But Is It Good For The Soul?

The ink was still wet on the last ‘Blog’ when I received a PM (personal message) on FB (‘Facebook’) to the effect that I should not be bothered by ‘porn’ because it is harmless. The writer used considerably more words than that and became rather scathing but the message could be condensed, reasonably I feel, down to that.

Harmless, is it? Really?

Let’s just take a peek at that.

Imagine a sunny summer’s day on the sand dunes along some secluded beach. Or imagine a party. Imagine, in both locations, a gathering of teenagers.

'He' says to one of the young girls that she should remove her top; 'she' objects, she is shy and diffident. Perhaps she is embarrassed. 'He' will not understand; he will attempt to persuade her with words of encouragement that describe to her how breasts are a common sight everywhere—even in some newspapers on page three. She will fear being unsociable or, even, anti-social and so peer pressure following the norms of everyday life will lead to her removing her top. From this it is a short step to teenage pregnancy.

Such pregnancies are on the rise Worldwide. They are following a trend of permissiveness that is seen as merely the release of restrictive traditions, a step towards modernity in its purist form.

It is not just teenage pregnancies that are a worry. Older people are following a similar trend of permissiveness but are using the ‘pill’ to ward off pregnancy but that does not stem the rise of STD’s (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) that include AIDs. In spite of a huge propaganda effort to inform everyone about the perils of AIDs there are vast numbers of people out there who believe that it is either a myth or that it cannot happen to them.

Oddly enough, there has only been one worker in adult films, as far as is known, that has died of AIDs; that was reported as Lisa DeLeeuw (there are contrary reports that she is still alive and well but wished to retire from adult films).

While we are thinking of adult films there is a remarkable statistic that tells us that there are now many more women sex workers in adult films than there were before the financial collapse in the US. They will, almost as one, tell you that they enjoy sex and that they do it out of love for the entertainment industry and their fellow sex workers.

One wonders at that love. One wonders that it did not exist before there was a problem paying the mortgage.

How many women, and men, are driven into making adult movies and websites because they are in dire financial straits?

Compulsion takes many forms.

From a male perspective there is a medical problem that is known as ‘porno droop’. Although the causes of erectile dysfunction are many and varied, it is thought that excessively viewing adult movies can cause a man to be unable to inter-react with a ‘live’ female.

We have been lulled into acquiescing silently into the whims and desires of the corporations both financial and in the entertainment industry to find acceptance in this form of ‘art’.

Art? It is often described as that and yet it is no more than titillation and a means of arousal for men and women who have no recourse other than to watch pornography.

It is easily available and cheap—often it is free.

Billboards and cheap daily newspapers carry sensual pictures and representations of naked and near naked bodies.

Perfumes and soaps are advertised with the suggestion that all this can be yours if only you use this product.

Even mobile ‘phone companies get in on it; they will tell you that the fun never ends—that life can be one long social party if only you have this app or that number.

But art? I think not. Since ancient times right up through the renaissance the likes of Cézanne, Renoir, Barbarelli and, in more recent times, Arthur Hacker and Albert Moore have used the nude female form to grace a canvas. Venus de Milo is a famous nude figure. These can be considered as art.

‘Debbie Does Dallas’ is, in spite of anybody else’s opinion, not art. Not to me.

Ironically, the use of mobile telephones and computers with social media pages is driving us apart. The time is drawing nigh when the only time we shall get together is to have sex that has been arranged remotely.

Perhaps that is what the corporations are herding us towards.

Personally? I don’t understand it. For me it is like showing a starving man a photo of a meat pie.