Pornography: A Societal Plague

Pornography is a societal plague. There is a concerning spike in online pornographic consumption, including violent pornography, much of which is also accessed by adolescents and even children. The Internet makes it relatively easy to access such content and also allows it to spread easily, bringing with it an egregious aftermath of psychological and relational issues.

Porn acts as an addictive drug. When humans watch porn, dopamine (the neurotransmitter that is responsible for pleasure) is released. Because humans are wired to desire this pleasure, those who watch porn crave this dopamine hit even more. It becomes a vicious cycle of watching porn for a dopamine surge. But an added layer to this problem is that viewers are not content with the same amounts of dopamine over a longer period of time... the brain becomes accustomed to the amount of dopamine transmitted, so before long it requires pornography of a more aggressive and vivid nature.

Studies show that about one in three pornographic videos contains explicit and violent content and that 95% of those in pornographic content are depicted as either responding with indifference or pleasure when afflicted with violence or aggression. Most of the victims are women. The danger of such content is crystal clear: the violence is portrayed as something to be enjoyed, as if the sexual experience is one of pain and a fight for dominance. Individuals consuming pornography can become slowly desensitized to this.

But it doesn’t just end with one’s skewed perception of violence and dominance. Pornography has unfortunately affected many relationships between men and women. Because of this idea that “the sexual experience is violent but pleasurable”, with women being the main victims, it transfers over to real-life relationships. In other words, real-life violence becomes more common, with both men and women being victims, but especially women. Just like a plague, porn affects so many more than just those who consume pornographic content. What human beings take in and put into their minds affects the way that they see and relate to the real world and society.

And there are many other examples of negative consequences of watching porn, such as depression, loneliness, anxiety, an inability to relate to people properly day in and day out, etc. Human beings were made for so much more than exploiting each other for the sake of sexual pleasure. Pornography dehumanizes men and women equally at its core, and it is not just important, but necessary, for this plague to be blotted out from society.