REALity – Volume XXIV issue No.10 October 2015
Women, as wives and mothers, are no longer respected and protected as they have been in the recent past. Today, they are all too frequently regarded as sex objects, whose existence is to fulfill a man’s pleasures and fantasies. At universities, a woman’s value often depends on her willingness to perform oral sex, even on men whom she scarcely knows. Her humanity and dignity as a person are not a consideration.
Why is this happening? It is because our society is overwhelmed by the widespread use of pornography. Studies show that 79% of men 18-30 years old view pornography at least once a month, followed by 67% of 31-49 year olds, and 49% of 50-60 year olds. Also, 88% of pornography contains physical violence against women. In effect, pornography has become nothing more than virtual rape and sexual assault. The profit motive is what has led to these unsavoury depictions of violence and the humiliation of women. That is, pornography is purely a business enterprise where women and girls are gratuitously violated and degraded as entertainment, for huge profits in order to fulfill the sexual fantasies of men. This has had a profoundly detrimental effect on gender relations as it has created a culture where sexual assault is trivialized and women are perceived as valuable only for the sexual services they provide men. Pornography has also made promiscuity seem normal and marriage to be regarded as too sexually confining for males.
In short, pornography today is not like the pin-ups of yesteryear. Rather, mainstream pornography is unbelievably dehumanizing, degrading and violent. Pornography changes the brain chemistry of viewers so that sex has no inherent link with real life.
Youth and Pornography
Pornography is readily accessible to youths. Almost every teen has a cell phone or an iPod today with access to the internet.
It is no surprise, therefore, that a survey of more than 5000 young Canadians (Mediasmarts, 2014) showed that 10% of boys in grade seven, 33% in grade eight, 50% in grade nine, and almost 66% in grades ten and eleven look at porn sites, and 40% of these did so daily. Pornography has become their sex education. The consequences to young males is catastrophic. Pornography is ruining their lives and future relationships with women. It is destructive of marriage and family life as indicated by the fact that over 50% of divorce cases now involve one partner being addicted to pornography.
This is one of the major reasons sex-education curriculums in the schools are so harmful. It plays into the pornography mentality that there is an entitlement or right to sex and that sex has no connection with the other person, other than to fulfill sexual fantasies. School sex-education curriculums also never depict sex as being connected to long lasting meaningful relationships and to marriage. It is portrayed only as an isolated event of self-satisfaction and sexual fulfillment.
It is argued that pornography should be protected under the freedom of speech provision of the Charter of Rights, but this notion gives little consideration to the rights of those who are harmed by it. Pornography causes harm not only in its production and consumption, but to all women since it contributes to their degradation and to the damage done to the institution of marriage.
Men’s widespread abuse and disregard for women today would have been unthinkable a few generations ago. Pornography has greatly contributed to this disaster.