Hierarchy of Pleasure
Physical pleasure, specifically sexual fulfillment, is an intrinsic part of human beings' lives. It can bring great joy and happiness to people while at the same time strengthening the bonds of morality. This can be seen in the consummation of a marriage and the subsequent creation of a new life. However, physical pleasure is often sought for the wrong reasons, and though it may bring one person a great amount of enjoyment, many times it is at the expense of others and thus morally wrong.
In modern society, the lust for physical pleasure has led to the creation of industries that profit on the marketing of sex. The pornographic industry, which degrades women and emphasizes male domination and violence, portrays sex as merely something physical with no emotions involved. It undermines the relationship between love and physical pleasure and appeals to people's carnal desires which sometimes bypasses rational decision making. This desire for physical pleasure has also led to the proliferation of child abuse, incest, prostitution, and rape. A young boy accidentally stumbles upon a pornographic magazine that his father has hidden. He becomes sexually excited and because of the images receives instant gratification. Because of his new feelings, he repeatedly returns to these magazines and eventually moves onto to more graphic material. His outlook upon women and sex is negatively influenced and morally wrong.
Another example of physical pleasure misconstrued is the Howard Stern Show, a nationally syndicated radio show. On this show, they are sponsoring a game in which they hide a woman somewhere in the New York area and whoever finds her can have sex with her. This show has many young impressionable listeners.
Prostitution, one of the oldest occupations in society which is mentioned specifically in the Bible, trades sex for money. Money and pleasure take the place of morals. People are willing to break the law and risk not only their lives but the lives of others for sexual gratification. Sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS is very widely circulated due to unprotected sex especially among prostitutes, and the men that visit them often go back to wives and families. A middle-aged man with a family and a career drives into the city one night looking for a prostitute to enliven his ordinary life. He pays a woman for sex, thus committing a crime and adultery. Also, unbeknownst to him, he contracts a sexually transmitted disease that he then gives to his wife.
Timothy Brook’s book, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is a detailed account of the three centuries of the Ming Dynasty in China. The book allows an opportunity to view this prominent time period of Chinese history. Confusions of Pleasure not only chronicles the economic development during the Ming dynasty, but also the resulting cultural and social changes that transform the gentry and merchant class. Brook’s insights highlight the divide between the Ming dynasty’s idealized beliefs, and the realities of its economic expansion and its effects. Brook describes this gap through the use of several first hand accounts of individuals with various social statuses.
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.
Sexuality has often been confused with pornography. It has been trivialised as something that is a denigration and denial of true feeling by sensationalising genuine expressivism.
In my discussion I will be addressing three main issues that concern sexuality. The subjects are prostitution, premature ejaculation, and abortion. Although these topics concern different aspects of sexuality, I still chose to discuss them either because they relate to my sexual experiences, or because I wanted to further educate myself on the subject due to my lack of sexual experience and knowledge in the field.
Goldman defines sexual desire as the want to be in contact with another person’s body and the pleasure that the contact produces. He defines sexual activity as the activity which fulfills these desires and achieves pleasure. According to Goldman, contact with another person’s body is the minimum requirement that is needed for sexual desire. However, he firmly denies that sex is just a means to an end. Therefore, sex is not just for the purpose of reproduction, an expression of emotions, or a way to communicate. If one were to be in accordance with sex being a means to an end, then anything that did not meet that criterion would automatically be deemed as perverse. Thus, if someone were to have sex for any other reason they would be seen as perverted, according to this claim.
Another problem is that some pleasures are more alluring than others. Pleasure does not deal with just quantity, quality is also important. The old saying, “You ...
British philosopher Bentham used felicific, or utility calculus to describe pleasure as “the only intrinsic good”, and pain as immoral. To illustrate, surgeon B applies Bentham’s moral arithmetic; and in a scale of one to ten, she assigns number nine to the pleasure derived from saving lives in a hospital, and number five to the pleasure of going to the opera and enjoying classical music. Bentham’s formula imply that all pleasures can be quantified and calculated with real numbers. However, if all pleasures can be quantified, then humans can easily attempt to equate two quantities to favor one specific act. How much needs to be done in situation A to equal the same amount of pleasure produced in situation B? In reality, Bentham’s theory leads
The issue of pornography has been debated and argued among many about its effects on morality and society. The questions most raised are is pornography moral or immoral and what defines it as such. Also, what makes something be seen as pornographic and therefore immoral. Often when someone brings up the subject of pornography they often envision something dark and seedy which in no way could ever be justified as virtuous. However, there are others who see it’s as being a healthy outlet and without harm to others. When applying the sociological theories of utilitarianism and deontology we can understand the different ideas of pornography. We can also use the perspectives of Emotivism and ethical egoism to make a rational argument about
Many feminist theories believe that pornography is part of male culture and the patriarchy in which women are exploited and abused. In fact, one of radical feminism philosophy’s primary concerns is pornography as they believe porn degrades women and that women involved in the industry are physically damaged by patriarchy, as pornography as often directed by male pornographers (McElroy 2016). Renowned radical feminist Andrea Dworkin explored issues like misogyny and pornography. Dworkin spoke out for several causes, primarily in ending violence against women. Her famous work Pornography: men possessing women (1981) argues that porn teaches men to rape and violently abuse women. However, studies show that watching pornography its self does not cause any considerable social harm. Despite this, it is true that the adult industry itself can be torturous and
Pornography has been the leading player in exhibiting sexual behavior to those who care for such things. In fact, Pornography has become an $8 billion a year industry. However, like every industry, ethical and moral questions and situations come up. Although there are many in dealing with pornography, we will explore the area of Child Pornography.
In conclusion, we see that through certain social stigma, such as masturbation and oral sex, as well as through the concepts of the male being the gift giver, and the act of penetration focusing on the penis, society gives little importance to the female orgasm. In terms of heterosexual relationships it is important for the female to be open with her partner in informing him of what is needed to increase her sexual pleasure, which will help bring her to orgasm as well. Society has placed a great importance on orgasms in relationships, especially in terms of the male, and as a result we have found ways to ensure this is satisfied through faking it, sex toys, and different sexual acts.
It's wrong to deprive someone else of a pleasure so that you can enjoy one yourself, but to deprive yourself of a pleasure so that you can add to someone else's enjoyment is an act of humanity by which you always gain more than you lose.
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.
...attainment of happiness is oftentimes difficult, so we are morally justified in searching to essentially reduce the amount of unhappiness and pain experienced by the human beings impacted by some of our actions. According to Mill, the absence of pleasure is only acceptable when it is for the greater good of humanity.