Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Porn Advocacy goes mainstream on the BBC


I found it quite instructive the other day watching a debate on pornography on the BBC.  Here we have on one side, people who proudly represent the debased industry struggle to justify why they must continue to pollute society with their increasingly-burgeoning business.  They euphemistically refer to themselves as people involved in Adult Industry Trade (AIT).
Even more instructive and saddening was the fact that the opposing speakers perfectly complemented AITs proud pushfulness with their mellowed laid-back approach.  Everybody seemed to be afraid to get labeled as prudish.  Hence all the arguments on the evil of porn on society were limited to such approved areas as whether or not porns lead to addiction or sexual offences.  And of course the whole debate became nothing more than an academic pushing of figures one way or the other, citing studies whose backgrounds remain unclarified.
Under the circumstances, AIT practitioners easily justify their existence, saying they are providing services for frigid people, and that in any case they are only providing people with what they loved to watch!  The actors and actresses also loved it (at least the big income), so what’s the business of fringe religious bigots trying to force their standards on everyone else?  On the issue of whether or not porn (especially the violent variant) does actually make people want to go and practice it in their neighbourhood,  AIT appealed to the game of boxing.  Does the violence inspire the millions of boxing fans to go into the street pummeling everyone they come across? Rather, by “providing” people with alternative outlets for their passion, AIT claim, porn is actually helping prevent possible sexual violences!
It is thus clear that the whole exercise is nothing but an attempt to mainstream pornography and make it look not too bad.  The single on-line soft porn provider that was interviewed on the issue of whether or not people do get addicted to pornography conceded the obvious; but was also frank when she added that it was not her place to warn her clients of  such possibilities!
In my opinion, there is absolutely no point in trying to argue whether or not pornography could be addictive.  Even lesser lusts have successfully thrown millions into strong emotional cages that require special grace of God to escape from.  But the real issue here is that sex is not just another activity, like boxing or footballing.  Every sexual act (excluding gays, of course) has the possibility of producing humans, just like every one of us is! Sex should therefore be treated as sacred! Trifling with sex is simply immoral and unbecoming of anyone who would claim to be a sane bona fide member of the human clan. That may be why the Maker of heaven and earth holds it that a person lustfully contemplating sex with another is deemed to have actually carried out the act, while the same does not necessarily hold for the situation where he was thinking of beating up that person.  Certainly not if one were contemplating devouring a bowl of pounded yam!
 And if even we want to restrict ourselves to effects on Society alone, the real effects of porn will have to be evaluated beginning from the unquantifiable impact on the family, viz , infidelity in marriage and attending exponential increase in number of children and youths without proper parental upbringing. This is the foundation for so much evils and instability in Society.  That people who promote and produce pornographic films could actually put on nice ties and suits and come argue their case on  the BBC for a global audience, tells us how late the hour is.  Where, for heavens sake, is the Church at such a time as this!
In the meantime, following the public revelation of the fourth case of HIV among porn stars in recent weeks, the filming industry in the US has announced a temporary suspension of productions of pornographic (“blue”) films. It is the second moratorium on filming across the industry in less than a month.( http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hiv-fourth-case-20130909,0,6230600.story )

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