Awareness : the potential damages of Internet porn

[princealbertofb]

Geez.

I'm still WAY ahead of my time on everything on this planet.....

I was talking about this YEARS ago.....and as usual, nobody paid any attention.



Porn is why most gay men cannot function in the real world or have any kind of relationship.
They take what happens in porn as the "gospel" of what is supposed to happen between two men.......relationship or not. And thats just fucked up (pardon the pun).

Fortunately, some of us have had relationships before the onslaught of ubiquitous porn. I think there was a life lesson in there, somewhere.miley-eating-icecr

[Edward]

Watching porn has never caused any problems for me when dating real men. It's all in your head. Don't mix movie with reality.

[princealbertofb]

Okay, so I'm going to school in a bit and can only imagine what the people in those videos are talking about.

I can assume it's about creating unrealistic expectation - both as to what the human body is supposed to look like, often with almost unattainable ideals, and as to what sex is actually like. The former is not a problem that porn alone is responsible for - magazines, commercials, or even regular movies help perpetuate these images. While these things usually cater to the most common image of attraction, porn is slightly more aware of different ideals and preferences - after all, a lot of it is very niche.

As to the latter, that's not necessarily a problem porn should be held responsible for. Just like the problems with video-game/movie violence, the problem lies within awareness - being able to separate images on-screen from reality. Porn is a fantasy world where sex is simple and clean, taboos are ignored and where condoms are often unnecessary. I come from a country where we are taught how sex, the human body and contraceptives work. I have never, for a second, believed that the porn I've seen is in any way a reflection of reality. Having sex for the first time I had no false expectations, nor did I expect the other guy to look like a Greek statue.

Now, like I said, I can only ASSUME the videos were discussing this, but false expectations may be created and fueled by pornography - even though they come from plenty of other sources - but the problem lies in the lack of awareness of the viewer.

You are humbly right, Tangerine, but as you said, you've had sex education. Which is what the debate is really about. How much do we value our mental and sexual health to include proper sex education?

Some of the videos out there are really about not having sex education (or insufficient sex education) and what it does to our minds to access sex education only through the medium of porn (and expect that it'll be enough). The governments and education departments don't see that it's becoming a social problem that needs to be tackled head-on.

I'm not against porn, but I am for proper sex education. I feel we had better stuff when I was growing up, which is crazy.

In another video, not presented here, a woman was describing sexual health as good for all of our health, mental, social, and all. She may be right. Better discussions about the sex we're having, and not having, about the unpleasant aspects of it, about the hilarious aspects of it, about the elating aspects of it...

It still appears to be a taboo that thinking heads have devolved to the porn industry, but the porn industry is only interested in money, like other industries, not in education. It's giving us instant rewards, like a sugar or chocolate fix... that's all. That is very short-sighted on the part of governments and education boards. So maybe we need to get our heads out of our butts and start demanding more truth?

[Cuddly]

The last video was truely interesting and very fun to watch. I was put off at first by the length, but it was good fun.

I was educated, very lightly, in sex in 7th grade. It was weird and insufficient. But I have always known, because I was told by parents and what-not, that porn is not how sex works in the real life. That was knocked in my head from a young age, so I've always known. Today I hugely enjoy porn. I love watching two bears getting down and dirty together. It's hot! That doesn't mean that I go to bed, expecting to experience what went down in that movie.
I can only try to imagine how weird my sex life would be, if I wasn't told repeatedly as a kid, that porn isn't the same as real life sex.

Thinking back, there should've been alot more sex education. Not just straight sex, but gay sex. Some insight in LGBT. Maybe informing kids about the world, could prevent some of the homophobia and hate in general.