjoy antique and vintage porn, albeit not for the sexual thrills, it's all become a bore to me. When you see so much so often, it's somewhat like working in a meat room - same parts, different bodies, only so many ways to present it - and it's the same thing day after day after day. I don't disapprove of porn, unless it involves animals or children, who cannot properly consent to it.


It just no longer holds my interest. It's dehumanizing, as your sexual adventures have taught you, but so are ATM machines and self scanners at the supermarket, but they're not necessarily bad either, although they do somewhat objectify the customer by reducing them to an automatic transaction process in business.





As to how it shaped your life, that happens to many people. It


can influence people to a degree, yes, but in the end we all have free will and make our OWN sexual choices. It's my belief that those choices are more a product of our values, morals and ethics, and we were taught and observed those in our families as children. If porn has influenced you, you were open to that influence. My family valued and embodied loyalty to one partner and monogamy, and even though I was sexually active at a young age, and a very naughty girl, I never engaged in one night stands, or sex with more than one partner in any given timeframe. I was offered 2 jobs in pornography by the tiime I turned 18, and my response was a firm and immediate "NO" to both offers. It was a matter of pride, and personal integrity, and those are not things which are negotiable in my life. Yes, I was actively viewing pornography at the time, and no, it in no way


altered my perceptions of others (or myself) as sex objects, or what for me was right and wrong.





I've seen enough man meat in photos and films to stock a Lorena Bobbit international supermarket chain, but it's never influenced my choice in men, or the ways in which I expressed my strong sexuality (I am however known for having an iron will - some say titanium). There are people with certain psychological disorders that it may compel to actual sexual deviancy, but I disagree that the average citizen is among them. People make choices based on what they're taught, and life experience. I know many people of both (make that all) sexes whose sexual choices have been influenced by the media and porn, and the popular attitudes of their time, but I know many others whose actions weren't affected at all. Neither group, in my opinion, is wrong, nor is pornography. As with so many things, right and wrong is relative, and the onus is upon the individual to decide whether or not to allow outside influences to dictate what their personal choices become.





I must disagree with the assessment of porn's permeation of mainstream culture as being "like never before". If that's true,


it's only true in 2 ways: there are more people on earth than ever before, and there's much better technology available, which makes it easier to distribute much more porn to many more people.





Considered historically, we live in a very repressed society in regards to pornography. Yes, it's widely available, but societally it's still thought of as "dirty". Millions of people go to great lengths to hide their interests in it, and millions of others go to equally great lengths to repress, ban or outlaw it. Many older cultures were much freer in their use of pornographic images. It was considered erotic art, it was common, and considered beautiful and wholesome. To name just a few, the ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, Japanese, East Indian and African cultures depicted many beautiful pornographic images in their homes and everyday


objects, from frescoes, mosaics, statues, pottery, paintings, to knick knacks, books and poetry. 'Gargantua and Pantagruel' by Rabelais was a very bawdy satirical book which delighted 16th century Europe, and there were many others, and many homes in many eras filled with erotic art and titillating tomes.





It is not a modern phenomenon, but it is, in many senses, still


not freely accepted in American mainstream culture, and repression tends to lend a fascination to things which they might not ordinarily possess (witness Prohibition). BDSM porn and practices suffer much the same sort of popularity, partially due to repression, and despite it's firm historical grounding, modern imagery entices many more people to it than really wish to study and understand it's philosophy, or should perhaps participate in it at all. Sadly, as Americans, we generally focus on the "me" and the "now", and tend to lose sight of our real place in the grand scheme of things. In another era, your grandmother might have visited your home and seen your erotic art displayed and not blinked an eye, as she and grandpa probably had quite a bit of their own. This is America in the year 2006 AD, and there may be T%26amp;A and S%26amp;m all over the TV and in the movies, but If you plan on dragging grammy over to the computer to see your 'collection of erotic art' this Thanksgiving, I'd strongly advise you to sit her in a nice big recliner AND to cue up 911 on that cellphone before you open those files. Just my opinion, but please do let grammy enjoy her pie - and I do mean pecan!





:)