All-aboard the porn express

Every individual dwells in a situation that is uniquely his own, and it is “the situation” that often determines one's custom, or manner of response to the world. Perhaps the key here is to avoid injunctions and absolutes, and to recognise that if there is an acceptable use of porn, it must be in consideration of individual particularity. Husbands and bachelors inhabit very different worlds and, perforce, must deal with different pressures and preoccupations. We might reproach the husband who chooses porn rather than relations with his spouse, but regular servings of porn in prisons might be a good idea if it results in a measured reduction of sexual violence, or prescribing porn to sexual deviants if it takes the edge off their proclivity. In The City of God, St. Augustine observes, "For avarice is not a fault inherent in gold, but in the man who inordinately loves gold".

Defenders of porn argue that our abiding interest in it is as innocent as the urge to copulate, that it is nothing more than the natural, wholesome extension of sexual fantasy: and whether it take place in the mind or on celluloid is immaterial. Psychologists point out that we think of sex every 30 seconds.

Fantasy is demonstrably part of the creative process. All inventions and works of art were originally imagined in the mind. If we allow ourselves the right to indulge in the fantasy of enjoying food before we actually partake, who would deny us the right to indulge in sexual fantasy? The critical distinction is that we imagine the enjoyment of food only to actually taste it. Porn stops short of the real thing. The fantasy is its own terminus. And even if we grant that for most of man's history his daily struggle to survive determined how infrequently he could idyll in sexual fantasy, today, with leisure time in over-supply and that original fantasy transformed into ubiquitous cultural artifact, the eye can indulge in porn ad nauseam?

Thanks to cable TV, VCRs and satellite dishes, modern societies are awash in porn, so we have no choice but to learn to live with it and assume responsibility for our participation in it, and reflect on how its use reveals us and affects our relationships. The society that grows and nourishes the porn industry advertises its values to other societies. As does the society that bans it, and denies its people the freedom to make decisions about it. To simply aye or gainsay it is to ignore the large gray areas (which include our own fantasy life) that need to be addressed. After all, we are bodies that experience recurring hunger and desire and we must caution ourselves from entertaining the notion that our relationship with porn can be exclusively determined by the rule of mind.

One response is to finally assume responsibility for the fact that it has been on our watch that porn has been able to carve out a significant niche for itself in our cultural life, and that a significant number of today's teens (and adults) risk becoming porn-dependent and or sexually disabled (that is, frustrated) adults. There is circumstantial evidence that the use of porn, if not over-exposure to it, is affecting how the sexes relate to each other. We can choose to turn a blind eye to these developments, or eye them with the purpose of turning them into opportunities. Which is to say, it is not too late to grant porn the socio-historical status it deserves, which would make it a legitimate subject of study and debate.

This kind of formal recognition could become the event that determines if porn continues to prosper in our new century or if its best years have been spent.