Everyone watches pοrn, but the question is: should we?
Tel Aviv based Ran Gavrieli delivered this TEDx Talk where he explained why he stopped watching pοrn. Gavrieli studies gender and sex, and in this talk, he tries to provide a very insightful explanation as to how pοrn is not only bad for the people who watch it, but is also sometimes a matter of life and death for those women who try to take a shot at a career in the pοrn industry.
Calling pοrn nothing but prostitution by video, he cites that with every pοrn star who manages to get a “good contract”, there are thousands of other struggling pοrn professionals who do not survive in the industry. He adds how people, the society – you and I, would not mind sitting at the same dining table with a person who has sought services from a prostitute, but we will never share a table with a prostitute.
Gavrieli puts into perspective the demand-supply phenomenon, saying that if one was to demand for an old black woman’s video, then there is going to be an old black woman somewhere who will be solicited for working in the pοrn industry; if we were to demand pοrn, there will be people who will either volunteer, or be forced into the pοrn industry, in order to create more pοrnography.
“Pοrn is not an embodiment of freedom of speech, freedom of occupation, blah blah blah… but it’s an embodiment of sex exploitation, working side by side with human trafficking, pimping, solicitation.”
Most importantly, Gavrieli highlighted how pοrn had no interest in capturing the emotional and sensual aspects of sex, but it was just sex without hands involved, focusing only on penetration.
The internet is accessible everywhere today, especially in the developed world and urban developing worlds, giving full access to pοrnography even to 12-year-old boys. What pοrn teaches them is that unless you have a large penis and an eternal erection, you’re not good enough. What pοrn teaches these boys is that hands have no role to play in sex, and by all means, sex is more or less a male-dominated activity.
He added that the impact of pοrnography on girls is no less. “Pοrn has been creating a mindset that if you want to be worthy of love, you have to be worthy of sexual desire, and these days: worthy of sexual desire almost equals being like a pοrn star.”
What will these boys and girls learn from pοrnography? How will things like cuddling, caressing, touching, kissing and hugging be of importance to to these children when they grow up?
Forget children, what about people both young and old who access pοrn today and develop various unreasonable and aggressive psychological expectations by watching such imagery and videos?
Most of the prostitutes, sex workers, and pοrn stars die either due to drug overdose, sexually-transmitted diseases, or are murdered by a pimp, family or boyfriend; some commit suicide. And each year, we lose a thousand such women.
It is a fact – as long as there is a demand, there will be supply.
So watch this video, and ask yourself: is watching pοrn really that important? Hell, is it any fun?
Source - Youth Connect
