Really makes one wonder what is it with the whole obsession around sex? What is it that man seeks and tries to find in the sexual? Surely there is something which makes it the most sought after, advertised and successful industry in the world.

Looking at the statistics on child pornography really made me feel sick. With it being the fastest growing industry on the net one cannot help but wonder that maybe most people are pedophiles and its not just some deviant thing that a few do.

Anusheh,

I too have often wondered what is the exact 'desire' that makes people watch porn. Violent images, images devoid of any emotions... how can and why do these 'titilate' those who watch them for 'sexual pleasure'?

Dear Chaitali,

Hard hitting data there! First off, let me congratulate you on your comprehensive research work! Great job!

As I was reading through the horrific facts and figures, I couldnt help but think what was happening before the internet got going, in terms of the people that are addicted to it? I do realise that there are other mediums of accessing porn but 'cyber porn' has taken pornography to a whole new level!

"Pornographers disguise their sites (i.e. “stealth sites) with common brand names, including Disney, Barbie, ESPN, etc., to entrap children."

Absolutely disgusting!

dear Chatali,
the stats are shocking ..
but what i mostly wonder is why would the business of pornography ever stop..if they have so many billions of people visiting these sites ..

and the moral aspect of it..

the first reason why people will be so enamoured by sex is because it is forbidden fruit...
earlier in ancient times Indians were open about it ..but now we have reached darker ages ...

may be this will also fade with time ..and it wont be a good selling commodity ...

Preethi

Whereas the argument of forbidden fruit may hold true for the east, I don't think it is entirely true for the west which is by the way the largest producer of pornography and refuses to legislate against it.

I think the answer is far more complex perhaps.

love

A solid collection of stats that tells a lot. The only stat that I have an issue with is the "1 in 6 women struggles with an addiction to porn" (Today’s Christian Woman). I don't believe this, and suspect it is misinformation to justify an agenda. But this is only a stray one among a large coherent set that paint a very clear picture of what is happening.

I think porn, in general, will always remain. I think consenting adults portrayed in porn can never be successfully outlawed. If some societies do try to outlaw them, it will either thrive in the underground and/or be a very temporary phase, like prohibition. I think allowing adult 'performers' to participate in porn, and consumers that desire it to have it is keeping in line with individual rights. The people at the short end of the stick (to put it mildly!) are those coerced into 'performing' to varying degrees. I believe in the west, there are a reasonable number of 'performers' who find out it is good money and have no compunctions about providing for it. They've taken such decisions as legal adults. While one may believe these decisions are short sighted, immature, and fraught with pain and regret down the road, the same could be said about many otherwise uncontroversial aspects of life. But I am sure there are a HUGE number forced into it by a dominating, ill-influence in their lives, especially in poorer societies. That is quite obviously wrong.

The child porn stats are alarming and its growth is a major concern to any society.

No easy answer, but the solution is not to ban porn wholesale, because these stats prove it simply won't work. Those participating in child porn should be hunted down and held accountable to the severest degree. In doing this, the enforcement authorities are further challenged by being forced to operate with a narrower set of rules regarding privacy and entrapment. I don't think this is because there are legally powerful perverts and closet child porn lobbyists who want to continue their depravity. Instead, I think it is because history has shown that uncontrolled power leads to its own set of nightmares that have nothing to do with the reason for which such immense power was granted.

I am optimistic that our smartest people will figure out automated systems that follow the rules, and in the end, successfully control a majority of the illegal child porn rings on the net. I never underestimate the power of software. But the big problem is this won't happen quickly. The interim period (like right now!) becomes quite dangerous for children. These stats go to show (1) the desperate need in the market for more effective 'net nanny' software presence and (2) increased awareness for guardians and care givers so that some human oversight on activities is possible. It doesn't help that the parenting generation is one step behind their children when it comes to the complexities of the net and new technology.

A complex problem for sure. I've babbled enough on the topic! I will shut up and listen to other perspectives that may correct my misconceptions.

Hi Harvinder

Always look forward to your comprehensive, robust comments. Yes the facts are alarming but no more or less than what they have been on the grid of pronographic 'supply' forever I think. It's just that net as a technology is doing to porn in terms of speed and access, what it is doing for all of us at the levels of access and connectivity.

As for debating the source of the data or the exactitude of whether it's one in 6 or 10 women is something I feel which is secondary. Porn is the most virulent and pervasive form of 'erotica' available in the world, a fact which dates back I guess from when publishing began as an industry. Dogging and proliferating like a virus in all societies. And I guess banning and prohibition have been dogging alongside with as much perseverance and ineffectivity if I might add.

No Harvinder prohibition can never be the answer for as you rightly say it can never work. It has never worked for any large scale human 'desire' be it drugs, alcohol etc. And in the modern age we have 'freedom' and 'privacy' fighters to boot, who make the issue even more burdensome than it already is.

I think for us (and now we have the real reason of this blog being stated clearly :-) )the issue is to try and understand why we are who we are. It is not by making moral statements or righteous muscle-flexing. Sexuality as understood and practiced is 'unhealthy and unwholesome' not BECAUSE of porn but because it NEEDS porn (and the nature of porn that we have) in the world. Porn is a REFLECTION of our sexuality- and the figures are here just to prove that the pervasiveness cannot mean its an abberration. Because it is the only human behaviour which refuses to EVOLVE beyond brothels(oldest profession in the world right?), ugly/violative imaging (pornography) desires such as sado-masochism, bestiality, snuff etc. Because most sexual beings 'DESIRE' porn, in the anonymity of their thoughts they are 'excited' by the images. Is that not the reason even reasonable people lean against 'prohibition'? For somewhere everyone wants that access and thinks it 'normal and harmless'.

So the point we hope that this blog manages to clearly make is that porn is a SYMPTOM not a CAUSE. And symptoms cannot be addressed without the causes. This data primarily is to underscore the scale of the symptom.

So the question is why is sexuality the only area where human behaviour is still skulking in gutters and darkness. Everything else from body, mind soul, environment, ecology, garbage, ozone is being readdressed in sagacious, scientific 'relaming' ways. Why not sexuality?

Harvinder and there lies the question and the answer and of course the tiny attempt made by this blog :-). To talk about sexuality, examine it, contemplate it and reckon with its 'dark side' so that its joy and fullness cane be understood and experienced. Because nowhere in society (west included) will we look at it/think about it/contemplate it and least of all 'discuss' it. Judgement and fear, ignorance and confusion, low sexual self-esteem are the rodents which race in the gutters of sexuality. Childhood sexual images/trauma/guilt are the foundation of EVERYTHING we know as our sexuality. All of us. the day we accept that and begin to re-examine with a desire to understand and 'reclaim' our sexuality we HEAL.

And in healing ourselves we heal others, the energy around us, our children and the cycle begins. In another thread here Ramlath asked if sexuality could be a talent. I guess the answer here would be- only if you are 'wholesome and joyous' in the way you have experienced it can your prectice it so- and then of course it will be a talent as much as a gift. Otherwise my dear the discussions of whether someone is heterosexual/homosexual/transexual/bi-sexual are all quite meaningless. For under the garb of 'identities' the demons are the same.

The day people stop fighting and focussing on 'sexual identity' and start marching for sexual joy and wholeness everything will change. It is only then that pornography will no longer exist-for it will not be needed and therefore not lucrative.

Dear Jasjit, great words that are worth remembering. How beautifully you characterize the power and purpose of this blog. How unique its purpose. More power to all of us :-)

Doesn't the treatment of sexuality by tribal people aligns closely with what you say. As we know, many isloated tribes in South America and the Andamans and Nicobar wander virtually nude and have transparent and healthy views about sexuality and their natural feelings. One never hears of the concept of "cheating" in their society, or sexual assault and even subjugation of women. So I think humankind lost this perspective somewhere along the road of so-called culture and civilization. And to think we call THEM primitive!

So much of our society and beliefs is built layer upon fastidious layer of burdensome and unnatural conventions. I think many of these conventions were lame attempts at masking insecurities. Future generations were brainwashed from birth into accepting these as truth, so the overwhelming majority got ingrained into accepting it and refining it further for their progeny (like the harassed daughter-in-law to imposing mother-in-law vicious cycle).

As you rightly point out, we have done well to strip out superstition and established the "scientific method" for physical science. This happened well over 400 years ago, with great and honest souls like Copernicus and later Galileo. Compared to that, our effort at increasingly comprehending sexuality and understanding the root of human desire is at its infancy, if at all. I can't think of anyone beyond Alfred Kinsey, and Masters and Johnson in the recent past. If I am not mistaken, much of their contribution was empirical? Important as it was, there seems to be no attempt at developing a more powerful framework or powerful vision and world view. Also if I am not mistaken, didn't Freud attempt this but with a narrower lens tainted with negativity and explaining human fraility?

If this makes any sense at all, my father would characterize my comments to you as an attempt at selling coal to Newcastle :-) I'm happy to chime in now and then, but I would love to continue to hear and learn more from your gift of insight and your fellow blogging mentees.

Jasjit

Beautifully and powerfully articulated. You turned the whole debate on pornography on its head quite flawlessly.

Harvinder

Thank you for bringing so many new insights and points of view. I look forward to reading your comments here.

Hey all!

Dear Jasjit and Harvinder,

Reading the comments and trying to absorb all the interesting perpectives and insights.

Thanks all for such an enlightening conversation!

I have to say this... this discussion on pornography has been a real thought provoking thing for me.

Discussions on it have always been on banning it, prohibiting it etc. And like we all know this has yet not worked. Just like prostitution.

I have always wondered why porn or even prostitution continues to exist in the first place? What is it that allows them to thrive? It can't be just a hand full of people carrying out this 'business' and some 'sick' people watching it... there must be more to it. Statistics on these keep showing numbers which run into hundreds, thousands and millions. There must be something that makes it so 'popular'.

For a child/adult who is watching a porn video/site it really does not matter whether the 'performers' are 'consenting' or 'coerced'. They are exposed to sexual matter that is going to affect their sexuality. Dear Harvinder, it is this that is of concern to me.

Jasjit, I just can't stop re-reading what you have written about porn being a symptom and not the cause of unhealthy sexuality. It ties up all the discussions that we have been having even on prostitution. The important question is where does the 'demand' come from... where does the NEED, the DESIRE come from that allows porn and prostitution to carry on.

Dear Harvinder

Thank God Newcastle exhausted itself and more fancy, fun and 'wholesome' energies came into the world. So it is with all of us, bringing in priceless light into each other's life, sparking off invaluable words/thoughts with every exchange. :-)

I agree tribals manage to pursue life in far more lighter/less complex ways- I guess as a reminder that the march of human civilization has been rife with burdensome and homogenization where the greatest victim has been human naturalness/spontaneity. An atrophy of sorts at many levels which is only just being acknowledged, if at all, and that to sparingly.

I think Kinsey, M & J and Freud were all invaluable precursors. Leaving us with at least some notion that the road needs to be mapped. Unfortunately in the absence of consistent application to the matter (especially with an expansive perspective)their work just gets routinely hijacked (esepcially its serious limitations) by all and sundry as Gospel truths.

Personally I feel sexuality is the least equipped area to be studied under a scholarly lens. Experiential work, a world view free of religious dogma and a larger more compassionate understanding of this critical human need, are the pre-requisites to produce something which can even attempt to offer a 'transforming' perspective.

Came across this bit of info on another blog. Thought I will share it here and I quote the blogger ....

"An investigation into the rate of degradation of wood-pulp products in an Australian landfill has determined that porn magazines -- with their coated, glossy pages -- outlast other types of printed matter and will be the last printed items in the landfills to rot away.

Scientist Fabiano Ximenes, 31, dug through two Sydney dumps to find out how long wood and paper products survive in landfill sites.

He found that magazines, newspapers and old bits of wood thrown away up to 46 years ago were in almost perfect condition, with pornography lasting the best of all.

Ximenes displayed a 1979 copy of the men's magazine Playboy which was in near mint condition, and said its thick wax coating could be the reason for its longevity."

Thats an awful lot of care and attention paid to the creation of everlasting pronographic magazines. If only the drive for perfection was utilized in better ways!

Chaitali I was just reading through the posts on sexual fantasy on this blog and I came across this research which I had quoted there, so I just thought I'd put it out here too, sorry it's late but I think it's important to have on this thread.

"Dr. Claudio Violato, a professor at the University of Calgary, studied the effects of pornography in a research (2002) that involved 12,000 participants. His findings were alarming; “the authors of the study concluded that exposure to pornography puts viewers at increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies, committing sexual offences, experiencing difficulties in intimate relationships, and accepting of the rape myth (that women want to be raped). One of the most common psychological problems is a deviant attitude towards intimate relationships such as perceptions of sexual dominance, submissiveness, sex role stereotyping or viewing persons as sexual objects.”