Why are people offended by porn?

And I would not raise any flags or petition Congress to stop such images from being shown.

Sozobe, I admit, I don't like pictures of a mans item standing at attention. If that's the case, I will simply turn the page until I find something I do like. Or toss the publication aside. I am not "offended" by it. And I would not raise any flags or petition Congress to stop such images from being shown.

Some people are offended by pornography as an industry - rather than offended by the imagery itself.

I'm not offended by nakedness, male or female - and to be honest I think women are even less offended by it. After all, they are quite used to the vagina and know what breasts look like and tend to be the sex that bathes our children and elderly - nakedness is not shocking to them.

The question - why are some people offended by porn IS easily answered, on a political level.
Women are handicapped by society's image of them.

In government, film, the military, even in education for example, women are lagging far, far behind men in terms of being taken seriously.

I always thought it was hellishly funny and rather hypocritical when Bush insisted that going into Iraq had anything to do with liberating woman - Ha! - by ripping off their clothes?
Does anyone think that's liberty?

Women in America can hardly be call liberated when they are sexually exploited by their male counterparts and encouraged to feel guilty for not feeding the male fantasy.

To be honest, I don't like exploitation full stop. Of human labour - or of the mind

It is women who work the sweat shops - women in the US who do all the care work and get paid peanuts for it-
why is exploitation of their sexuality any different?

Being offended by porn, isn't about being offended by a woman's exposed vagina
What is offensive, is that most men do nothing to help liberate women, who (in their so-called civilised society) are blatantly being brought up to 'take care' of men
Porn, prostitution, care-work, factory-work….

I also think its no coincidence that America has a huge paedophilia problem, when young girls are encouraged to look pleasing for men from an early age. When companies are making huge profits solely on the fears of young people, and when plastic surgeons can live in luxury because they've helped to convince a nation that any woman who doesn't keep herself looking great for her man is 'failing in her duty' and when complaining brings about the (company driven) idea that a woman is lacking something feminine if she resists all this.

Personally, I find most pornography either boring or distasteful. Too fake, too coldly presented, too much like a MacDonald's picture board menu. Slapped up to grab the customer's eye - a total sale's pitch.

In fact, I find it patronizing and demeaning to me as a man, that I am expected to want porn in my life.

Yes I sometimes miss being with a woman and yes, I sometimes need to fantasise - but I like mystery - not over exposure.

I know I'm not alone in my thinking as a man.
There are many men out there working hard alongside women to try and change women's role in society… pornography as a massive money-making industry (like tobacco) should be looked at carefully with the future in mind.

One more thought - maybe it is men who need liberating from
our conditioning?


The High Cost of Manliness

By Robert Jensen, AlterNet. Posted September 8, 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/sex/41356/

NickFun wrote:

Sozobe, I admit, I don't like pictures of a mans item standing at attention. If that's the case, I will simply turn the page until I find something I do like. Or toss the publication aside. I am not "offended" by it. And I would not raise any flags or petition Congress to stop such images from being shown.

Suppose your girlfriend had stumbled into this raunchy guy picture while surfing the web with you. What would your comment to her have been?

Some people are offended by pornography as an industry - rather than offended by the imagery itself.

I'm not offended by nakedness, male or female - and to be honest I think women are even less offended by it. After all, they are quite used to the vagina and know what breasts look like and tend to be the sex that bathes our children and elderly - nakedness is not shocking to them.

The question - why are some people offended by porn IS easily answered, on a political level.
Women are handicapped by society's image of them.

In government, film, the military, even in education for example, women are lagging far, far behind men in terms of being taken seriously.

I always thought it was hellishly funny and rather hypocritical when Bush insisted that going into Iraq had anything to do with liberating woman - Ha! - by ripping off their clothes?
Does anyone think that's liberty?

Women in America can hardly be call liberated when they are sexually exploited by their male counterparts and encouraged to feel guilty for not feeding the male fantasy.

To be honest, I don't like exploitation full stop. Of human labour - or of the mind

It is women who work the sweat shops - women in the US who do all the care work and get paid peanuts for it-
why is exploitation of their sexuality any different?

Being offended by porn, isn't about being offended by a woman's exposed vagina
What is offensive, is that most men do nothing to help liberate women, who (in their so-called civilised society) are blatantly being brought up to 'take care' of men
Porn, prostitution, care-work, factory-work….

I also think its no coincidence that America has a huge paedophilia problem, when young girls are encouraged to look pleasing for men from an early age. When companies are making huge profits solely on the fears of young people, and when plastic surgeons can live in luxury because they've helped to convince a nation that any woman who doesn't keep herself looking great for her man is 'failing in her duty' and when complaining brings about the (company driven) idea that a woman is lacking something feminine if she resists all this.

Personally, I find most pornography either boring or distasteful. Too fake, too coldly presented, too much like a MacDonald's picture board menu. Slapped up to grab the customer's eye - a total sale's pitch.

In fact, I find it patronizing and demeaning to me as a man, that I am expected to want porn in my life.

Yes I sometimes miss being with a woman and yes, I sometimes need to fantasise - but I like mystery - not over exposure.

I know I'm not alone in my thinking as a man.
There are many men out there working hard alongside women to try and change women's role in society… pornography as a massive money-making industry (like tobacco) should be looked at carefully with the future in mind.

One more thought - maybe it is men who need liberating from
our conditioning?


The High Cost of Manliness

By Robert Jensen, AlterNet. Posted September 8, 2006.
http://www.alternet.org/sex/41356/