The Paradox of Porn

In the a blog of hilarity posting this morning I learned about the backlash against porn from a University of Texas teacher. I applied to Texas at Austin because it is considered very liberal for Texas (probably normal for a northeasterner like me). Anyways, The Harvard Crimson reports:

“Pornography is what the end of the world looks like,” said professor Robert W. Jensen, who blamed capitalism, white supremacy, and racism for the spread of increasingly violent heterosexual pornography.

Jensen said that pornography becomes increasingly violent, racially charged, and degrading towards women to increase profit by appealing to capitalist consumers.

The lecture—co-sponsored by the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response and several student groups—was billed as an effort to promote dialogue about sexual violence.

Here is the paradox. While a lot of porn is absolutely disgusting and with the advent of the Internet will continue to be so, who are we to judge? If no one is hurt, what do people care if someones only way to get off is from a Cleveland Steamer? It's really a fine line between censoring outrageous porn that only a microscopic niche sector of society wants, and censoring larger things like books and movies.

And there is a component to this debate that Professor Jensen fails to realize. There are scholarly articles highlighting the decline of sexual assault and rape incidence as the prevalence of the Internet as grown. It doesn't take a professor to conclude why. The advent of almost universal access to the Internet allows those fringe freaks that were raping and molesting women and men, to fulfill that fantasy or derangement in their home with a computer rather than with an abducted person. The Internet didn't completely remove sexual predators from our streets, but it certainly cut down on the number of incidents. The main reason behind this decline is the pornography that is easily the most predominant subject matter on the world wide web.

Listen, I watch porn, and I am not afraid to admit that, but if you are going to take a scholarly approach to porn as a subject for misogyny, racism, and violence, at least point out that readily available free porn has done more to combate these issues then augment them.

Pornograpy is a contretemps for our parents' generation because they were taught it was wrong, but to say that pornography exacerbates societies ills seems unfounded based on the most subjective of studies.

Now, I must bid you adieu to masturbate to a snuff film.