Pornography has been traced back to prehistoric times. Governments in parts of Europe and all of America made obscure images illegal in the mid 1800s. This means it was illegal to publish or sell porn. Like anything that is outlawed, people found a way to traffic images and finally in the 1900s it became illegal to view or possess pornographic images as well.
When film started in the late 1800s and early 1900s, producers were excited to be part of a radical movement. It was very risky though because if caught they would be prosecuted and jailed. That didn’t stop them though.
Porn in black and white, in the early stages was nothing more than a strip tease and rarely showed any close ups of the penis or vagina.
In the mid 1900s, censorship began to overturn and finally, a major motion picture was released in 1969, in the genre of erotica. Erotic films were hard to come by and almost always had to have a special invite or members only type of scenario.
Finally, in the 1970s, when VHS tapes started to become popular so did “pornos.” You could find “pornos” at adult stores but it’s not as if there was one on every corner. If you’ve ever seen a 70s porn you will see how vastly different it is compared to what you see today.
VHS porns eventually turned into DVD porns and became easier and easier to obtain.
Then came the world wide web. This is where everything changed. Today, you can buy porn from your TV or watch it on the internet. It takes no effort to obtain and you have access to it 24/7.
With computer generated images, CGI, a lot of what you see is not even real. With CGI, you can view porn in video games and it’s been known that there are films out there with fake children and celebrities. Unlike the porn from the early 1900s, none of what you see today paints a realistic picture of what real sexual intercourse and intimacy looks like.
In today’s industry, sexually transmitted infections are still very high, sex trafficking and prostitution is also prevelent.
– Sex trafficking is big business—it generates $99 billion annually, just from commercial sexual exploitation alone. (International Labor Organization)
One activity i want you to try is thinking back to the last time you viewed porn and try to look at things through a different lens. Notice the lack of intimacy and how disconnected the two actors truly were. Now I want to dig a little deeper into this topic. Porn stars are real people and once you start to bring some empathy to the situation you may be able to create some space around the thoughts you have while watching porn.
The first thing I want you to do is think of your favorite porn star, male or female, and create an image of them in your head. Now, think of them as they were as a baby, wrapped up in a blanket, in their mother’s arms. When that mother looked into her brand new baby’s eyes, she did not for one moment think they would grow up doing porn.
Now think of what their childhood was like, good or bad, but just think of them as children. If you are picturing them as good children with a loving family, think about their innocence and carefree playfulness. If your immediate thought was that they had a bad childhood and that’s why they turned to porn then think about that too. How terrible and awful it must have been for them to grow up like that. When you think of the best childhoods and the worst childhoods, the truth is, that you’ll find porn stars that come from all walks of life, some good and some not so good but it’s important to visualize what things may have been like for them. At some point though they made a decision to have sex with other people on television for a paycheck. Those same people have mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, grandparents and some even had children of their own.
Now I want you to know I’m not asking you to do this activity so that you can feel bad. Nobody here taking this course should feel shame or guilt even though those are the most common feelings my students have. I want to remind you that none of this is your fault – the porn industry is worth billions of dollars so they know how to trick people, how to make them want and need to continuously come back for more. It’s like sales – they will do whatever it takes to get your repeat business. Unfortunately for you, you now have to be smarter than them and be able to look at all this through a different lens.
The porn industry is corrupt to put it simply. Even with all the laws the regulations put into place there is still a very dark side that involves sex trafficking, sexually transmitted infections and not to mental the emotional toll it takes on both men and women. Men are forced to inject their penises with medications that help them stay erect and women are forced to turn the pain into something that looks like pleasure.
Those who are addicted to porn often report that they can only get an erection and achieve ejaculation if they are viewing porn so this definitely affects relationships. Erectile dysfunction Disorder and Female Dysfunction disorder are common. Rest assured though that when you quit porn the brain has the amazing ability to return back to its baseline so the physical and emotional struggles will start to fade over time.
See in the next lecture where we’ll talk about masturbation addiction.
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