Porno!

Aleisha Murrell

March blog

Porno!

 

Learning about the impact of porn and how it shapes the behaviors, attitudes and views of people, and how it impacts the way men think and treat men was beyond interesting. I had never given any thought into it and never even knew it could turn into a serious addiction. Porn releases dopamine and oxytocin, which makes porn watching feel pleasurable and holds their attention [1]. Porn can actually make specific sections in the brain shut down from being so focused on sexual arousal that the brain completely abandons paying attention to any other details. Intense watching of porn can lead to addiction. Those who are addicted to porn neglect work or school, spends huge amount on videos, and becomes depressed/isolated from their friends and social life. Studies show that they become controlling and can have low self-esteem [1]. Before I had this class and read over this PowerPoint I never realized that a constant overload of porn can have the same ill effects of someone that is addicted to cocaine. As stated earlier it releases dopamine and can lead to withdraw symptoms, like any drug. I had always thought that porn was a leisurely activity that mostly men enjoyed watching because it was entertaining. I thought it was like how I watch YouTube tutorials on make-up, I enjoy watching them in my spare time, it can be good entertainment, but I would never get addicted from YouTube. There was a fascinating survey in 2012 that stated 56% of the 1,500 men said their porn searching has become “increasingly extreme or deviant” because they are constantly looking for more extreme forms of porn, than the last, to arouse them [1]. I can see now why porn leads to addiction and why users neglect their social life. Watching degrading porn increases porn users dominating and harassing behavior toward women and gives them less compassion for rape victims. They often have increasingly hostile/aggressive fantasies [1]. Sadly, I understand how watching porn can lead to men being more dominant and have harassing behaviors toward women. I have seen porn before and it is very degrading and shameful. The way women will use their bodies and have men control them in the bed allows porn users to have an altered perception of how women should be treated. From the PowerPoint, it stated that porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball, and basketball franchises [1]. This fact was very mind-blowing to me. I knew that a lot of people watch porn but I had no idea it was that popular. By the 1960s, Pornos had started to go a little bit more mainstream [2]. There was full-length movies were being released in theaters. Which bring me to a court case In 1992 In Denver [2]. The Court upheld one provision and overturned another in a 1992 federal law designed to protect children from exposure to "patently offensive sex-related material" on certain cable television channels. It struck down a provision permitting cable operators to ban indecent programming from public-access cable channels, such as those made available to community groups, but upheld a provision permitting operators to ban indecent programs from channels leased to commercial programmers [2]. It also struck down a provision requiring cable operators who chose to allow indecent material to be broadcast on leased channels to segregate that material to a single channel, and to block that channel unless the cable subscriber requested to have it unblocked [2]. When I read this court case it makes me think back to when I was younger. My channels were blocked. I had never watched porn and was not even interested in it until I was much older. I feel that if more adults would take some precautions and do things like have blocks on the sex channels porn would be less popular than what it is. I believe that if more people aren’t exposed to porn until they are much older it will not be so popular, and less people will be getting addicted and interested into porn. I believe that I knew less information about porn because I wasn’t exposed to it until I was in college. Reading this PowerPoint was quite interesting and taught me plenty, it had me realize the porn industry and the ill effects it has on people.

 

 

 

Citation:

[1]. Crystal Moore, “Sexual Commerce in Contemporary America,” LBST 2101 UNC Charlotte Moodle 2, Accessed March 11, 2014, https://moodle2.uncc.edu/course/view.php?id=58852           

              [2]. PBS, "Frontline: American Porn," Accessed March 31, 2014,                 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/porn/prosecuting/overview.html