Joe Duncan you’re absolutely right about that. My gosh I’m so flattered.
Every single thing you’ve written in this article I would have entirely agreed with around 2 years ago. After writing my own article on porn I now have an entirely new perspective.
When most people talk about porn, they really only scratch the surface.
What IS porn exactly? Porn is a superstimuli.
In 1970, scientist Niko Tinbergen was studying geese, when he discovered that he could create artificial eggs that geese preferred to their own eggs.
He exaggerated the colour, size and markings on these artificial eggs and left it near the goose’s nest. The goose would ignore it’s own eggs and roll these artificial eggs back to it’s nest instead.
At one stage, one goose made a valiant attempt to roll a volleyball back to it’s nest.
Because the goose is evolved to look for certain markers on the egg (the size for example) and prioritise these eggs over the others.
To this goose, the volleyball (that has similar features to a giant goose egg) was a superstimuli. It saw what appeared to be a huge goose egg and all of it’s instincts told it to roll it back into the nest as quickly as possible.
That’s what a superstimuli is. You take something we’re evolved to desire and you artificially make it far more desirable than what’s possible in the real world.
That’s porn.
In porn the women are impossibly attractive, the lighting is perfect, the makeup is perfect, the noises are exaggerated and you can choose any sexual scenario you can possibly imagine.
Porn is a highly addictive superstimuli that is available to anyone at anytime. And that means ANYONE. 15 year olds. 13 year olds. 11 year olds.
All it takes is one look on a Porn addiction subreddit to see just how many young men are affected by this.
Grown adults can talk all they want about about porn being an excellent, liberating thing, but try being exposed porn at 12 years old. Then try going through puberty addicted to porn — but too young to understand that you have an addiction.
Try dealing with an addiction that’s found on the exact same device required to succeed in school. An addiction that’s constantly only a few clicks away from your essay. What chance does the male teenage brain have against online porn?
That’s the story of countless millennial men. And nobody warned them about it. Because there is literally zero education on the effects of porn.
Next. The porn rabbit hole.
Have you looked at the front page of any porn website recently? Porn websites feature the most clicked videos on the front page of the website. So what can you find on the front page today? “Step daughter ****s daddy, “Grandaughter is a good little ******”.
But this ok right? Because if this is what people want to watch, then live and let live. But honestly you have to ask yourself, is this normal?
These are not people’s natural desires, these are desires artificially created by consuming countless hours of porn. Overtime, the brain desensitises to porn and requires more and more extreme content to find the same dopamine release.
This results in people seeking more and more taboo content. After years of daily porn consumption, people find themselves interested in all kinds of insane and disgusting genres. (Those who quit porn cold turkey report that desire for these extreme fetishes usually disappear).
On the one hand you can say it’s wonderful that people have such a wide range of sexual interests now. But a huge reason for this (to a much larger extent than I think people realise) is their gradual dopamine desensitisation to sexual stimuli.
It’s not only that human sexuality is being revealed. But also that it is being distorted. Because that’s what all technology does. It alters human psychology. It has done since the printing press was invented. And even before then with the invention of the map.
You say that “porn is not reality and we shouldn’t take it too seriously”. Sure, this seems like sensible advice on the surface. But it’s said as if actually have the ability to choose how porn affects us.
All media affects us on the subconscious level. Everything you’re exposed to changes you. You can’t choose to not let a particular media affect you because your subconscious absorbs all the information is given whether you like it or not.
Porn has to be taken seriously. At the very least, to stop inflicting teenage boys with a horrible addiction.
The argument around porn is sexual liberalism vs conservative prudishness. But in my opinion, both sides miss the point entirely.
I could go on for hours. I’ll stop there. Thanks for the tag.
PS. I’m fairly sure I just went on a huge rant that digressed massively from your article. Haha. Oh well.
