How Porn is Hurting Sexuality

How Porn is Hurting Sexuality

By Audrey Dinyari

From:

The Observer- posted Feb. 5^th 2011

Series: Untangling the web with Aleks Krotoski

Title: What effect has the Internet had on our sex lives?

The accessibility of online porn can lead to sexual enlightenment

(Krotoski February 05, 2011)

In Krotoski’s article, she poses the argument that online porn has become an opportunity for sexual enlightenment.  With personal interaction and conversation, sexual fantasies are created by the individual leading to understanding and expression of one’s sexuality.  Most discussion on porn and online expressed sexuality is focused on the negatives rather than possible sexual enlightenment. 

Krotoski explains that the Internet is transforming the politics of sex by creating networks where people can easily meet, form emotional connections and create personal fantasies.  She says that by obtaining the power to make sexual material, Internet users are sexually expressing themselves on a deeper level. (1)

She also reflects back on what porn was like before computers.  Magazines like playboy were circulated mostly through men while women did not have an outlet to express themselves sexually.  Once porn went online, women had as much access as men.  This leveling of the sexual playing field created a base for sexual enlightenment to grow from.  Krotoski see’s the Internet as having a positive impact on sexuality.  By giving people the power to explore and further understand their personal sexuality, the Internet gives both genders freedom to express their deepest desires, and the starting point for sexual enlightenment as pleasure becomes seen equal for both male and female. (1)

Personally, I agree with Krotoski.  There is a risk of social disorder from online expressions of sexuality, but I believe the Internet has done more good than harm.  I think it has helped in three specific ways; one being that it has made it easier for women to sexually express themselves.  Another way is that the Internet has given people an outlet to explore a range of sexual fantasies and everything imaginable and more can be found online.  This range has made our generation question what sex really is and how to define it.  The third way the Internet has been positive is in the way it has made connection easier to obtain.  Almost everything on the web that you are related to can be found linked through you.  People you never would have known of, become Facebook friends.  The Internet makes meeting people something you can do in a matter of minutes and from your desk.  You can interact with people in so many different ways through the Internet.  You can learn about a person much faster than before the Internet.  Just looking at someone’s Facebook profile will give you more information than you would get in one casual short conversation.  I see the access of the Internet as helpful in gaining networks and connections with people from around the world.  I think as long as there is some amount of censoring and control sexually, our society will not suffer from having online sexuality.

One negative thing I want to mention about the Internet is how porn has portrayed sex.  Porn-stars don’t look like average people, and are not supposed to.  They are trying to portray fantasies, not real life.  Yet our society is taking those extremely high expectations of sex and imposing them on average people.  To have increased body parts, longer orgasms and more appealing features are just some of the expectations porn has produced for our society.  It is unhealthy to have this as a model for sexuality.  Young people are being exposed to this highly amplified sexual ideal without having enough knowledge or experience themselves to pick out the truth from the falsity.  This results in generations of misguided people looking and expecting sexual experiences that are actually a play, performed by actors.  This is the main negative effect of online sexuality that I think needs to be addressed.  Misrepresentation is a huge area of error in societies media and unnatural expectations is at the heart of it.

Like the Enlightenment era that was discussed in lecture; the Internet can lead us to a new period of Enlightenment, if we allow it to.  This will include more liberal views on sexuality for both genders and possibly include a more diverse range of sexual orientations involved.  When women feel sexually liberated, pleasure, reproduction and gender roles all change.  I am hopeful that our society will embrace this change in expressed sexuality. (2)

Article

(1) Krotoski, Aleks. The Observer, "What effect has the Internet had on our sex lives?." Last modified February 05, 2011. Accessed February 13, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/feb/06/internet-porn-sex-lives.

Image

Krotoski, Aleks. The Observer, "What effect has the Internet had on our sex lives?." Last modified February 05, 2011. Accessed February 13, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/feb/06/internet-porn-sex-lives.

Class Lecture

(2) Moore, Crystal. LBST: The History of American Sexuality, PowerPoint, Transition from Colonial to Victorian Sexuality, slide 6, Accessed February 13, 2014