Let's talk about pornography. Merriam-Webster defines pornography as, "movies, pictures, magazines, etc., that show or describe naked people or sex in a very open and direct way order to cause sexual excitement." If one were to Google "The definition of pornography," the first thing you might see is this definition: "printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings." Given porn's effect on both societies in the United States and societies in other countries, particularly Japan's, pornographic materials need to be eradicated by any means necessary. To support this bold claim, let's look further into the effects pornography has upon its audience.
The target audience for porn is male. While women can be and are sexually aroused by visual stimuli, they tend to be less prolific within the gender. This noted, pornography has devastating effects, physically, upon the male brain. When visual cues that have sexual relevance are detected, they trigger a cascade of neurological, chemical and hormonal events that result in a feeling much like a "hit" of a drug. There are several major chemicals involved with sexual arousal and response in men: testosterone, dopamine, norepinephrine and endogenous opiates. Let's take a closer look at each and the result of repeated stimulation.
Testosterone is the male hormone that seems to propel, among other things, sexual interest. If an animal, or human, is castrated, sex drive is majorly decreased, to the point of being functionally gone. The brain triggers production of testosterone with hormonal processes; when sexual cues are identified by the brain, said hormones trigger a rush of testosterone. This inundation heightens sexual anticipation and prepares the body for a sexual encounter. These cues are all too available through porn, leading to frustration and anger if the anticipation is not met.
Next on the list is dopamine, the neurotransmitter that underlies all addictive substances. Its plays a major role in helping people identify what environmental objects and occurrences are significant. As such, it is a significant reason cravings occur. Also known as the pleasure chemical, it is released when actions that perpetuate our species and our lives take place, i.e. eating, drinking water, reproduction. All these result in higher dopamine levels and sexual cues will trigger dopamine in regions of the brain that are also sensitive to testosterone. The result: dopamine directs the brain to resolve the tension that results from pornographic images and words.
Our next player is norepinephrine. Norepinephrine has two roles in the development of sexual addiction. First, it has a significant role in promoting sexual arousal. It is chemically related to adrenaline and prepares the body for sexual intercourse much like adrenaline prepares the body for flight or fight. Not only does norepinephrine prepare the body, it also helps the brain remember how the sex drive is being met by storing memories of the event. This is why men who might not remember the last book they read can remember perfectly the first Playboy centerfold they ever saw. These images are made permanent by the brain and norepinephrine because, apparently, they are important.
Finally, we come to the endogenous opiates. While dopamine and norepinephrine are responsible for the immediate rush from viewing porn, endogenous opiates determine whether or not it becomes a habit. These opiates are released through sexual release, the most notable of which is orgasm. They result in feelings of euphoria and transcendence and are also related to the opiates that the brain produces in association with pain relief and pleasure. Drugs such as heroin and morphine result in much the same feelings, but if you can achieve this through masturbation and viewing porn, why pay for them? Over time, this action is stored as behavior known to have significant pleasurable payoff and contributes to the psychological experience of orgasm.
Unfortunately, orgasm and its highs are not available on demand naturally. In the natural, real world, time and effort go into cultivating a relationship that might culminate in sexual contact. Neurological and hormonal preparation combined with appropriate behaviors are meant to precede this high. Porn and its culture have removed the pattern of attraction, arousal and response and replaced it with one of arousal and response. No longer do you have to be attracted and then communicate that attraction, now the only thing you need is to be aroused, which, as we have seen, is an easy task to undertake. Because porn makes arousal available on demand, it makes the euphoria of orgasm little more than a transient "fix" to multiple psychological problems. Any kind of psych. problem that needs release can now be "addressed" with the ritual of porn, but it provides no healthy way to satisfy the hunger for intimacy that all humans are born with. Instead, it leaves its user with only a growing need and the images have such a salient, pervasive character that they are stored as memories that produce a warped and perverted sense of sexuality and objectification.
Because certain areas of our, male and female, brains are organized to notice and search for sexual cues, the constant exposure to sexual cues form new synaptic pathways in the brain. These paths change the way women and men and the self are viewed and it should come as no surprise that said new views are negative. Women, now a commodity, and the self are seen as unworthy of sexual intercourse unless the standards presented by porn are met. However, as anyone familiar with critical thinking is aware, porn's standards are unrealistic and achievable through healthy and moral means.
The hyper-sexuality present in today's culture is directly due to pornography's demand that everyone look like a porn star with massive breasts and perfect skin or have a nine inch penis with rippling muscles. When is the last time you have seen an advertisement for anything that can not be in some way tied to the acquirement of sexual contact? If you truly consider this question, you will realize that the last non-sexualized ad was probably around the time of the Renaissance. With the turn from mass religion and the introduction of the need to rebel against the strictures imposed by said religions, the porn industry took a major upturn. The most lucrative industry in the world today is porn and its production. Anyone saying anything different is a liar.
Sadly, this massive industry has had terrible consequences on the psyche of adolescents and young adults, which influence them into their later lives. Examples are poor body images, body shaming, the so called "rape culture" (which stems directly from the proliferation of violent pornographic material such as BDSM and other rape scenarios), poor marriage success rates, couples cheating on each other, as well as a myriad of other disorders can all be traced to a habit of watching, reading and/or looking at pornographic materials. As a personal survivor of pornographic addiction, I can attest to the insidious hold it gets upon your life and mind. Even today the consequences of only a few years of watching mild, or soft, porn during my early adolescence are still problems I must confront from time to time. It should be asked then, If I am still facing problems from this destructive habit that I quit years ago, what then are those who still avidly watch and defend it facing?
