Pornography, also known as porn, is the visual illustration of sexuality that hinders a person’s concept of the type of conjugal relations. It can be demonstrated in many methods such as online videos, websites, mobile applications, etc. Since it can be accessed on many platforms, it is believed to alter the sexual behavior and attitudes of any person who engages in it. Pornography can become a major threat to marriage, children, family relationships, one’s happiness, and how one depicts sexuality. It is one of the major causes that undermine social stability. Clinical psychologists, social scientists, and biologists have started to give clarity on some of the psychological and social effects. In recent studies, neurologists as well have started to define the biological mechanisms through which pornography has produced its powerful negative effects. The effects of pornography on the brain are immense as it distorts the perceptions and attitudes about the disposition of sexual intercourse (Shmuley 43) in addition to the physical and biological factors that influence how one expresses his/her sexual desires. The effects on the body and mind can be very severe depending on the content and if usage is prolonged. The extreme usage of pornography can bring about erectile dysfunction, addiction, and deviant behaviors that lead to rape, molestation, pedophilia, etc.
Keywords: pornography, negative, effects, behaviors, erectile dysfunction, sexuality, deviant, pedophilia, rape, molestation.
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Introduction
This paper aims to show the negative effects pornography and pornographic material have on the brain. Excessive usage of pornography can bring about physiological and mental issues that hinder one’s decision-making capability. Pornography addiction can alter the way one goes about sexual activity and decides to go about fulfilling their sexual desires. In its excessive usage, it can cause physiological issues such as erectile dysfunction, a decrease in libido or sex drive, engaging in deviant behaviors such as rape, molestation, and/or pedophilia, and an inability to climax.
The effects of pornography on the individual
It is known that pornography alters the habits of the mind as it can easily become habitual. This in turn advances desensitization, distorted views of reality, boredom, and objectification of women. The effects can even be so detrimental that they affect the physical capability of men by causing erectile dysfunction (Landripet 2015). Its extreme use is also known to cause a decreased libido and an inability to reach climax (Landripet 2015). Studies also show that teens who engage in regular use of pornography may result in sexual abuse, become teen parents, and develop unhealthy social behaviors (Kamaruddin, Rahman, & Handiyani, 2018).
Pornography leads to a distorted perception of reality
Pornography gives an exaggerated perception of social reality. Instances such as pervasions of group sex, sadomasochistic activity as well as bestiality are formed in the minds of the viewer and such thoughts become farfetched from reality. Such distortions lead to an acceptance of three beliefs: that men are generally sexually driven, that sexual relationships are a leisure thing, and that women are sex commodities. This belief leads to people internalizing abnormal sexual behavior more readily and is a serious distortion to the social life of a person as they readily accept sexual permissiveness (Armour 18).
Pornography leads to aggression and abuse
Extreme usage of pornography is strongly associated with aggressive behavior. There are major categories of pornography that contains violent content. In men especially, when they get exposed to violent forms of pornography, they are more likely to commit such acts or desire to engage in sexual intercourse that is similar to the violence in the content they have viewed. Also, it increases a man’s willingness to force such acts on their partners. Even “soft” pornography that may involve acts among consenting adults may lead to extremely violent behaviors. The FBI has also reported that soft pornography has led to numerous male suicides, especially among adolescents where an individual suspends themselves on a rope in the hope of achieving an intense orgasm. In other scenarios, young kids have killed their friends following advice in some of the “soft” magazines.
All pornography desensitizes the viewer.
Pornography desensitizes a person and allows that person to become conditioned to violent and nonviolent sexual acts making such behaviors to become an integral part of their behaviors (Cline 54). More than two-thirds of students who watch pornography are willing to force any woman to such acts while a further one-third had the desire to commit rape. In emotionally disturbed persons pornographic materials have desensitized them. More studies have shown that emotionally disturbed people as well as those with a tendency to commit violent acts become desensitized after watching pornography (The forerunner, 3).
Pornography increases Rape incidents
Sex offenders such as rapists are more likely to execute their crimes if they use pornography. For instance, male offenders start to have addictive and compulsive behavior while using porn and soon their system for stress relief becomes related to deviant acts of sex. They then offend more and more. Thousands of persons have been raped, tortured, and murdered as a direct result of pornography. Two sociologists Strauss and Baron (91) pointed out that states that had the highest sales of pornographic magazines, with lax laws regarding pornography, also had the highest numbers of reported rapes.
Pornography directly contributes to Drug and substance abuse
Pornography also promotes drug use and in extreme cases, abuse. Pornography producers have been known to create scenes where it depicts acts with a minor. Thus, encouraging molestation and pedophilia. They have purposely begun to draw a thin line between adult sex and sex involving adults and children. Many people who act in these sexually explicit videos and those who watch it have engaged in drugs and the drugs are sometimes even done in the videos. For example, Playboy magazine has even created a fictional drug use chart that it has published in its magazines. Many people who desire to be like these adult actors engage in drugs to increase their libido as well as have multiple orgasms
Pornography places children at higher risk of pedophile attacks
Since it is established that most violent acts carried out by criminals were preceded by the perpetrator accessing some pornographic material, children are placed at a higher risk of being attacked mostly by older relatives who may take advantage of the trust the child has for them. According to Keating (11), 77 percent of child molesters and 87 percent of girl child molesters admitted to viewing pornography and imitating the sexual acts of the children they abused.
Pornography leads to incest
Viewers of pornography who are socially challenged and afraid of initiating and cultivating relationships with the opposite gender can end up having sexual relations with members of their own family such as cousins, siblings, nieces, and nephews. These relations can either be consensual or forced thus rape.
Viewers of porn are also more likely to engage in bestiality
Because of the various stages of deterioration that take place in the mind of a porn addict, his/her warped perception of reality coupled with the desire for more excitement can lead people to have unnatural sexual relations with farm animals. This happens when the individual attempts to act out what (s) he has seen on TV or the internet. This behavior is considered deviant and since pornography has driven them to such a desire, this develops into something more serious and is deemed socially unacceptable. If they act on this desire, they are at risk of getting caught and being charged with the crime.
Spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections for actors/actresses
Unlike other industries that have work ethics and different procedures that are aimed at protecting employees, pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry that is highly unregulated. This means that the welfare of the actors and actresses is not a priority. Most of the time they engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners thus exposing them to a host of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV-AIDS and syphilis among others.
Loss of productivity
Given the fact that a large proportion of formal offices have computers and internet connections, companies lose a lot of man-hours when their employees decide to use this resource to satisfy their urges and fantasies. Male employees are more prone to browse pornographic sites than female ones. According to internet pornography statistics (4), 20 percent of men and 13 percent of women in the United States admitted to visiting pornographic sites from the workplace. This costs the companies millions of dollars because the workers are being paid even for the time they spend on unproductive activities.
In the case of school-aged students, as well as university students, addiction to pornography can really take up so much of their time and this reduces the amount of time spent pursuing other productive activities such as academics or extra-curricular activities such as sports. They become consumed by engaging in viewing pornographic materials. Even so much that the consumption drives them to seek real-life fulfillment of the fantasies they want to experience.
Pornography leads to despair among its addicts
Majority of men who seek pornography as a means of filling a void in their lives quickly find out that rather than helping, it actually worsens their situation. This is because porn addiction begins to overtake them and alter their everyday life. It becomes something they engage in to celebrate, to cheer themselves up, or for any reason they feel the need to. Since men do not seek help when they develop problems, it is worsened because they believe it is not an addiction. This allows them to feel guilt, isolation, and thoughts that impair their ability to make good decisions leading to feeling despair or depression. They will feel as if they cannot control their lives because they have a void they need to fill.
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