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Psychological effects of pornography
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Desensitization To Pornography Leads To More Explicit Pornography For Impulsive Adolescents
Donnie Brull
Arizona State University
Adolescents develop compulsive behaviors that may include frequent viewing of pornographic material. As a result, overexposure to pornography leads to desensitization that results in the need to view more explicit pornography. In this paper, I discuss overexposure to pornography desensitizing adolescents resulting from compulsive behaviors influenced by self-gratification, technology and social interaction. It is hypnotized that an individual becoming desensitized searches for more explicit and violent pornography to achieve arousal and stimulation. Twenty-two literature reviews aim to support the hypothesis.
Pornography is material that is sexual in content for the intent of arousal and stimulation. Such material includes; movies, magazines, photographs and books. In most instances, the desire for pornography is pleasure. Pornography is a stimulus that creates arousal for the purpose of stimulation and as such, sensation from climax that results in pleasure. As an individual views such material, he may view repeated sexual themes, perhaps the same genre of pornography or the same actors. Explicit pornography is considered; bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism (BDSM), dominance and submission (Bonomi, 2013), strangling asphyxiation, humiliation, violence and rape. Desensitization is a “neurological process that results in a reduced or loss of physiological response following prolonged or repetitive stimulation (Wang & Xiulan. 2005).” This occurrence takes place due to a decrease in a neurotransmitter, resulting in a decreased response to a stimulus (Nairr...
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A pornographic world [What is normal] by Robert Jensen takes an inside look at the culture of masculinity and what role pornography takes in shaping that culture. Jensen describes how he was forced to play a “macho” role as a child out of fear of being bullied and ridiculed for not being manly enough. Pornography use started for him and his friends in grade school – they would steal magazines and hide them to share in a group later. He talks of how he learned of a social concept, called the “ideal of prostitution” (the notion of men “buying” women in various forms of undress, solely for their pleasure), at a young age. While there has always been a stigma around pornography, whether stemming from moral or religious reasons, Jenson continued to use porn until his 30s.
34 percent of youth online receive unwanted pornographic exposure. 93 percent of boys are exposed to internet porn. 68 percent of young men use pornography weekly and 21 percent of young men use pornography daily. Pornography is a sexual education for most people. Only 22 states require public schools to teach sexual education.
A review of the contemporary research on the negative effects of pornography is replete of scholarly and anecdotal evidence and opinion about the damages associated with viewing it. But the evidence is limited when it comes to criticism of mainstream media’s damages to certain groups, particularly young women with their romantic comedies.
The subtopic being examined in this segment of pornography as a whole, is that of violent pornography. In order to understand what is going to be discussed and the examples that will be cited, one must understand the context of violent pornography in relation to Pornography as a whole. But as this section will conclude, it is actually the widespread viewing of pornography as represented through the media, which leads to violent actions.
56% of divorce cases in the United States have reported the cause of divorce as one member of the couple having an unhealthy addiction for pornographic websites ("Pornography Statistics: Annual Report" 2014). The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes pornography as "movies, pictures, magazines, etc., that show or describe naked people or sex in a very open and direct way in order to cause sexual excitement." In a recent study of dating or married couples, 73% of males reported to using pornography at some level (ranging from low to high frequency use), while only 32% of females reported using pornography (Poulsen, Bubsy & Galovan, 2013 p. 73). Pornography has highly addictive qualities, which are often dismissed as "human nature," and is the leading cause of unhappiness leading to divorce in marriages. The ease of access to online pornography makes this worse because it is much more difficult to quit because of how easy it is to access it. If someone is addicted to drugs, they would need to find a supply if they were tempted to relapse. With an online pornography addiction, all someone needs is a computer to relapse into their pornography addiction. This form of addiction is not seen as an issue because of its dismissal as “human nature.” Online Pornography addiction negatively affects the addicted party's serious relationship or marriage, the addicted person's partner, and the addicted party themselves.
...ers, Kim. Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media’s Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
Again, there are different ideas of what is considered pornographic from artwork, movies, and books. While one may look at a painting that depicts nude forms or read a book that includes sexual acts may not see this as a form of pornography while others would find it morally offensive. Feminist would argue that the morality of porn is it is degrading and humiliating to those involved, not of its sexual nature. Their concern is that it promotes sexism and violence against women or children. “What is objectionable about pornography…is its abusive and degrading portrayal of females and female sexuality, not its content or explicitness” (Rodgerson & Wilson, 1994) However, others may feel that it is sexually liberating and in no way degrading to those involved. Those women feel in control of their sexuality and choose to participate in acts as a way of expressing themselves while feeling it has no barring on their moral character. While others would argue that it promotes immoral behavior which would lead to criminal acts or an unhealthy obsession with sex. “The most commonly feared adverse effects of pornography include undesirable sexual behaviors (e.g. adultery), sexual aggression, and loss of respect for traditional family structures and values, loss of respect for authorities, and a general nonspecific moral decay.” (Hald & Linz,
Today, pornography has different targeted audiences based on various categories of pornography. There are pornographies made that are targeted toward women in which are slow and focused more on the people’s language rather than solely genitally focused. Most pornographies, however, are made specifically for men. These videos contain a large focus on the genitals, the men are portrayed as dominant, and the women please the men taking any measures necessary. According to a study, pornography that was intended for men and women aroused the men who were being studied. Women on the other hand, activated negative affects after watching the pornography intended for men and positive after watching the pornography intended for women (Mosher, 1994). In general, men are the main target of pornographies and women as well as feminists believe that pornography should not characterize women as objects. Also when making this study, it was difficult to find pornography that was made by women, majority of the videos are made by men and produced for
A real life example of the link between the onset of pornography in American culture and sexual crimes includes a survey done in 1978, in which 44% of the nine hun...
Whether pornography is an excuse to make acts of violence public? A big number of famous scholars, no matter men or women, have given their opinions. Each of them has their own view, but we can sort them into two groups, which are against to serious censorship and willing to convict and uproot pornography. Because of pornography, women’s status can never be equal to men’s. Recently, a revolution about the perception of moral values comes out in the world, which refers to how deep the changes of the method people think and act. Media have continuously played a big role in processing those changes in the revolution. Whereas, a lot of changes have been much worse. New violations of human dignity and Christian ideals have taken place. Within here, the media is also important. In the media, widespread pornography and wanton violence have increased in these years. Books and magazines, recordings, the cinema, the theater, television, videocassettes, advertising displays and even telecommunications regularly present a representation of violent behavior in sexual activity, which has been openly pornographic and morally offensive.
Porn according to the dictionary is defined as a printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity intended to stimulate erotic rather than an emotional feeling. A word described as so is what has lead porn to becoming a money making business, that has come to grow over the years quite a bit. An empire that many were afraid to even talk about ,but now want to be apart of. Now porn or as they would call it now as the Adult Film business is seen every where, from DVD’s to magazines and late night television shows to the internet. It can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. Adult film wasn’t something that was new to society, but yet society is acting new towards it. Many are saying that this is something that has affected their lives, or that it should not be around at all.
Fisher, William, and Azy Barak. “Internet Pornography: A Social Psychological Perspective On Internet Sexuality.” Journal of Sex Research. 38.4 (Nov. 2001): 312-24.
Sexual addictions of any kind can continue to progress in stages that may include child pornography, violence and pain, prostitution, rape and even serial killing. The overexposure of sexual imagery is creating a tolerance not only to the images presented but also to the crimes that go along the continuous craving for more and more extreme pornographic material to satisfy a sexual need. The key here is that people are after more and more sex, not a sexual relationship. The relationship part is gone and sadly, people just want to live the moment, satisfy a sexual need and walk away without any regard to the damage they might cause.
To some, pornography is nothing more than a few pictures of scantily clad Women in seductive poses. But pornography has become much more than just Photographs of nude women. Computer technology is providing child molesters and child pornographers with powerful new tools for victimizing children. Pornography as "the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, Sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials. No one can prove those films with graphic sex or violence has a harmful effect on viewers. But there seems to be little doubt that films do have some effect on society and that all of us live with such effects.