Pornography refers to any depiction of sexual behavior which aims to arouse an erotic response in its viewer, including books, pictures, statues, films and other media forms.
Feminists and traditional liberal supporters believe that pornography harms women significantly and irreparably in society, subordinating and silencing them.
History
Pornography has a long and distinguished history dating back to human art’s origins in cave drawings, decorative pottery and sculpture. Artists have long found inspiration for their creations in human bodies; whether through cave drawings, decorative pottery or sculpture.
As pornography can be an intricate topic to research, there are some key points which will assist your studies of it. One such key point is the fact that „porn” comes from Greek words traduiing as: porni = prostitute and graphein = write.
Another theory suggests that „prostitution literature” originated as a term to describe images or literature depicting prostitutes’ lives; over time, however, its scope expanded to cover any material with sexually explicit content meant to cause arousal.
At this point, printed pornographic works were invented, enabling humanity to view and consume it in large numbers. Marcantonio Raimondi published „I Modi,” or „The Ways,” the first ever printed pornographic book with 16 sexually explicit engravings by Giulio Romano dated back to 1524.
This book was banned by the Catholic Church and all copies destroyed; however, this wasn’t the end for pornography as an artform.
As time passed, more and more people became capable of creating and consuming porn. This trend continued with photography and video technology becoming available, until pornographic films had become widely consumed throughout history and become an industry in their own right by the 20th century.
Not long afterwards, Internet technology ushered in an unprecedented explosion in porn production; by the late 90s it had become the world’s biggest online industry, with sites like Pornhub and YouPorn attracting millions of viewers daily.
Pornography history can be difficult to trace due to its highly subjective and cultural nature, making tracing its development even more complex. A lot of things were once considered sexualized but later lost this status due to social changing views on what constitutes „erotica.”
Perceptions
Pornography has long been part of our culture and one of the most-watched media content types online (Kids Online, 2019). More recently, however, its relevance to young people’s digital and mediated experiences has come into question in several debates and conversations about this content type.
Studies have suggested that viewing pornography may provide psychological advantages, including increased cognitive functioning and an increase in mood (Ross, 2012). Yet the details surrounding these benefits remain under debate.
Many may be shocked to learn that watching porn can lead to potentially harmful behaviors, including the development of erectile dysfunction in men. Furthermore, viewing porn can serve as an entryway into addiction or other unhealthy sexual-related activities.
Even though watching porn provides other advantages, such as improving cognitive function and social life as well as increased sexual confidence, viewing too much porn can still become addictive if consumed excessively.
Assessing the health impacts of pornography involves considering several key elements, including duration and intensity of use and viewing time. This will allow us to determine whether its content is indeed harmful as well as determine if its media format suits a given individual.
Porn has proven its worth as an effective means of raising awareness of problematic or harmful sexual behavior, leading to numerous research efforts across educational, social and medical disciplines on this subject.
Symbolism
Pornography has long been seen as an influential symbol of sexuality, particularly during times of social puritanism and censorship.
As such, it has come to serve as a symbol for core political values and visions – particularly prevalent within feminist and conservative ideologies that embrace symbolism in their ideology.
Pornography has played a crucial role in shaping political frameworks. Feminists have employed it as a vehicle to communicate their ideals and views while conservatives have used it as an emblematic means of legitimizing their ideologies.
Pornography may seem degrading or offensive to some, while others recognize its symbolic value. Pornography serves as an expression of sexual desire and love’s profound force.
Pornography’s symbolism is a complex issue, and can alter cognitive, psychological and behavioral outcomes among its audiences. Researchers have attempted to comprehend its effect using various theories.
One theory in particular that supports this statement is the Symbolic Interaction Theory. According to this theory, when people consume pornography they interpret its contents differently depending on their personal views and attitudes toward it and relationship attachment styles.
Individuals with an anxious relationship attachment style may perceive pornography use as harmful to their relationships, as it represents taking sexual experiences outside of the confines of the relationship.
But those with secure relationship attachment styles might have a different response; they might believe that pornographic use is not inherently negative and even help strengthen relationships.
Symbolic interactionism provides a useful framework to examine the role that pornography consumption plays in romantic relationships. This theory demonstrates how individuals’ interpretations and views about pornography use can determine its relationship to relationship satisfaction and thus make an excellent tool to study how each relationship views this issue differently.
Sexuality
Pornography refers to sexually explicit material (verbal or visual) intended to produce sexual arousal in viewers and has multiple definitions, which can make its definition vague and misleading.
One definition of pornography defines it as any sexually explicit material which is considered offensive and degrading in some way, including depictions of women acting submissively towards men, sexual acts that many would find humiliating or sexual violence against children and women.
This definition is quite expansive and encompasses any representation depicting sexual acts or objects. Additionally, sexually explicit content includes any graphic material which depicts such images without being explicit enough to violate decency standards.
Pornography can also be defined as any material designed to illicit sexual feelings; while this definition is more precise than its predecessors, it doesn’t account for all of the moral and political ramifications contained within pornographic materials.
Some viewers of pornographic material have experienced increased sexual stimulation. As they view more pornographic films and media, their sexual scripts expand with each viewing, discovering new behaviors or ways of acting that they can apply in partnered sexual activity with positive outcomes (Wright 2011; Wright & Bae 2016).
Pornography can be defined as any text designed to be provocative, sexually explicit and/or arousing – this definition is most frequently employed in studies of sexuality and censorship studies; it has become the go-to definition in these areas; however it has also been controversial as some have claimed it can help distinguish between texts which contain content considered offensive and those which do not.
This second definition is better, since it excludes texts which are solely aesthetic in nature and do not involve sexual contact. Without sexual interaction present, it may be difficult to determine whether a piece of writing is sexually provocative.
Internet has drastically transformed the content of pornographic media. Now more than ever before, its focus has shifted towards highly sexualized material with lots of violence against women, degradation and humiliation of them.
Pornography consumption can have adverse consequences for male sexual functioning, particularly those currently in relationships. This is because viewing pornographic material can reduce sexual activities performed together and lower perceived realism as well as increase chances of experiencing difficulties when engaging in partner sexuality; furthermore it may contribute to developing inappropriate sexual scripts that don’t promote such activity.