Let's talk about sex, pornography in nation
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 10/27/2006
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Our nation has never been more turned on by sex. The human body is plastered in a myriad of mediums in our society. We paint sex, we write about sex, we perform sex, we make History Channel episodes about sex, we even make movies of sex. Our culture has come a long way from the Victorian days of whalebone corsets, stiff collars and puritanical sex performances.
Sex is the essentiality of evolution. Mother Nature was wise when she created sex to be something so pleasurable. If we didn't enjoy it, we just plain wouldn't do it. But for such a critical importance of the act, for example, the survival of our species, sex certainly seems to have a bad connotation. Even in this day in age, sex remains shrouded by a cloak of medieval views. What a hypocritical statement we make: sex is one of the most popular, most important, but most taboo, activities our nation participates in.
So when "Porn Nation" poster ads popped up all over campus, I admit I was curious. What was this presentation going to be about? Would it be an excuse for hundreds of college students to be turned on together, like some sort of super-human virtual orgy? Or would it be something even more orgasmic? I was surprised but pleased that we were finally breaking out of our puritanical views on sex.
In actuality, "Porn Nation - The Naked Truth" is just a tease. I found the website of Michael Leahy, the writer and speaker of the multimedia presentation, and discovered that far from free adult entertainment, he would be lecturing on the ills of pornography. Leahy, who is a recovering porn addict, wants to educate young adults on porn addiction to help them from making his same mistakes.
I'm still having trouble swallowing such a profound statement. Porn, a bad thing? The same porn that middle school boys spend hours plotting to steal from their father's magazine stash? The same porn that giggly tween girls discover late at night on HBO while having a group sleepover? Yes, I realize some of us have been raised to view pornography as a sinful and taboo subject, but in reality, it's just another medium of entertainment.
Porn itself may not be as bad as our culture regards it. It certainly provides entertainment to millions of Americans. There are even studies that show that the increase of access to internet porn is correlated with a decrease in the amount of rapes. In fact, the states that had a stagnant rape number through the years are those that have the least access to the internet. Some suggest that internet porn allows people a "sexual outlet" that they otherwise may not have had.
It seems like the real problem with porn is why we are addicted to it. It is certainly not a feeble concern; porn addiction has aired on "20/20," CNN, and even Oprah, who considers it "the number one addiction in America." It certainly devastated Leahy's life. So has anyone sat down and thought of why that is?
It appears that one major reason is that sex is suppressed in our society. Few adolescents are lucky enough to be told more than the basic facts about sex and relationships from their parents while growing up because many parents are simply too embarrassed to talk about it. Entering high school, they are exposed again not to facts and explanations about sex, but a reluctance to discuss such a topic, this time from educators. As a result, they are often told to abstain from sex completely until marriage. Still, they have no answers to their natural curiosities. Porn seems like a logical solution for many curious teens who just want to know more about something so natural yet so taboo. Unfortunately, being entertainment, porn does not give an accurate portrayal of what sex should be about.
It seems that there is a correlation between secular religions and sex suppression, as well. According to the Bravehearts website, which was founded by Leahy, "men and women professing to be Christians who struggle with full-blown sexual addiction and compulsivity outnumber those in the secular population by more than 2:1." He also quips that, "nearly two-thirds of all pastors and ministers admitted that internet porn was their own greatest temptation." Those proportions are staggering and begging for a reason why. My only wonder is if the general view of sin that encompasses sex and results in taboo in many religions could be an explanation.
Sex is not something we can evade. It is as natural and essential as eating a delicious piece of chocolate cake. Perhaps if we remove the stigma eating away at the wonders of basic evolution, porn won't be such a huge issue.
Anne Reznicek is a sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts. She can be reached via e-mail at opinions@purdueexponent.org.