'Have you paid for pornography?' poll discussion

I don't use pornography for the same reason I'm vegetarian - I do my best not to cause harm to others. This link gives a voice to men, women and children who have been harmed by it. Maybe the 90% of men in particular who said they watch it should find out more about the people who suffer within it and because of it.

https://againstpornography.org/effectsandharms.html

Whether some people like it or not, pornography is with us and won't go away. Indeed, I'd hazard it's more socially acceptable now than ever before. And when we read that the woman young girls look up to the most and aspire towards is Katie Price we know it's not likely to lose it's social acceptance at any time in the near future. There's a small but significant minority of young girls who see the potential for glamour in pornography - an opportunity to escape from their current poor social circumstances, with the chance of travel to exotic places, live the high life and even meet rich and successful men who'll give them a football wives lifestyle. These young women often don't see, or want to see, the reality that only a minuscule number of them will achieve their dream, while the vast majority of others will be cast aside as soon as they've "got their kit off" the first time.

So, certainly there's exploitation but also there's a raft of young women who willingly participate in pornography "for a laugh". They may not understand that once they've had a photo-shoot their photos can and will be distributed over the internet and/or magazines for ever more, and there's nothing they can ever do to stop it in the future. Maybe they don't think about the consequences that the photos may be recycled years down the line if and when they become successful in a professional role. Maybe they don't realise that once they've participated in pornography that people (particularly men) will always see them as "up for it", or "easy", etc.

Many pornographic photos that appear on the internet and in magazines these days are of Eastern European girls. Perhaps they're participating because they can quickly earn an amount of money that's comparatively insignificant in Western terms, but substantial to them. Or maybe they think the photos will be distributed far away and they won't have to suffer the personal consequences they'd incur if the photos were published in their home country.

The alternatives to the current situation are either to ban pornography altogether or to relax the rules and make it even more open.

To gain an insight in to what the consequences of a ban on pornography we can look at the current situation with prostitution in the UK. While the social circumstances in to which (mostly) young women are drawn in to prostitution are possibly different - or at least more extreme - we can see that while there is an unending demand for pornography someone, somewhere will supply it. And as is often the case, once something is banned it is taken up by unscrupulous profiteers who will exploit vulnerable women even more than they are now.

I doubt in this country there's much of an appetite to make pornography more widely acceptable, or even to relax the rules on what can and can't be shown. But that's probably because the Internet has changed the boundaries, enabling just about every man or woman to find something in their chosen niche, often for free, usually with little chance of others knowing and invariably in the comfort and privacy of their own home.

Social mores have certainly changed in the last few decades. I don't see any desire (or likelihood) of a return to the Victorian days when a piano leg had to be covered up for fear it might make a man think of it as a young woman's leg! What I'd like to see is a properly researched study (not a flimsy article in a celebrity tell-all magazine) that follows up say, 10 and 20 years later, asking women who had participated in pornography whether they regret it or whether they feel it did them any harm.

d-seven wrote: »

I bought a few jazz mags in my late teens and 20's...


I once received a job application from a man who stated on his CV he had a large collection of Jazz mags. I didn't dare ask for more details..................:D

Maat wrote: »

I don't use pornography for the same reason I'm vegetarian - I do my best not to cause harm to others. This link gives a voice to men, women and children who have been harmed by it. Maybe the 90% of men in particular who said they watch it should find out more about the people who suffer within it and because of it.

https://againstpornography.org/effectsandharms.html

Vegetarian???
If we are not supposed to eat animals, why are they made out of Meat??

I think the whole industry should be licensed
Nothing to do with human rights or anything, just that the quality of a lot of it is just awful and I think licensing may help