Running head: PORNOGRAPHY

Pornography Warping the World

Rachel Heugly
English 1010
April 27, 2016

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Pornography Warping the World

Humans have five basic needs to sustain a healthy life. 1.Physiological needs: air, food,
water, exercise, sleep, and sunshine. 2. Safety needs: protection, security, and shelter. 3. Love
and belonging: Need for belonging, love, affection, and meaningful relationships. 4. Self-esteem:
need to be thought well of by others, and themselves. 5. Self-Actualization: Creating, realizing
ones potential, productivity, and learning (Heiserman, 2015). People all seem to agree that the
first two are needs, but from there the disputes begin. Love is an essential part of life. Humans
are wired to have and innate need and desire to be wanted and accepted. Love is defined as A
strong tender affection: deep devotion (Landau, 2003). Strong affection for another arising out
of kinship or personal ties; unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another
(Merriam-Webster, 2016). In modern society, love is being threatened and degraded at every
turn. Love, in laymans terms, has become anything desirable, sexy, or arousing. One of the
attacks on the human need for love and connection is pornography. Pornography is running
rampant around the globe, shattering the unselfish loyalty of real love and replacing it with a
cheap synthetic.
Pornography is defined as movies, pictures, magazines, etc., that show or describe naked
people or sex in a very open and direct way in order to cause sexual excitement (MerriamWebster, 2016). The world is constantly berated with pornographic images and words, flashing
across televisions, computer screens, tablets, smartphones, books, and cartoons. It is splashed
across all forms of social media: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Skype, Instagram, etc.
Pornography is literally seconds away at any given moment. It no longer hides but blatantly
waltzes into schools, workplaces, and homes across the globe, parading its perversion and
mockery of love. The most disturbing thing is that this attack and travesty of intimacy is only

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getting worse. Porn is tearing apart homes and families everywhere, destroying once happy
couples, and removing the natural and beautiful connection of sexual intimacy from
relationships. Like a toxic plague, pornography usage is sweeping our nation and destroying our
humanity (Hagelin, 2009). This appropriately named plague is projected to only get worse. By
2017, a quarter of a billion people are expected to be accessing mobile adult content from their
phones or tablets, an increase of more than 30% from 2013. Mobile adult videochat alone will
have a compound annual growth rate of 25% (CovenantEyes, 2016).
Children viewing pornography is rapidly increasing as well, and with it bringing horrible
and heavy topics on young minds and hearts. Young girls are being thrown into a world with
boys who are addicted to porn before theyve even had a first kiss. Girls are receiving
overwhelming pressure from the boys their age asking for suggestive or nude pictures and sexual
favors, and the young girls, desperately seeking that human need of love and belonging, feel they
have no choice but to comply.
7th grade girls are asking questions about bondage and S&M. Many of them have
seen 50 Shades of Grey, and wonder if a boy wants to hit me, tie me up and stalk me,
does that mean he loves me? Girls are tolerating demeaning and disrespectful behaviors,
and thereby internalizing pornographys messages about their submissive role (Collective
Shout, 2016).
This distortion of love and intimacy is warping the minds of millions of children. The boys feel
entitled to sexual favors and think violent sexual actions are appropriate and fun, and the girls are
taught that this demeaning, submissive role is not only acceptable, but encouraged and sexy.
Pornography consumption is directly and incontrovertibly linked to sexual aggression and
sex crimes. The mindset that rape and abuse are not wrong when seen on a screen is distorting

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the minds of society at large. This idea that pain is pleasurable and that a womans place is doing
whatever a man wants is disgusting. This imagery of a man abusing a woman being sexy is
nothing short of evil. In 70% of occurrences, a man is perpetrator of the aggression; 94% of the
time the act is directed towards a woman (Stop Porn Culture, 2014). Pornography is not
responsible for sexual abuse or rape, but it is a common factor for almost all perpetrators. It
desensitizes the mind to the abhorrent nature of the violence and removes the intimacy of love
from sexual actions. Of 12,323 people, researchers concluded pornographic material puts one at
increased risk of: developing sexually deviant tendencies (31% increase in risk), committing
sexual offenses (22% increase in risk), accepting rape myths (31% increase in risk)
(CovenantEyes, 2016). It is even more terrifying to realize that these numbers are outdated and
complied from studies occurring from 1962-1995. There is no question, pornography use greatly
increases sexually and physically violent behavior in its consumers.
Sexual intimacy is a beautiful human bonding experience, assisting to fulfil the human
need to feel wanted, loved, and make connections with those around us. However, pornography
consumption destroys and demeans that very basic need for connection and leaves its viewers
feeling hollow and unfulfilled. Sexual release may be reached, but the desire to be connected and
loved is left empty. Porn is not love.
Love is invaluable. It is the bonding of heart and mind, and that wonderful union
continues onto a physical plain as two people become, quite literally, one flesh. Intimacy is
defined as closeness. Closeness requires not only a small physical distance, but a small or
nonexistent emotional distance. These requirements are impossible to meet through pornography.
Ill be hooking up with some guy whos really hot, confided a high school senior in
Northern California, then things get heavier and all of a sudden my mind shifts and Im

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not a real person: its like, this is me performing. This is me acting And I dont even
know who it is Im playing, who that she actually is. Its some fantasy girl, I guess,
maybe the girl from porn (Orenstein, 2016).
Distance like this young girl feels is becoming the new normal to sexual encounters. This kind of
distance makes it impossible for those involved to feel real love, or even empathy, for the other.
It removes the ability for physical sexual encounters to have the intimacy people so desperately
need.
Sadly, one of the highest pornography audiences is children. Children are becoming pornsaturated before they are even old enough to have the emotional and mental maturity required to
engage in sexual intercourse. Girls are being sexually harassed and exploited, and many do not
even realize it because its normal and everyone does it.
They are saying that boys act like they are entitled to girls bodies, like girls are only
there to pleasure them. It is partially true what defenders of porn often say, porn does
provide sex educationbut not in the way they think. It teaches middle school boys that
women and girls are there for his pleasure and that they are always up for sex. To
them, no just means persuade me (Collective Shout, 2016).
These kids are learning from porn that sex is the equivalent to love. They couldnt be more
wrong. They are learning that love and acceptance comes through sexual actions, not that sexual
actions come as a result of intimate connection and love. 51% of male and 32% of female
students first viewed porn before their teenage years (12 and younger) (CovenantEyes, 2016).
This is a mortifying statistic. Over 50% of boys are consuming porn in 6th and 7th grade, and over
30% of girls this age are learning that it is their place to be hit, demeaned, tied up, used, and
raped. This is an entirely new form of slavery that these young people are being thrust into.

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The pornographic mindset sweeping the world is that women and even children are
objects to be used and abused to achieve sexual gratification. Human beings naturally avoid pain;
children learn at a very young age to not touch hot stoves or knives. And yet, 88.2% of top rated
porn scenes contain aggressive acts (Stop Porn Culture, 2014).
A brand new national survey was just published that asked participants what type of
images they considered to be wrong in porn. Among the 1188 adults surveyed, 46% of
those who use porn replied that images of sexual acts that may be forced or painful are
not wrong. Yes, you read that correctly. Almost half of porn users think pain
and abuse in pornography is fine. Even further, only 50% of teens and young adults
surveyed (ages 13 to 25) think it is wrong to view these images of violent porn (Fight The
New Drug, 2016).
More and more people are becoming desensitized to rape and sexual violence and abuse. When
sexual brutality is viewed so often and so naturally the brain begins to desensitize itself to the
pleasure chemicals (oxytocin, dopamine, etc.) which are released when viewing pornography.
More material, frequency, hardcore and shocking images are required to reach the same level of
high (Hilton). This resetting of the pleasure thermostat produces a new normal. In this
addictive state, the person must act out in addiction to boost the dopamine to levels sufficient just
to feel normal (Hilton). For many eventually even the most shocking images are not enough and
many result to acting out these disturbing fantasies with their partner, or worse yet, to do more
than act and actually become sexually abusive.
Unfortunately, there isnt a simple solution to this insatiable plague. Pornography can not
be simply irradiated, although the world would be better for it. It cant be declared illegal, and

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even if it were, it wouldnt stop its influence. Society is addicted to this dopamine surge that
pornography releases, and it would still be sought out and found; in the same way illicit drugs are
still readily available. Child pornography also shows this. Although it is illegal, it is still easily
accessible. Approximately 20% of all internet pornography is child sexual abuse
(CovenantEyes, 2016). Sadly, pornography is not going away. It will continue to find its way into
lives and minds. This malicious addiction to self-inflicted pleasure destroys love. It demolishes
the very void for connection so many are trying to fill with it. Love is selfless, timeless,
fulfilling, beautiful, genuine, and real. Pornography is selfish, fleeting, destructive, demeaning,
cheap, and fake. It shreds lives and families to pieces, leaving heartbreak and shattered shells of
people in its wake. Porn kills love.

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References

Collective Shout. (2016, April 1). SEX BEFORE KISSING: 15-YEAR-OLD GIRLS DEALING
WITH PORN ADDICTED BOYS. Retrieved from Fight The New Drug:
http://fightthenewdrug.org/sex-before-kissing-15-year-old-girls-dealing-with-boys/
CovenantEyes. (2016, April 18). CovenantEyes. Retrieved from Pornography Statistics: Annual
Report 2015: http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/
Fight The New Drug. (2016, March 4). Fight The New Drug. Retrieved from PAIN PORN:
WHY HALF OF ADULTS THINK VIOLENT PORN IS OKAY:
http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/pain-porn-why-half-of-adults-think-violent-porn-isokay/
Hagelin, R. (2009, September 21). The Plague of Porn. Retrieved from The Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/21/hagelin-the-plague-of-porn/
Heiserman, D. L. (2015, June 6). Categories of Basic Human Needs. Retrieved from
Fundamentals of Nursing: http://www.waybuilder.net/freeed/Courses/MedHealth/Nursing/NurseFund/default.asp?iNum=2&fraNum=010102
Hilton, D. L. (n.d.). Slave Master: How Pronography Drugs & Changes Your Brain. Salvo, 3441.
Landau, S. I. (2003). The New Webster's Concise Dictionary of the English Langauage. Naples:
Trident Press International.
Merriam-Webster. (2016, April 18). Retrieved from Merriam-Webster.com: http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/pornography
Merriam-Webster. (2016, April 17). Retrieved from Merriam-Webster.com: http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/love

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Orenstein, P. (2016). How Porn Is Changing a Generation of Girls. TIME.
Stop Porn Culture. (2014). Stop Porn Culture. Retrieved from Facts and Figures:
http://stoppornculture.org/about/about-the-issue/facts-and-figures-2/