THE PORNOGRAPHY HABIT

By Dr. Lawrence Wilson

The pornography habit debilitates people, ruins marriages, leads to masturbation, and can lead to rape and other horrors. It is extremely common throughout the world, even among religious people.

The advent of computers, and especially the rise of the internet, has made pornography much easier to find, and also easier to hide from family members and friends. This short article touches on a number of topics related to the pornography habit and pornography addiction.

THE DEFINITION OF PORN

Pornography may be defined as anything that depicts sexual acts or behavior that is used specifically to excite the sexual passions such as photos, movies, reading material, or other things.

Pornography or “art” – blurring the definition. There can be a fine line between “art” and pornography. Some would say that a majority of the movies produced today, even movies about biblical times, are pornographic because they involves scenes where people wear little clothing, use coarse language, and may beat or have sex with others on the movie set.

Others, however, say that this is just “reality”, and is not intended to inflame the passions or stimulate the genital organs, or anything of the sort. It is simply a presentation of how people lived, and what happened to people on a regular basis.

I believe both the above points of view are correct. The problem is whether showing all the lewd scenes is necessary and helpful, especially when young children may be watching, as is often the case today.

Is the goal to shock young people, or to just wake them up? That is the question, among other questions.

PORNOGRAPHY, MASTURBATION AND RAPE

Pornography, especially among young men, is often closely tied to masturbation. This is well known. Some authorities say that masturbation is benign or harmless, but I definitely disagree. For more on this topic, please read Masturbation on this website.

Some professional rapists also begin their mischief with pornography. After a time, they want to “go live”, as they call it, and therefore will rape if they cannot experience all the sex they crave.

More research is needed in this field because this connection is not made clear enough by most psychologists and physicians who deal with the problem of rape. For much more on rape, please read Rape and Healing Rape on this site.

PORNOGRAPHY AND MARITAL INFIDELITY SERIES

Focus On The Family, a Christian organization, has produced an excellent, well-written description of the stages of pornography addiction, and more. I recommend it for everyone. Here is the link: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/divorce-and-infidelity/pornography-and-virtual-infidelity/virtual-infidelity-and-marriage.

CAUSES FOR A PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION

Often the person is angry, although it may be deeply hidden. Viewing sexually explicit material is an outlet that lets the person forget his or her anger for a time. Masturbating intensifies this effect.

Often the person is also quite unhappy in their personal relationships, even if this is not apparent on the surface.

Other possible causes are an attack on the soul, perhaps the presence of a rogue soul who is only interested in inflaming sexual interest, and not much else.

Pornography and the Saturn return. For some reason, the time of the Saturn return in a person’s life often makes pornography addiction worse. This time is roughly age 27 to 30, in most cases.

What is needed, at this time, is a process of maturing and putting one’s priorities in order. If this is done, the pornography addiction or habit will fade away. If it is not done, then the problem may get even worse, and could lead to the ruin of one’s family, career and/or health.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT A PORNOGRAPHY ADDICTION

Here are some simple steps to follow:

1. Begin a complete nutritional balancing program. This will occupy your time and energy, and it will bring up reasons for the habit that you may not be aware of.

2. Decide you are done with pornography. There can be no question in your mind. Decide that it is harming you and others around you. It is serving no good cause, and it is a complete waste of your time, energy and often a waste of money, as well. Figure out other reasons to quit, if you need to. You must be very clear about this.

3. If you believe in God, pray often about it, and ask for God’s help in freeing you from this addiction.

4. Make NO excuses or justifications for the habit. Do not slip on this one.

5. Keep yourself busy with other activities, especially when you feel like viewing or reading pornography. If necessary, distract yourself at these times with hobbies, work, talking with friends or family, or other things.

6. Keep up your efforts and never relax. Eventually, the habit will tend to fade away if you do this for at least a month continuously.

7. Go for counseling, if you wish. In some cases, it is very helpful, but not in all cases. Another option is to join an addictions support group such as a 12-step group.

OTHER TOPICS RELATED TO PORNOGRAPHY

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, EVEN WORSE

Involving children in pornographic movies, stories or other material, is even more perverted than that involving only adults. Children, by and large, are basically just innocent bystanders who should not be involved with pornography, but too often they are introduced to it and made to participate by some pedophiles and others who are profiting from pornography.

LEGAL ASPECTS IN AMERICA

Especially during the twentieth century, Americans debated whether pornographic material should be legally protected or banned. Those who believe pornography must be protected argue that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, including sexual expression.

Traditional opponents of pornography raise moral concerns, arguing that the First Amendment does not protect expression that corrupts people's behavior. Some feminists advocate suppressing pornography because it perpetuates gender stereotypes and promotes violence against women.

Pornography has been regulated by the legal standards that govern the concept of obscenity, which refers to things society may consider disgusting, foul, or immoral, and may include material that is blasphemous.

The U.S. Supreme Court has established that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. The more troublesome question has been defining what is and is not obscene. In 1957, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 77 S. Ct. 1304, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1498, stated that obscenity is "utterly without redeeming social importance" and therefore is not protected by the First Amendment. The Roth test for obscenity is "whether to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient [lewd or lustful] interest." The Roth test proved difficult to use because every term in it eluded a conclusive definition.

The Supreme Court added requirements to the definition of obscenity in a 1966 case involving the English novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, more commonly known as Fanny Hill. In A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Attorney General, 383 U.S. 413, 86 S. Ct. 975, 16 L. Ed. 2d 1, the Court concluded that to establish obscenity, the material must, aside from appealing to the prurient interest, be "utterly without redeeming social value" and "patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description of sexual matters." The phrase "utterly without redeeming social value" allowed a loophole for pornographers.

MOVIE RATING SYSTEMS

The use of the common G, PG, R and X rating system has helped prevent the spread of some pornographic movies. However, of course, it also has spread some of it, because people know if they want a thrill, then they must watch the R and X-rated films. Overall, however, the rating system is probably very good to limit the spread of pornographic material.

Christian-based websites and movies also are more conscious of the importance of keeping things somewhat clean, and have done a better job, overall, than the secular media of preventing the spread of pornographic movies and other material to their followers.

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