Table of Contents
Abstract
Many Americans view porn on a regular basis. The internet source is the highest ranked as the easiest and fastest means of accessing explicit contents of pornographic materials. This paper will discuss different issues of pornography which effects the world and individuals in many ways. The information in this paper will explain the change in one’s behaviour and brain, negative effects on martial relationship, financial cost, religion effect and a little bit of history. Pornography brings happiness to many but causes a lot of harm to others who are influenced by it. We must remember that human sexual behavior depends on a variety of biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors of the individual.
Keywords: Pornography, men, women, studies, research, sexual, sex
Introduction
The word pornography is derived from the Greek word meaning “Writings of Prostitutes” (Wilson, 2018). Pornography is labeled as erotic in nature which can be displayed in many different ways of media communication such as printed, audio, and visual with explicit description or view of sexual activity (Wilson, 2018). The only difference is that the current pornography has internet and other ways to sow explicit images and sounds. Laaser (2004) defined pornography as anything that is nude. Boys, girls, men and women over the years have learned that issues arise regarding to sex from a number of sexual content sources including magazines, songs, movies, internet as well as television. Wilson talked about super bowl commercials who shows a 30 second clip of a sexual visual. Those contents are intended for adolescents and young men to catch their attention. Based on research, 12 to 17 year olds watch explicit content with sexual acts, there is a greater chance they will encounter sexual acts at a younger age (Wilson, 2018).
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Usage/Cost
Pornography has become more explicit and more easily available. In the United States, research has shown that 66% of males and 41% of females consume pornography monthly. An estimated 50% of all Internet traffic is related to sex (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2014). In the year of 2013, Netflix, Amazon and Twitter had a lower amount of internet data usage than pornography and porn sites (Wilson,2018). More than half of internet pornography users were male. Women like same sex pornography (Wilson, 2018). Reviews find that about half of male college students watch pornography weekly, while less than ten percent of female college students (Kraus & Rosenberg, 2014).
Two studies found that undergraduates reported reasons for using internet pornography were for their habits, sexual excitement, sexual gratification, convenience, curiosity, and mood alteration (Kraus & Rosenberg, 2014). According to data from a sample of Scandinavian adults, 81% of men and 18% of women reported using internet pornography on a weekly basis (Kvalem et al., 2014). Approximately one fourth of a billion people will use pornography on a mobile device or tablet/ipad this year (Salmon, 2018), which can be found in a vast variety for free. In the United States, more than 75 % of family households have access to the internet at home (Salmon, 2018). Salmon (2018) researched reviews and found that every second there is $3,000 spent on pornography, with approximately 28,000 viewing with almost 400 searching online, while every 39 minutes a pornographic video is made in the United States.
There is also about 4.2 million websites devoted to pornography, with a total of 62 million daily pornography focused search engine requests (Salmon,2018). In the year of 2016, more than 20 billion visits to PornHub and over 90 billion videos were streamed worldwide. In 2001, the United States had an estimate of approximately $14 billion dollars annually from different sources of porn such as video, movies on cable, hotel rooms, porn networks, internet web sites, sex toys, magazines and phone sex (Weinberg et al.,2010). Based on several studies, people pay more for pornography in America in one year than going to the movies or performing arts. Pornography business is bigger than all sports together (Weinberg et al., 2010). Wilson (2018) mentioned that pornography is more universal than tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and firearms, all things that have supervisory parameters on them in order to promote or protect public health and safety.
Effect of Pornography on Women, Marriages and Community
Pornography effects how young people think about sex and how men think about and approach women (Wilson, 2018). Pornography is associated with effecting relationships and marriages emotionally. Married men involved in pornographic activities, do feel less important emotionally to their partners. Women that are in a relationship with men who are involved with pornographic activities, state that they experience a feeling of infidelity, distrust and sometimes irritation (Fagan, 2009). Pornography advertises, exaggerates, or validates standards such as: women are sexual objects; everyone is always prepared for and trying sex; women are valued for what they do or are willing to have done to them sexually; girls are for sex; and women are trophies.
Pornography presents men expressing their physical dominance and nearly uncut or wild fantasies as always valuable or wanted, without input from or respect for their female partners (Wilson, 2018). Doran and Price (2014) stated that those who are married that do watch pornography were more likely to be divorced, have an affair, or are not satisfied in their marriage. The negative results from pornography usage has grown stronger over time (Doran & Price, 2014). The individual is seen to spend less time with the family; such as seeking distractions, mentally plus verbally devalues the marriage, becomes critical on body image and character of the other person, feels more spiritually empty and also experiences more internal stress (Doran & Price, 2014).
Pornography is a major threat in our current society, marriages, children and ourselves. Based on Doran and Price (2014), studies show more than half of wives seek treatment because the husband is no longer interested in sex with them. Wives who experienced their husbands being addicted to porn felt as if they were isolated, excluded, and barred from intimacy (Doran & Price, 2014). Pornography consumption can negatively impact marital relationships by devaluing the importance of commitment, lowering satisfaction with sexual performance, love, or physical appearance of a partner; and reducing the desire for sex with a partner (Doran & Price, 2014).
Doran and Price (2014) did research on a survey of 308 female college students and found that pornography use by one’s partner was correlated with lower levels of self-esteem, relationship quality, and sexual satisfaction for the respondent. How it effects the body Mental health professionals noticed an increase in treatment for pornography problems. Pornography is labeled as behaviors such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, impulse control disorder, paraphilic disorder, or hypersexual disorder. These sexual compulsions are considered an addictive disorder also.
Anyone addicted to pornography have the same urges and cravings as alcohol and drugs but don’t experience psychological distress (Kraus & Rosenberg, 2014). Pornography first effects the mind, then it alters a person’s approach and insight regarding the normal sexual intercourse. Men that have a tendency of watching pornography are identified to having increased patience when relating to rape, abnormal sexual behaviours, promiscuity and sexual aggression (Fagan,2009).
Dr. Park (2016) and his colleagues, suggest that internet pornography use does not readily transition to real-life partners as “sex with desired partners may not register as meeting expectations and arousal declines.” He also suggests that reproductive issues once normal in men over 60, such as erectile dysfunction, delayed ejaculation, decreased sexual satisfaction and diminished libido, are becoming all too common in men under 40 and are all correlated to the drastic increase of internet pornography use (Park et al., 2016).
Religion Effect
Religious users of pornography report less happiness in life and often report substantial guilt and shame over their use because they believe it is a violation of the personal morals and values (Grubbs et al., 2017). Compared to non religious people, religious people are more conservation with their sexual life. Individuals who are religious and used pornography reported an unhappy life. Based on Laaser (2004) by Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction, religious people such as pastor, priest, and pope seem to cover up their addiction until the victim tells or the demon is destroying them Grubbs and colleagues (2017) searched the words pornography addiction on Amazon.com and discovered that almost 2000 results shown with 900 related to religion. Most of the descriptions were emphasizing the negative impacts of addiction to the religious belief.
Counseling/Seeking Help
In addition to preventing harm, counselors provide psychoeducation to their clients in order to encourage human development and wellness. For counselors to take on the responsibility of assisting a client with sexuality issues, a counselor must be comfortable with sexuality discussions. If the counselor is not at ease, then he or she will not provide competent and ethical care (Bloom et al., 2016). A vast majority of the time, the most effective recovery method for the physiological changes caused by pornography addiction is simply abstaining from further consumption of pornography (Park, 2016). Studies stated that Naltrexone treatment resulted in a decrease in pornography viewing and is used to assist individuals with the addiction (Capurso, 2017). As for individuals seeking help, ask other recovering people for recommendations, contact a mental health professional, attend support groups such as Sexaholic Anonymous (Laaser,2004).
