Sorry for posting back to back...if indeed I did.
Melissa426 said:
2. As noted above, internet porn (or porn, period) generally doesn't depict real sexual relationships; it is someone's interpretation of human sexual fantasy. But just like soap operas, some people can get caught up and believe the fantasy is real or the way life should be. When you can't separate fiction from fact, there is gonna be some real hurting and distressed folk.
Pornography is a visual manifestation of a fantasy that is designed to fuel the fantasy. The stuff that sells the best is reflective of the most comon fantasies.
Adolescents don't need much help deriving a fantasy, as we all know. Without pornography they seem to do just fine in whipping up a fantasy and--shall we say--putting it to work. They, like many adults, won't hesitate to augment their imaginations with visual stimuli.
Are THESE fantasies that adults and adolescents engender by themselves any healthier or more realistic than those they see in a magazine? Probably not. They're likely very similar to what we see in magazines and on the net (which were dreamed up by once adolescent men) with the exception that the models we see may be a tad too "perfect," and represent an unrealistic ideal.
If this were to cause unrealistic expectations in adolescents (or in adults) as to what they should get from their partners, we are left wondering where they're supposed to get their realistic expectations
from. Mom and Dad's "the birds and the bees" lecture? Pastor John's sermon? Sex ed class?
In truth all three perhaps...but only if we embrace a certain form of frank honesty with our children and with ourselves. Sex happens, and fantasy is a big part of it. Squelching it through abstinence doesn't seem to work well. Describing it as "evil" or prurient isn't the card either. Demonizing it gives it so much more appeal to some.
With issues such as this we get so panicky. We rush to the statehouse and appeal to our leaders to protect us and our children from (name evil here). We're fully capable of protecting ourselves if we stop running from what we fear and learn how to talk openly about it.
Regards,
Steve
