This discussion opened on Saturday, March 7 and closes at midnight on Friday, March 20. With which side of the pornography debate do you most identify? Do you believe that pornography is harmful to individuals or to society, or that it degrades women? Does it degrade men? Should pornography be censored or remain legal and available to those who wish to view it? Could there be potential benefits to viewing pornography? What are the reasons for your opinion?

In today’s Western society, the Internet has made pornography extremely accessible. The pornography industry has been detrimental to both actors and viewers. Ex Porn Star, Dr. Shelley Lubben once said: “nobody would ever do that kind of work for free” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGdMi-oC9nM). I do not think that any little girl, or boy grows up and has hopes and aspirations of becoming a porn star. These are people who need to make a “quick buck” and who will sell their bodies in order to achieve that income. The pornography industry mainly consists of women, but it the majority of people who consume it are male. Women are degraded, dehumanized, and are dominated by their male partners. Furthermore, these images and videos demonstrate an unrealistic reality of sexual intimacy.
Pornography is primarily aimed at the male population, and the majority of the consumers are males. Currently, there is a mass spread of availability of pornography due to the internet and social media. Images and videos of women in pornography portray an unrealistic reality of what sexual intimacy is like. This includes women who are “submissive” and “dominated” by their male partner. Not only is this degrading to women, but the women within the pornography videos are typically large breasted and very thin. This decreases women’s self esteem because they might believe that inorder for a male to be “turned- on” they must be comparable to the actress in the pornography. Additionally, this literature review states that more than half of pornographic videos cut the face of the male out of the video and focus on the women performing oral sex to the male.Therefore I do believe that pornography does degrade women. Furthermore, a specific research study analyzed the content of popular pornographic videos and the objectives of the video focused on aggression and violence towards the women. Of 304 scenes analyzes 88.2% contained physical aggression, and women responded neutrally to the aggression.

Since the large majority consumers of pornography are young males (12-18), these males might believe that aggression is normal in sexual intercourse. Therefore this study suggests that those who are sexually inexperienced may use pornography to build their sexual knowledge.

I also do believe that pornography degrades men