Pornography:

What exactly is it?

The question is straight forward, but defining it is altogether another matter.

Pornography: Most people when they hear the name mentioned, cringe and think it’s a dirty word; indeed, some people will not even say the word; thinking somehow the word itself carried some kind of contamination, yet without really knowing what it actually means.

Let’s explore this further. Is it showing the naked body in film or video; is it showing a consenting couple having sexual intercourse; is it showing any animal, whereby there is explicit connotations towards the sexual act?

Some would say yes to all, and venture even further, and yet, what is wrong with showing either the naked human form or showing the way we procreate? I would suggest an argument that there is nothing inherently wrong with showing naked human bodies, or in showing naked individuals having sex, or indeed, in showing the sex act in picture or film in consensual sexual poses, for our bodies are but the houses we live in, and, there are only two types, male and female.

Please, if you find a third you must let me know; indeed, our bodies were around long before clothes ever showed on the scene, and even when we did start to cover our nakedness, it was more to do with keeping warm and less to do with modesty. Still later, to mark us out as different, similar I suppose, to painting our bodies or tattooing ourselves to mark our individuality, for adornment, a demonstration of wealth, expression of status, a manifestation of culture; indeed, some cultures used tattoos (adornment) to show their tribal history.

Let’s look at how the Collins dictionary defines:

Pornography: noun, 1. writing, pictures, films designed to stimulate sexual excitement.
2. The production of such material [that causes, can cause offence]shortened to porn or porno. The word is Greek “pornographos” writing of harlot from pornē + graphein, to write.

Not a lot there, writings, pictures, films, for what is excitement to one can be utterly distasteful to another. We are down here to personal preference, some foods we like and crave, other we can’t stand and loath; again, some are downright dangerous: can paralyze limb, distort mind, poison body, even kill, and herein lies the intrinsic danger.

Pornography can be poisonous if used wrongly, if the mind of the individual is not balanced, if he or she goes there purely as a means of self-gratification. So what you read into a photo or film is purely inside our own mind, and even if it stimulates, is it wrong (I talking here of a heathy balanced individual) to have that feeling, after all, it’s what keeps our species moving forward? If males and females were no longer attractive to each other, or even photos of each other, where would the human race be? To procreate (we all do it) is a basic human, animal function, better in a loving relationship, for that is where it truly belongs, so if a photo, or film, or book gives us a little help, so what, on balance, is it not more of a good thing than a bad thing?

I argue, to look upon a naked man or woman cannot be wrong. The human body is beautiful—it shows us in our natural state, it shows us for what are, it shows us as equals--o see a picture of two people making love, where is the harm?

Perhaps we should talk about this at lot more to our children and show them pictures, more so, before they become sexually active and resort to covert under the table activities, openness with children must be a good thing, but before we are able to be open with our children, we must be open with ourselves.

Let’s be clear, I’m not talking, masochistic photos, where sexual pleasure is derived from pain, humiliation, exploitation, or domination by either sexes, or titillation for sadistic, immoral, or perverted purposes. Neither rape, nor child exploitation, these are vile and indefensible disgusting attributes.

That is not my interpretation of pornography.  

Delight in torture, an enjoyment in the suffering of others; paedophilia, exploitation, deprivation, of gaining delight in destroying innocent children, robbing them of their childhood, robbing them of what true love represents in a healthy relationship, and scarring them for life in the doing, is a crime against humanity: rape is equally despicable, for it  has little to do with sex; everything to do with control, about dominance, about degradation, about power.

No one can argue in favour, and who would wish to defend these vile people? Instead, I’m arguing in favour of an equal loving relationship, a sharing of values, of ideas, of bodies, inside an environment of mutual respect, understand and tolerance.

 Any comment?