Pornography Essay

Depictions of sexual acts have been around since the early days of humanity, dating back to the prehistoric ages (Rudgley 2000). The concept of pornography we know today has existed since the Victorian era (Rudgely 2000, p. 195). Today technology has allowed free pornography to become available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. One might think that pornography is acceptable in our culture because it has been around for a long time or because it is so accessible, but when one looks into the messages and effects that pornography has you can see how disturbing it really is. This paper will explain why pornography is not a useful resource for sex education and show that it harms women by creating disturbing messages to men on

Feminist writer Diana Russell believes that porn “predisposes some men to want to rape women or intensifies the predisposition in other men already predisposed; undermines some men 's internal inhibitions against acting out their rape desires; and undermines some men 's social inhibitions against the acting out,” (Russell 1988). Pornography is sending a message to men that in some cases rape is acceptable. In order for rape to occur, a man must not only be inclined to rape, but his internal and social inhibitions against acting out rape desires must be undermined (Russell 1988). Pornography pushes this inclination further by sending the wrong message to the men who watch it. Pornography also shows other violent acts happen to women like throat rape and anal sex are prominent among most pornographic films on the Internet (Jeffreys 2009). These deplorable acts are shown in order to get men horny and give them something to masturbate to. The video of being violent to women sexually excites men and may incline them to try the same acts they see in the film on the women in their lives. It is also important to understand who might be exposed to these violent acts against women. Many children and young men are learning how to treat a woman from their view of pornography. This exposure to pornography helps sustain young people’s adherence to sexist and unhealthy

Pornography is an act of male supremacy and it becomes difficult to see the true harm of pornography because it has become deeply rooted into our everyday lives (Jeffreys 1990). Though few can see the damages that pornography has caused our culture, it becomes obvious when one delves into the problems that come from excessive viewership of pornography. Professor Freda Briggs believes that pornography is one reason why young children are sexually abusing other children in school (Knowles 2014). Addiction is also another serious result from the excess amount of porn. Although it may not be taken as serious as addiction to drugs or alcohol, it is still a very real issue facing many men. Gail Dines believes that young men who are addicted to porn “neglect their schoolwork, spend huge amounts of money they don’t have, become isolated from others, and often suffer depression,” (Dines 2010). Dr. William Struthers confirms some of these and adds that men who use porn become controlling, highly introverted, have high anxiety, narcissistic, curious, have low self-esteem, depressed, dissociative, and become easily distracted (Struthers 2010). It also teaches men to view women as objects and not as humans, and teaches them that sex is something a man does for himself by using another women as the means to pleasure, almost like the woman is more of a product to use than a person