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Causes and effects of watching pornography
Adolescent girls and body image issues literature review
Body image and self esteem among teens
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From the average to the dirty, pornography has shaped our desires to conform to idyllic standard. During adolescence, pornography isn’t just seen as “pleasure,” but it is seen as “study material,” that would get them ready for the real deal. Today, pornography has become even more accessible, whereas pornography used to be fairly censored and only able to be purchased in a store, it can now be “Googled” and available in seconds. Statistics show that “Nine out of ten young men and one out of three young girls watched or have watched porn” (internet safety), and the numbers don’t lie, early exposure and easy accessibility to porn has completely warped the way teens view adulthood, and has had a profound effect on our overall understanding of …show more content…
sex. Pornography manipulates the expectations of teens to think that sex corresponds to a clean-cut body image and a certain communal facade to gain sexual attention. Pornography was never really created, but rather defined. Culturally speaking, pornography has been developed throughout history from peep shows, burlesque shows, to present day porn. Although pornography wasn’t intended for teens, teens see it as a product of practice. Teens nowadays use pornography to develop sexual feelings and expectations, but what happens when expectations aren’t reality? According to Sara Parker, author of “Internet Pornography Warps Teen Sexuality” interviewed a teen named Max where he explained his expectations of sex after watching pornography from age eleven to eighteen. “Watching porn gave me a grand idea of what sex is. I thought, ‘This is going to be brilliant’, that I would be sitting there eating a pizza and some girl would come in and have sex with me”(Parker). Parker’s interview couldn’t paint a better picture of how 21st century teens see porn and try to relate it to real life. The expectation of Max’s desires were obviously unrealistic, and quite frankly shows how pornography has been defined as a manual for “sex.” Later in Parker’s article, she talks about the analogy of porn is to film as relationship is to exploitation. At first glance these two subjects have nothing in common, but when you mix porn and sex into a relationship the only thing left is experimentation and exploitation. In Parker’s article she references a 15-year-old girl who was unknowingly filmed by her boyfriend in the act of sex (parker). As hard as it might seem to believe, the line between escapade and exploitation is an extremely thin line. Justifying the defense of the young man who did this crime could only be because he learned that it is pleasurable to see filmed sex…so why not do it? Pornography fixates peoples’ imagination on expectations instead of reality, where as without consent, most things in porn are illegal and quite indecent for the teens of our nation. Teens as a whole already feel a heavy burden towards not only social acceptance, but acceding towards their own body.
Pornography a form of media has created a gateway that teens rely on for peer acceptance. Writer Susie Orbach, author of “Losing Bodies,” talks about media and its effect on our view on body image. As Orbach progresses through her main argument she talks about the complexities of human nature, by in short the scientific method of monkey see monkey do. Although all her points are quite bold, the statement that truly in captures her article was, “What is a normal body.” She didn’t give an answer, but what she did say was, “Can we speak in any sense of a normal body or is it more accurate to say that what is at stake today, especially for the young-young women and young men-is the acquisition of a body “normalized” by visual dictate: a body whose dimensions, whose look, is not simply stylized but homogenized…”(Orbach, p.247). Orbach declares the truth of our world, where we really don’t know what the “perfect” body is. The fact of reality is that all we can express is what we see on media. Along with context to pornography as a form of media the trends in everyday life are breath taking, from shaving genitalia, bleaching hair, and ultimately becoming something they truly aren’t. As teens see these trends and gain the understanding of “to be socially accepted, they should do these things,” they would want to mimic them to become socially accepted. Take for …show more content…
example the stereotypical high school scenario, where there is that one girl that all the other girls envy and that one guy that every guy wishes they could be. Accepting and embracing your own qualities is something our culture doesn’t embrace anymore, instead our culture influences our youth to do things such as drugs, extreme fitness for a “sexy body,” partying, and most of all sex. Media is a growing technological advancement in our worldly culture, but porn is one that should be left behind. Pornography as a whole influences many, but the tiny miniscule aspects of porn is sub cautiously analyzed by our teens. What is porn really? Porn is a type of propaganda where truth is hidden deep down within, but invisible to the blatant eye. Many figures in media are idols, where in cover magazines, if a celebrity says, “this is the best,” everyone copies. In perspective to porn, teens do the same things to get attention from the opposing sex. Whether it is an outfit or being promiscuous, we all learned it from somewhere and more or less it’s either porn or some other type of scandalous media. In the article “Visible or invisible: Growing Up Female in Porn Culture,” Author Gail Dines explores the unapproachable. Dines elaborates the causes and effects of media on specifically young women, whether it is body image, diet, clothing, and or sex. As Dines puts it, “The look,” where the people who can’t afford expensive high end items go to magazines and any sort of media to find the next best thing. “The Low-slung jeans, the short skirt that rides up our legs as we sit down, the thong, the tattoo on the lower back, the pierced belly button, the low-cut top that shows cleavage, the high heels that contort our calves, and the pouting glossed lips all conspire to make us look like a bargain-basement version of the real thing”(Dines, p.253). Although Dines, pretty much-listed trends within the past century that surfaced on magazine covers of famous celebrities, we put all to most of these items to stripper, hookers, and adult porn actors. Dines’s intended meaning of her list is to question her audience into “Why?” Why haven’t we pondered the cost versus the benefit? Her questioning brings me into a theory of “we have,” but culturally speaking we see promiscuous actions gain “popularity, fame” while the simple teen will find the cost of her looking like a derogatory term of “slut” for gains such as males fondling over her. Media is a controlling aspect of our culture, but porn is stronger. Stronger, meaning that our next generation finds it fascinated by porn or rather a inner need for attention, and the only way they feel they can get the desired attention they desire, they stoop to levels of pornographic promiscuous fame. Although the argument of porn being “good” for our teen culture has some legitimacy, the fact of the matter is it isn’t.
Lets take the statistics of the percentage of teens on average that have watch porn, for teen boys 87% and for teen girls 31% (internet safety). Now lets look at the statistic of rape victims, 20 million, around 18% of women in the United States have been raped within their lifetime (NSOPW). Although some cases don’t involve porn, a lot do. Where statistically speaking young men who watch porn find desires and fetishes that erratically destroy their mental states. Just between the years of 2005-2013, 500,000 searches on Google on the daily where found all searching for related porn topics such as “physical aggression, spanking, gagging, and slapping,” all which happen to do with violence with sex. Although I can see that porn can be used as a manual for sex, the reality is many people develop into something they aren’t. As the statistics show it is quite certain that to put porn in the same category as
poison. Porn can be a good thing for adults, but for teens it truly isn’t. Pornography burdens the young minds of teens to expect unrealistic goals of sexual desire. Teaching our teens to value looks and sexual intentions more than anything we “believe” in. Porn has taught our youth that body image and promiscuous actions hold greater value than abstinence. We question gender and sexuality, when we should be questioning why has our culture find more value in being someone than being their self?
Today, “60 percent of children who use the Internet regularly come into contact with pornography” (Hanes 1). In Stephanie Hanes’ article, “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect”, she provides undeniable evidence to suggest that the culture of today’s world causes sexualization of children, specifically of females, at an alarmingly young age. This sexualization has become increasingly invasive in the past decade, so much so that parents, educators, and even more recently politicians have decided to try to counteract some these negative effects. In this article, Stephanie Hanes uses strong research with logical arguments that support this
Susie Orbach, a British psycho-therapist wrote an article called “Losing Bodies”, in which she focused on body shapes and how it had changed over the years. Simple terms such as hourglass, pear, straight and apple can be used as descriptive words, but it can also be the name of the four body shapes categories. These body shapes were generally used to differentiate the different shapes and sizes, however, nowadays women take it a lot more seriously. Women are losing confidence in themselves due to the heavily influence by the mass media and the widespread of Western cultures.
In recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
Technology and things like social media have a great effect on sexual views, behavior and practice among generations. Recent advances in technology are influencing sexual behaviors because of things like computers, smartphones, sex technology (sex toys, pornography, etc.). The list is growing and so are the many possible uses of these technologies. In fact, one in every ten websites is a pornography website, (Krotoski, 2011). This alone gives individuals access to the erotic, fantasy world of sex. These advances in technology, and the availability of this information has made it easier than ever to enter the world of sex.
Howard, Roger. "Anticipating an "Anything Goes" World of Online Porn: Increased Exposure to More-Intensive Pornographic Imagery and Content Online Will Make Future Generations Less Sensitive to Its Effects." The Futurist 1 May 2012: 42. Print.
With technology becoming easier and easier to use and in part due to the high sexual emphasis in the American culture, men and women are being exposed to pornography earlier and earlier, with the average age being about 12 for men and 13 for women (Gilkerson). These children easily keep their internet wanderings secret from their less technologically savvy parents, as about 62% of teens say their parents know little or nothing about the websites they visit (San Diego Court).
This world has become immersed in online media from socializing on networking sites to seeking information on search engines. People of all ages have become reliant on online media, but the most engaged users are the younger, more easily impacted generations. Although there are many positive uses for online media, there are many negative uses as well. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for these negative effects to impede upon the perceptions of adolescents. Some countries have been trying to reduce this effect by expelling the inappropriate content of online media ("Influence on Children Media...”). However, in the United States, children are thrown in the waves, expected to stay afloat in this massive sea, but many are being dragged under the surface by the nefarious temptations media creates. Content that is not appropriate for the young, growing minds of children are easily accessible; a myriad of devices may be used to access this material, all at the click of a button. Without adult content filters on online media, adolescents of various ages are exposed to dangerous conceptions. A world of pornography, violence, and public humiliation lay in the user’s fingertips.
In the today’s society, social media has gone out of hand. Most people these days have a cell phone, Ipad and/or laptop and most definitely a television at their home. Therefore, access to pornography has become extremely easy and can be available to any individual in less than 5 minutes. The best definition of pornography can be explained as sexually explicit words or images intended to provoke sexual arousal. The easy access to porn has raised many people to question if porn is harmful, if it should be censored, and if it is unsafe. Many debates have been going on about porn concerning freedom of rights, speech, and entertainment and right of privacy. The main people to have argued on this point are Catherine Mackinnon and philosopher J.S. Mill.
Fisher, William, and Azy Barak. “Internet Pornography: A Social Psychological Perspective On Internet Sexuality.” Journal of Sex Research. 38.4 (Nov. 2001): 312-24.
Young people may catch peoples’ sexual behaviors in media which objectified women for granted. However, some people believe that women are decorated by beauty and fashion; in other words, they are designing themselves to keep their sexuality through make up and clothes. When
IF viewed by a sexually immature adolescent, it can be harmful as it displays unrealistic standards for sex, improper to no contraception use and displays a relaxed attitude of casual sex and sex for pleasure. If pornography is the only sexual education a young person is receiving, it can be said that the young person is in trouble in terms of their sexual health. This, however, is not the fault of pornography itself. Pornography is a stimulating and arousing activity meant for sexual release. A child who views pornography is not interpreting it the same way an adult is and may perceive it as real where an adult would not. It is the fault of parents not monitoring internet use, having serious discussions with their children about sexual safety and the school systems health education program that these inconsistencies in what adolescents see and experience. With proper sex education, adolescents and even adults can make appropriate judgments of pornography for what it is, entertainment, rather than an education. This can lead into the idea of pornography itself causing sexual violence. With the evidence provided, it seems that pornography can create the implication that rape myths are true, victims should be blamed, and women are powerless, however it is the few that go beyond this and act upon these urges that are the problem. An average person has the required inhibitions to stop themselves from committing sexual violence, even if they have warped views of blame for the incident. The view that pornography perpetrates sexual crimes should not be the definitive perception as many functioning adults can consume pornography with out their lives being completely destroyed as those against pornography would have someone believe. As with all things, people will abuse and become addicted. It is not the item 's fault itself, but rather the amount, improper education and the individual
One of the most obvious effects of pornography on the Internet is the easy access that juveniles have to it. All it takes is the click of a mouse and there they are, thousands of nude photos, of women and men doing all sorts sexually explicit of things. Many teens first come across these sorts of thing accidentally. But is it really accidental if advertisement, spams, and e-mail advertising free porn sites pop up every five minutes? How can teens stay away from these kinds of things if they're right there in font of them? "In a 2001 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 70 of 15-to 17-year-olds said they had accidentally come across pornography online." [1] This leads us to wonder does someone actually want teens to view these sites. If porn is meant to...
In recent years, pornography has established itself as perhaps the most controversial topic arising out of the use of the Internet. The easy availability of this type of sexually explicit material has caused a panic among government officials, family groups, religious groups and law enforcement bodies and this panic has been perpetuated in the media.
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.