Why
I Hate Pornography by Amrevis
Pornography, it seems, is now the civilized world’s
number one cultural product. If you think I am being
cynical, then try this piece of information – In
United States alone pornography is estimated to be
worth around $12 billion, in comparison all of Hollywood
is worth mere $10 billion. Globally pornography is
worth around $57 billion. In US at least 50 new porn
movies get produced every day (not counting hundreds
of other porn home videos done by amateurs). In
India, the so-called land of spirituality, pornography
is conservatively estimated to be a $2-3 billion industry.
Porn is available almost as easily in every Indian
city as it is in any Western country. One only has
to a walk through the Delhi’s Palika bazaar,
to know why many locals prefer to call that market
Porn bazaar.
The porn culture is already upon us. We live in it,
and our way of life is certainly influenced by it.
Overt sexual imagery is now used to sell everything
from cars to alcoholic beverages. It has become almost
a norm for dancers and prostitutes to get featured
in TV serials and films. The starlets performing
in music albums wear skimpy dress and perform burlesque
dance movements that are almost as titillating as
watching any porn movie from the ensemble of Larry
Flint. The effect of pornography on relationships
of the heart has been most damaging. People falling
in the category of diehard porn addicts lose their
power to relate to a real person, because they don’t
behave or perform like fantasies.
It is debatable whether the rise of pornography can
lead to rise in incidences of immoral conduct towards
women. But it is obvious that porn does lead to change
in the sexual habits. Sex in pornographic movies
generally lasts 7 to 30 minutes from first touch
to graphic orgasm. The trouble starts when people
forget that porn is a fantasy and want to repeat
a 30-minute performance in real life sexual encounter.
The booming market for Viagara capsules may have
less to do with genuine gases of erectile dysfunction,
and more to do with people who are seeking a way
to become sexual athletes and emulate the marathon
performance of their favorite porn stars. Girl friends
and wives get regarded by many as little more than
extras on a porn movie set.
Another cause of concern is the fact that pornography
is inspiring more violent forms of sex. You only
have to go to google and type “sex + violence” and
you will be led to thousands of sites that openly
deal with most atrocious acts of violence and degradation
in the name of sex. The trouble starts when people
want to replicate these acts of violence and degradation
in their homes. Instead of getting any pleasure they
are more likely to end up badly hurt. And when people
are unable to replicate the performances of their
favorite porn stars they develop frightening levels
of insecurity. Many of them might feel tempted to
go in for dangerous surgeries in order to have their
looks changed or their organs artificially enhanced.
In a survey done in US, 500 women who had recently
viewed pornography, 42 percent said they felt bad
about their bodies, 33 percent said that they felt
sexually inadequate and 25 percent viewed sex as
if it was a performance. Breast augmentation is the
third most common surgical operation in the US, with
291,000 operations carried out in 2005, despite concerns
over the safety of such procedures. In India, more
and more women are going in for breast enhancement
surgery. Although the data on Indian men who have
gone in for penile implants is not available, their
numbers could be as large as that of our women who
have had breast enhancements.
Rumors are always going round that this Bollywood
heroine has had a nose job, or a breast job done to
enhance her looks. The question we should all put to
ourselves is why should a woman’s beauty be solely
dependent on the straightness of the nose or the plumpness
of the breasts. Why should a man’s sexuality
be dependent on the length of his organ? But that is
how beauty is increasingly gets defined in today’s
porn culture. If you don’t have udders as large
as the neighborhood buffalo then you are not beautiful.
If you are not hung like the gorilla in the Delhi zoo
then you are not man enough.
A case can also be made that porn inspires drug abuse.
Porn movies often depict their artists snorting drugs
before they launch their marathon romp on the bed.
Viagara too after all is a drug. At today’s
rates this drug is costlier than gold. It is now
being reported that a new generation of drugs, is
due to hit world markets in three years. This new
drug promises not just sexual arousal, but also a
feeling of eagerness and enthusiasm about sex; apparently,
this too is something that now needs to be manufactured.
What was earlier a pure and sublime natural activity
has now been turned into something that is dependent
solely on chemicals that we ingest.
Sex in the porn culture is no longer a basic instinct.
When sex organs are artificially created in surgical
lab, when desire and arousal are artificially inculcated
through drugs such as Viagara, than sex ceases to
be an instinct. It becomes something out and out
artificial. That is why I hate pornography. I hate
it because it has destroyed the nature of love and
sex. Under the tutelage of porn, sex has turned increasingly
coercive, violent, demeaning and empty.
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