Is porn a silent disease or a helpful turn on?
There are images seen either on television or the Internet everyday of hardcore sexual intercourse with the added dirty talk, extravagant positions and daring toys or whips. These images are what most of us have to come to identify as pornography.
Pornography, according to Dictionary.com, is hyped-up sexually explicit pictures, writings or other material with no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire and promote sexual arousal. It is the idea of pornography, though, that can make or break a relationship because to some it is seen as degrading while to others it is seen as a helpful guide to pleasure and new adventures.
Dr. Aline Zoldbrod, a licensed psychologist and an American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists-certified sex therapist from the Boston area, said she believes pornography has changed the way men and women view sex because pornography portrays graphic images of a man and woman having sex, with little or no sexual arousal.
“(Pornography) makes it seem like men who know how to caress women are sissies and that a real man would just put his penis into her. This is the opposite of how sex should be,” Zoldbrod said.
Lori Ash, a senior sociology and international affairs major, said she believes pornography is alright to watch if you enjoy it with your partner, and if it is soft core, not menacing and dominating.
But as of recently, pornography has been a hot topic not only for the images it displays, but also for how readily and easily it can be accessed.
Back in the olden days, the days before the Internet if you can remember that long ago, pornography connoisseurs had to rely on magazines and/or video rentals. This could create an embarrassing situation at times, having to walk into a store and pretty much announce to everyone that you like porn.
With the Internet readily available, people can access pornography at the simple click of a mouse, and anyone can do it. There are numerous sites to be found on pornography that can range from guy on girl, to girl on girl, to threesomes: pretty much whatever catches the viewer’s fancy.
With these images being splashed across the Internet, it only became a matter of time until relationships started to feel the brunt of this growing genre.
According to TheSite.org, “Unsurprisingly, the most prolific visitors of online porn are students, who account for almost 25 percent of all visits.”
Some college-aged students flock to pornography sites to laugh with their friends about the obscene images or lack of good acting. Others may turn to it for some hints on how to satisfy their partner. And still, there are those that just want to get off.
However, it has to be reiterated that pornography is not exactly something that teaches how to be a better lover; it is for entertainment and it may end up teaching the exact opposite of what should be done in bed.
“I think porn can change some people’s perceptions on sex in a relationship and what things (for example, a penis) should like,” said Shaun Piazza, a junior electrical engineering, physics and education major.
Piazza said pornography is not something that should be used to determine if partners are having good sex or not, because it is for entertainment purposes only.
Pornography, according to Zoldbrod, casts its actors according to the size of body parts; the bigger, the better. Large breasts and penises, for example, may lead men to think that they must have a big penis or women to think they must big breasts in order to enjoy sex.
The images in pornography that are displayed in videos and pictures on Internet porn sites show sexual intercourse in a different light than, say, a chick-flick love scene.
Sometimes pornography portrays a dominatrix role play, with many controlling images of a man telling a woman what to do and how to do it or vice versa. This can heighten the domineering actions during sex and cause an unrealistic portrayal of the partner’s true feelings.
“I believe porn becomes an issue when it loses its passion and sensuality. I do not think porn that depicts violence or one person dominating over the other and degrading them is healthy for a relationship,” Ash said.
Sometimes porn can change a person and give him or her misconceptions as to what sex should look or feel like. This is where the sex drive in a regular relationship may start to see downfalls. For example, images of women having repeat orgasms over and over after being tied up or of men being pleasured by his secretary under his desk at work can lead some people to have a blocked perception to true intimate sexual encounters.
Pornography shows the fantasy world that is not real or obtainable. The images are made for entertainment purposes, but it is when this entertainment gets out of control that a relationship may end.
“I believe there needs to be a separation between pornography and the sexual satisfaction you get from your partner. Pornography can hurt a relationship if one of the partners gets too involved in it and starts to believe that that is what sex is,” Ash said. “If a guy is more into porn than his girlfriend, you have problems.”
Watching pornography can be a sensual, fun-filled experience for some people, but it should be consumed in small doses and each partner must remember that what the people in it are doing is not actual sexual arousal that should be used.
Sexual intercourse should be experienced with care for each other, not domination over one another. Pornography should be used solely as entertainment and taken with a grain of salt. It should not become a new player in a relationship.
Contact Campus Press Staff writer Elizabeth Stortroen at Elizabeth.Stortroen@thecampuspress.com.
