Good thing that this thread only speaks about people's opinions and morals on porn, because if it was about whether it is right or not, there really isn't any correct answer to that which applies to everyone.
In fact, moral is just another kind of opinion, so anything related to moral are heavily influenced by opinion.
Porn is good - there, I said it. Children are another story, because they don't have the maturity to give consent 99% of the time, and without that it's just rape once again, and I hate rape because that is clearly wrong. And for those rare times that one does give consent, 90% of them will end up regretting it, and/or being badly mentally affected by the experience later on in life.
well what is it that attracts people to watching sexual relations with others?
It is how us, a group of living beings, were "programmed" to like these things. Humans, being more intelligent that other animal that do have sex, can actually understand more about the subject and receive a lot from just watching it. What attracts people is the idea of it, of how they could be put into the shoes of the characters in the porn, the situation, and how the brain takes a liking towards it for open minded people and start releasing a lot of "feel good" enzymes.
And how does an avid porn watcher really differentiate themselves from Voyeurism (which is technically a mental disorder)
This being a mental disorder would start a whole new line of opinion war, so I'll skip that.
This differentiates them because - a) They are not acting upon it in real life, b)It isn't wrong to have fetishes like that, and it isn't wrong to carry out your fetishes in your fantasy world, c) The actors/actresses have actually given their consent at the beginning. This is just an act made to turn people on.
The real life offender and the person with the fetish aren't closely related.
Addiction makes me laugh when related to these things. As long as they aren't eating up anything else in your life, it isn't an addiction. When a lot of people are hooked to something, it is named something else, but when a group of people are hooked to something that is not liked by another group, it is named addiction by the other group. Unless someone's life gets affected adversely, it's never an addiction.
I don't even find animated CP or adults acting as children to be wrong or immoral, since no actual children are being exploited through it.
I second that statement. People are normally disgusted by anything related to it because these are not the norms. Over time, people have grown an unexplainable disgust towards it.
Logically speaking, as long as no real underage person is being harmed, there is nothing wrong with it. Therefore, such things drawn and acted by adults is not wrong.
I never did understand why the legal sex age was 16 but the age for porn was 18...
That might sound funny at first thought, but I think I know why.
Legal age of having sex is 16, and for that a willing 16 year old would have
normal sex in most cases.
However, if a person having sex for their first time is given a dosage of porn, specially at a younger age, it is likely that they will develop expectations and get an image that isn't supposed to be the first image. Looked at closely, a person watching porn has a good chance to find a bad kind of porn at a younger age, a.k.a. porns acting out bondage, sadistic behaviour, submissive ideas, and I could go on.
But at 18, a person is generally thought to be able to take such things with more ease, and not have their mind affected badly.
If women want to 'degrade themselves' then why stop them? Some female porn stars make a great deal of money and still hold down relatively normal relationships, if they do this voluntarily then good for them! Who are we to condemn their actions?
Indeed. Porn without consent of actors/actresses is rape, and that is a crime. Anyone who acts in normal porn have given their consent.
Sure, some people are coerced into doing pornography, but this is a different issue. Pornography itself isn't wrong because some people in the industry are engaged in coercive activities
Good point. Some people are coerced to do a lot of things in a lot of industries, but that doesn't make the industries bad. Besides, nowadays, all the good quality porn are being produced by large companies who are approved by the government, and are doing things the legal way anyway.
Drawings of slight busted women are far from being equivalent to porn flicks about mothers and sons, nasty ho'$, cheating wives, etc. Go look up any free porn site, and you will be hard pressed to find any depiction of sexuality that isn't perverse to some degree.
A lot of sexual thoughts and depictions are perverse by their very nature. But then again, perverse is opinion based. What one might think as perverse might just be a harmless fetish of another.
Mother and son is your personal opinion, since it can't be proven wrong. Nasty hoes just sounds nasty, but what's so nasty about them? Cheating wives can be bad, but remember that they are just acted out.
Most of the times porn doesn't cause someone to act upon the porn. Instead, it prevents a lot of people to act these wishes out and keep them in their fantasies only. That is much better.
I still agree that porn should be legal, but a lot of it is very seedy. It seems like people are never quite satisfied with sexuality. Perhaps sexuality evolves, and all the weird/kinky flicks out there are just the latest manifestation of a "progression". I just think the slippery slope principle is applicaple to porn; it's okay to a point, but when do we draw the line as a society?
Sexuality will keep evolving until the day society learns to not draw a line to most things which aren't really wrong once thought about. It never evolved, it only changed so that more people are much more comfortable with their sexuality and their fantasies, and have only learned to open up. Before this, a lot of people only kept such things to their minds because of the fear of how society will treat them.
Now I can't cite peer reviewed literature, but many psychologists and social scientists will attest to how damaging porno can be to a psyche. It seems feasible that it could warp your sexual palate.
That only speaks for the minor category of disturbing pornography like acting out rape, sadism, bondage, etc. Majority actually has a good effect, as it helps vent a lot of tension, both normal and sexual. Moreover, even for those disturbing categories, it's all about how much maturely people can take them.
I believe goverments should take stringent measures to curtail certain types of porn. I know they already do for child pornography, and beastiality, but perhaps it needs to be taken a step further?
Since this is only opinion, I'm glad I can say that I believe otherwise. CP and Bestiality are the only two forms that should be legally banned, because both involve taking advantage of beings not able to correctly judge for themselves. Any other form that involves consent should be legal, and it's perfectly fine the way it is. People can always just choose not to view it if they want to avoid something, though I would like to know what "a step further" actually is.
Porn can damage psyches, if you're not ready for it. But so can scary movies, and games. Anything, really, can damage a psyche, which is why we have so many phobias.
I second that. Almost anything these days can damage a psyche, it seems. Phobias exist in so many different forms, that porn is really not strong here. The less common and more extreme porn doesn't affect people mature enough for it. Same goes for movies, games, etc.
To be true, I think movies with great amount of violence contents and dark theme are normally more psyche damaging. I know violence makes me sick easily, and dark plots like people planning a mass murder are more psyche damaging too than a video of two people in natural intimate act.
Porn that is overboard, is only overboard because you were raised to believe as such.
Once again, I second the statement, and only the point of the statement.
The idea of what is extreme, unacceptable, or overboard are simply opinions, and vary vastly among people. My mindset allows me to take a lot of things normally that people would normally think crosses the line, and at the same time my mindset limits me accepting some things at some situations.
If you argue that something is "natural", because it mutated from a previous form that was completely natural, then I understand your position. I just happen to think that this is orthogonal to the point, and doesn't really help us understand this ~moral dilemma~ any better. DNA mutations in normal cells can cause cancer, and I'll think you'll agree that cancer cells are radically different from normal cells.
Except that these are more of a vastly accepted view, and less of cancer. Cancer is an exception, but this is, or is becoming the new norm.
It doesn't matter what's natural and what isn't, it's question of what's healthy and it's certainly not health for people to have their urges repressed and for that which is natural to be seen as shameful for no particular reason.
Both me and my ex have been involved with the porn industry, it's not coercive, it's not 'perverted' and, in fact, it can be very liberating and it harms nobody.
I agree with that wholeheartedly. It's much more damaging for people to hold back their true selves even in these matter. Actually, sexual matters being repressed is more damaging than a lot of other things being repressed. Some things can always just stay in our fantasies, but a lot of it doesn't need to be held in and hidden away.
Most people who are more open about these things end up being very comfortable with their sexuality, and that in turn causes a lot of other traits of such people to enhance, like confidence and such.
Working with a porn industry is another matter, and it needs serious thoughts to be put onto.
Depending on how an individual wants to lead their life, it could be damaging, or perfectly awesome for them. This specially covers people who plan to have kids one day. It might also cause their situation in society to be changed, often in a bad way.