The Problem with Porn: Part 1

 Over the next couple weeks I'll post more segments of this discussion, because pornography is simply too immense a topic to accurately discuss in one post.

 Part 1: The Problem with Discussing Porn(ography)

I've been promising this post for awhile, ever since Erica described pornography as a positive and even liberating substance. I don't mean to oversimplify Erica's post, since she also acknowledged some of the downsides to pornography use and ultimately argued for a nuanced approach to pornography. But after reading Erica's post and seeing how various readers responded to it, I realized something: we are all biased where pornography is concerned.

Consider our word choice, for instance - Erica calls it porn, which makes it sound crude but also fun(ny). I call it pornography, a term that makes it sound dangerous, almost like a medical condition. People who like pornography don't usually call it by that name. I'm also biased by my membership in a church that teaches that pornography is a damaging and inherently evil substance, while Erica is biased by her personal use of pornography and by her friendship with individuals who produce pornography. And we're both biased by our educational and social backgrounds, neither of which have put us in a position where working as porn star seemed like the only (but undesirable) way to pay the bills.

We're also both biased by class. And class does make a difference when it comes to pornography, as Anne Sabo discussed in a 2009 article in the Journal of Popular Culture: even advocates of pornography often promote something that is artistic, while the everyday consumer of pornography sneaks it online at work or smuggles it out of the adult section in the movie rental store (well, assuming anyone goes to movie rental stores anymore, that is). What we defend or decry as pornography may in fact be heavily influenced by our class and education. I don't bring up Sabo's article to defend pornography, but merely to illuminate just how confusing and charged this topic is.

For instance, I regularly read novels that include explicit scenes, scenes  that I realize could be classified as pornographic because of their explicitness. Why do I feel okay reading them? Because they are brief scenes that occur in literary novels (such as Ian McEwan's Atonement), rather than the focus of a trivial romantic store. And because I don't perceive the scenes as written with the intent to elicit sexual arousal. Twilight, on the other hand, I readily classify as pornographic because it sensationalizes Bella's sexual attraction to Edward at the cost of character and plot development.

And now I've once again revealed my bias. But I've decided that this bias is inescapable, which is why I'm entering the fray with that bias out in the open. My educational bias has led me to use mostly scholarly, peer-reviewed sources in my research, because those are sources I trust, but I'll also bring in some popular articles that discuss pornography from more personal, subjective angles. One thing I want to make clear throughout all of this, though, is that my discussion of pornography is not an indictment of people who use pornography. My bias leads me not to automatically value pornography as a substance that assists individuals in expressing their sexuality, but I still want to approach this topic as fairly as possible, by trying to understand how pornography use impacts the development of healthy individuals and relationships and how varying situations impact that process.