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Introspective narcissism since the 2000s.

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Humans/Human Sexuality/
Pornography

The "rational" people over at RationalWiki have an article on Pornography.

Pornography has been defined as sexual subject material “such as a picture, video, or text” that is intended for sexual arousal. Indicated for the consumption by adults, pornography depictions have evolved from cave paintings, some fourty millennia ago, to virtual reality presentations. A general distinction of adult content is made classifying it as pornography or erotica.

Usually one would think of pornography as just another thing that people do to pass time or enjoy themselves, however there is no fun or good thing without someone co-opting it into their agenda. Fundamentalist Christians can call themselves first to get that. They say that pornography is bad, because it's a sin1)2). And because even religious people realize that just saying “it's bad because it's forbidden” isn't a strong argument, they then fall back to other arguments, like it's gay, brainwashing, causes crime (rape!), or it ruins lives - anything, surely something will stick. Some more interesting points come from modern day mysogynists who will say that your sex drive is what makes men wake up and do things, and by masturbating one robs themselves of motivation. What else could motivate a man to be god-fearing and hardworking if not his desire for a woman? (Not to exclude women, but these arguments are typically aimed at men.)

Porn Addiction

Some people seem to be quite strong stubborn in their belief that a thing such as “porn addiction” exists. Allegedly you get “used” to certain aspects of your porn to the point where real life sex isn't “good enough” anymore. If you watch too much porn of women with unrealistically attractive (and probably artificially inflated) curves then that “raises your standards”.
Now, while sexual tastes can be acquired, there is no scientific body on earth confirming that new tastes necessarily replace old ones. You will find plenty of “self help guides” with many products to sell and advertisements to run that will be more than happy to give you advice. However, such a thing does not3) exist4).

Women in the Industry

Pornography has become a very large and competitive industry with a business model that essentially asks actors to sell away their identity and dignity for objectification and money. The most vulnerable group here are women, who almost always get mistreated and also can end up financially abused but also sexually assaulted. In many countries, while the end product (ie. the videos) is readily policed, the creation of pornography is a topic the government prefers not to talk about, so enforcement of the law in this industry is particularly weak (if laws exist at all).
Because of this lack of governmental enthusiasm to govern the industry, pornography also has problems with some of the more severe human rights situations. Human trafficking, if not for slave labor, tends to attract slave sexual labor, with individuals (and by that I mean almost exclusively women) being stripped of their passports and sometimes even physically being held captive and forced to appear before a camera performing sexual acts, whether they want to or not.

However, to quickly dispell a myth here, sex trafficking virtually does not happen to women situated in richer countries such as the USA or Western Europe. Women in these countries are politically powerful and traffickers risk getting sought after by their victim's home nation. Traffickers generally choose targets that are politically weak, ie. who are poor, have little education and who won't be missed (by anyone with power) if they go missing. Think Middle East, Africa, South America.

Feminism

For women, pornography is a delicate topic. On one side, for a lot of people it is the only way to get by. Some might even genuinely just be happy in that line of work. On the other side….

[…] the sex-negative position, holding that sex in general (as currently conceptualized in society), and pornography in particular, objectifies women, turning their bodies into vessels for male domination, rape, and capitalist exploitation.

~Rationalwiki on Pornography, retrieved Aug 17, 2026

I find it very plausible that pornography and its widespread normalization certainly contributes to the objectification of women. If you've ever heard guys talk about women they pass by, you know what I mean5). The classic answer to this is “sexism, not sex, degrades women”.

Personally, I am in favor of sex work being legal and workers getting the same legal protections as everyone else. While I would personally find sex work to be too degrading and would rather go homeless, I can understand why someone else wouldn't do it as I. Is sex work inherently degrading? Eh. Is it used to degrade women? Definitely. Sure, the sex itself isn't the degrading part here, but if you are in the line of sex work and are getting degraded on the base of sexism then the two will be rather difficult to seperate, no? While, sure, sex on its own isn't what degrades, the lived reality for many women is that the sex in their work comes with sexism attached, whether they want it or not.

But, and I think that's the main point of sex-positivists, is that sex and sexism might often come together, but they are not literally inseperable. With reform and a shift in culture it is absolutely possible to give women every dignity to work in that field without constantly being stepped on. It is absolutely possible, and we should work in that direction as best as we can.

5)
I know this is a difficult topic because I'm talking primarily about adolescents here, who are just nasty in general, plus women do that too. Still, isn't it interesting that from all the ways adolescent men can be nasty to women, they choose to sexualize them into objects?
pornography.1786963370.txt.gz · Last modified: by ultracomfy

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