Thursday, April 1, 2010

Today's Special: Porn



What's your take on Porn?

Really, I want to know because I was out last night with Frick and her girl friends and couple of their mothers and we started talking about men and porn (not with the girls). And I didn't just wake up one day in the stupid tree, because I know all men view porn. That's just a fact. But here's a newsflash: Women view porn too! I think it's normal for people to view porn from time to time, any more than that and it could become a problem. Yes? No?

Do tell. Because I'm curious.

Today porn is more than Marilyn Chambers and a VHS tape hidden in your basement. Today porn is interactive. It can come to your front door and knock on it if you choose. Porn can chat with you on the phone for $7.99 for the first minute and $8.99 for the additional minutes. Porn is in our e-mail boxes. Porn can be viewed at the office, in your car, at the library, in a staff meeting, on the train, porn can even be viewed in a house and with a mouse-if that's what floats your boat. In our cyber world porn is omni-present. And easy. So what's acceptable and what's crossing over into the creepy?

I have some experience here and I say that porn can be the playground for the deviants. Now that's not to say that using pornography from time to time makes anyone a deviant. Hell no. I am saying that because most porn is dark and forbidden, the deviant in some can take over and turn a life upside down. I have see this first hand. But what about your average Joe, just getting jolly because his girl is out of the country for a month and porn is what's keeping him honest. Then porn becomes a public service? And how much is enough?

Give me some guidance here, bloggersphere. What's normal and what's not?

18 comments:

Scope said...

If it fits safely on a thumb drive? You're okay. If you need to add another terabyte of storage to your network for your porn collection? You have a problem.

And for the people that is helps slide down the deviant dark hole (metaphor!), I'm just wondering if they are prone to that kind of behavior anyway, and if it weren't porn, it would be cigarettes or gambling or something.

Now excuse me, Micro Center has a 2 TB NAS for $309, I've got some shopping to do. (2010-04-01!)

the walking man said...

Candace...Porn has been around in every culture ever formed on the face of the earth. Look at the Karma Sutra, some in our culture considers it porn, and theirs as instruction towards sexual enlightenment.

What are the lines? Anything done without consent or with a minor child. Anything done with an animal (of the animal kind) and anything that degrades either party.

I for one would rather have an openly sexually verbal society than one that says "Oh that is evil" then the very one that does the talking evil about the thing discussed is caught doing that very thing. (Ted Taggert comes readily to mind)

I think too that eventually a person loses the fascination with it and simply disregards most of it. and Scope only a fool would download it when you have so many options for streaming it.

Scott Oglesby said...

I think like any other possible addiction it comes down to three categories. The first, you’re horny and it fills that need. -Not a problem. The second is you’re bored and think ‘what the hell.’- Can slip into a problem. The third is you’re trying to fill a void in your life through outside means.- And that will always lead to serious problems whether you do it with porn, sex, drugs, alcohol, God, gambling, or just about anything else.

wigsf said...

Porn is like war. We all know it's bad, but it has provided so many good things to the world. Useful things that have non-porn uses today.
Porn was the first industry to bring the videotape into homes. Videotape had been around for years, but it was porn that made it accessible for home use. They pushed for high def. And you watch, they are going to make 3D televisions worthwhile infinitely more than any sporting event.
And don't get me started on how porn revolutionized the internet.

The Dental Maven said...

In as much as I consider myself an expert in knowledge of the oral cavity, pornography goes beyond my level of expertise. I defer to the prior commentors who appear to have a true working knowledge of the subject.

Heff said...

I'm sorry. There's NO SUCH THING as too much porn.

RW said...

I don't honestly see anything wrong in the standard stuff; posing, couples, positions and such. It's carved on ancient temples for cry eye, kama sutra much?

But what I'll just call non-standard (for me, anyway) is a huge turn off to me. Some of it is even the fastest way to get me interested in something else. I'm grew up very naive and in the 50's. I seriously knew stuff was out there and always has been... but there are things that actually do the opposite for me, and that's all there is to it. And I don't go for the "interactivity" stuff. Never tried it, and never will.

Candy's daily Dandy said...

Ok...so porn is porn. I get it. And like Scott said, the triad of reasons for it differ.

I think I'm talking more about the pornography subsidiaries... phone porn, chat room porn, email porn, even text porn.

It is EVRYWHERE right now and real people are asking real questions. Sex and porn and deviance is one of the major contributing factors of my divorce, so I do have an opinion, but I'm trying to look at it from all sides.

BeckEye said...

Nothing wrong with a little porn now and then.

I agree with what Scope said about people being prone to a certain type of behavior. I've known guys who, to the average person, watch A LOT of porn. But it didn't consume their lives and they weren't pedophiles or perverts or whatever. People react to different things in different ways. It's just like these people who try to blame music for everything from misogyny to suicide. If you listen to a song and then kill yourself, it's not the song's fault. You were probably thinking about killing yourself in the first place.

RW said...

well I don't want to judge anybody else but there is kind of a double standard when you come right down to it. Sometimes a guy looking at porn is seen as bad while a woman can read a pretty graphic romance novel and that's ok. Woman outright talk about their favorite "devices" but if a guy talked about having something like it - and naming it and shit - he'd be out the door, even in the eyes of some of his fellow fellows.

When it comes to porn of kids and animals and body products that don't belong in certain conditions and like extremes... you can just take it someplace else as far as I'm concerned and, sorry, but I DO think the people who enjoy some of that are seriously ill. And yes I AM a judgmental jerk so deal with it :-)

If a couple is using porn to enhance their private time with each other that's that. If they use it to replace time with each other there are obviously other problems.

I don't think someone is irredeemable if they slip once in a while. Show me who is perfect. But I think a person needs to know that there are seriously more important things in the world than sex.

Maybe it's the product of a good marriage or a weak libido :-) but I find I don't have a desire to seek out pictures and such.

SkylersDad said...

Kind of what Scope said, if you are spending a couple hundred bucks a month just for the T1 line into your home because the live feed looks "choppy", you might have a problem.

Cora said...

A guy once explained porn to me like it's window shopping. Y'know, the way a woman might waltz through Nordstrom looking at all the different purses and shoes without any intent of buying, but just wanting to see what's there? That's how a lot of guys view porn. Just looking.

Maybe that's BS, I dunno. I just know that the times I've seen it, all I can think is how stupid the plot and the acting is. I'm like, "oh c'mon, there's NO WAY that would happen in real life! What moron wrote THIS? And her boobs are SOOOOOOOO not real! And neither is his baby stick! Puh-leeze!"

Oh one more thing: did you ever watch Freaks & Geeks? Remember the episode where the boys watch porn in the AV room and are wincing and on the verge of vomiting the whole time? Then they were afraid of the girls in school afterwards? Classic! Tee hee hee.

Unknown said...

I have my own stash...I say a little healthy porn is fine...

If it's a problem, then it's a problem...but it goes like anything else...addiction is addiction and wether it's coffee, drugs or porn...too much is too much!

xoxox

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

I think watching some porn and having a wank to help you sleep is not such a bad thing. Now, if you're watching 5 hours a day or you're watching at work, then you got yourself a problem.

Mr. Condescending said...

Porn is pretty convenient sometimes, especially when you're perpetually single like me and working all the time!

To be honest, I never really watch anything hardcore, I like the softer stuff.

Dr Zibbs said...

I check out thehun.com and look as short clips from time to time but that's it.

will said...

You ask, "What's normal and what's not?"

I ask, "What's normal?"

Jim said...

Is it really just $7.99 for the first minute, and $8.99 after that?

This other guy I know wanted me to check . . . and to get a number, if you remember what it was . . .

;-)

The last time I watched porn, it was Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, and a bunch of guys in NY were gagging on something huge. I got very aroused, but it was very healthy and not deviant at all.

XO