Fitzroyalty

The recent article Porn hurts women, so say the partners of users annoyed me greatly. Apart from the usual anti-sex, anti-porn rhetoric, what annoyed me the most was the rampant hypocrisy and double standards it espouses.

The author, Petra Bueskens, critiques Bettina Arndt’s 2011 article Porn is not a dirty word, wherein Arndt discusses men’s use of pornography and their confusion about why women appear to dislike this. Porn is a diverse form of media. It can be defined as sexually explicit media created by, and made for, the consumption of consenting adults. Sexually explicit media has existed throughout recorded human history. It is a part of civilisation.

Porn has many forms, from the written word to the moving image. It has many genres and themes. Simplistic assumptions by the ignorant that all porn is violent are incorrect. Most of it is not. Subsequent arguments, such as that all porn exploits all women, which are based on these incorrect assumptions, are therefore also incorrect.

For many people, consuming sexually explicit media is the simple result of liking sex and wanting to consume more than they can experience. Some people like fashion and so read fashion magazines, which display clothes they can’t afford. Some people read car magazines and dream of the Ferraris they will never drive. Some people view porn while wishing they could be having more sex, and different kinds of sex. It’s entertainment. It really is that simple.

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