By Dr. Jeanette Pinto –
“I can’t define porn, but I know when I see it,” said Justice Stewart of the USA.
Pornography is an unnecessary evil and a horrible killer. It is truly anti-life. Abbreviated as porn or porno, it is explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter, including erotic images. Andrea Dworkin a feminist refers to pornography ‘as men’s’ control of women.’ Susan Brownmiller says, “Pornography is violent propaganda against women.” Whatever be the definitions, Pornography is “literature or visuals of sexual deviance,” stuff that is mentally sick and sexually maladjusted which individuals enjoy reading, or seeing. It is literature, or visuals or talks that contain sexually explicit material.
Pornography uses a variety of media: books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculptures, drawings, paintings, animation, sound recordings, films, computers, the internet, videos and video games. Any material designed to enter our being through our God-given senses, whether visual, audio or otherwise, that deliberately stimulates the sexual appetite in a manner which distorts its God-ordained design can be labeled as “pornography.”
Soft Core Pornography is that which media depicts, namely individuals in various erotic poses, female nudity, images of female breasts, genitals etc. Hard core Pornography is the depiction of sex acts between persons of any age. It also includes fetishes, namely like sex with dead persons, amputees, dwarfs and sex with animals.
Pornography is the first step on a very slippery slope of ever-increasing wickedness and immorality. It is addictive in nature. Just as a drug user must consume greater and more powerful quantities of drugs to achieve the same “high,” pornography drags a person deeper and deeper into sexual addictions and ungodly desires. What this means in computer language is that the data that flows out, depends precisely, on what is fed in!
Sexperts say that porn is harmless, but it affects your brain, your marriage and your sex life. How harmless is that? Porn stimulates the arousal centers in the brain, and when accompanied by orgasm a chemical reaction happens and hormones are released. In effect our brains start to associate arousal with an image, an idea, or a video rather than a person. Our brains are supposed to associate sex with physical pleasure and a real sense of intimacy. But the intimacy does not happen with porn, pleasure is all that it registers, hence porn makes sex all about the body, and not about intimacy.
What are the effects of this evil? The physical evils are that the visual enters the body through the senses, which are a direct link to the central nervous system; it enters the pleasure centers of the brain and triggers sexual responses, giving the person a certain high feeling.
The social effect of this evil is that pornography desensitizes the viewer leading to sexual violence, molestation, and rape. It erodes into and eventually destroys the normal capacity to think and make rational judgments. It degrades marriage – it leads to bizarre and violent methods in sexual relations; it increases crime, fuels addiction and leads to compulsive dangerous behaviour. Offenders become child molesters, killers, rapists, incest fathers etc. The end result is we have a sick society.
The mental effect is not pro-life, for men begin to suffer from behavioral addiction and they demean and objectify women. They also suffer from erectile dysfunction, which turns sex into masturbation. Porn has a numbing effect on reality. People suffer feelings of frustration, guilt, shame and anger. Addiction creates an appetite for more. They want the pleasure, not the self-giving. It misguides his spirit, and he fantasizes. It becomes a personal problem.
Porn is often violent and porn users are known to rape their wives. It simply helps people to “get into the mood’ or ‘relieves frustration’. The chemical processes in the brain become complicated and it is difficult to develop a healthy sexuality again. Pornography degrades marriages. Users expect their wives to perform bizarre sexual acts…thus wives become repelled by the husband’s deviant behaviour. It increases crime in dangerous offenders. The statistics as given by Wikipedia are that there are 30 million sites dedicated to pornography, and more are being added every day. More than 70 percent of male internet users from 18-34 visits a porn site in a month.
Can one overcome the grip of this anti-life evil? It may seem a harmless pastime but has toxic side effects. It is a personal problem; however it can be overcome through the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in Jesus who offers protection and healing from the dangers of pornography. It degrades God’s gift of sex to mankind. The sexual act is divorced from love and there is a deviant approach to it as it exploits women. The mantra is: See it – Fantasize about it -Do it!
The three main categories of sin are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Pornography definitely causes a person to lust after flesh, and it is undeniably a lust of the eyes. According to scripture: Pornography is addictive (1 Corinthians 6:12;2), and destructive (Proverbs 6:25-28) When habitual devotion to pornography characterizes a person’s life, it demonstrates the person is not saved (1 Corinthians 6:9).
The advance of technology has gripped not only adults but also our children. The screen, be it the computer, I- pad, mobile or whatever has excited visual imagery to the extent that it has made us victims of these gadgets. School children working on projects are suddenly looking at pop up of these porn visuals exciting their curiosity. Pornography is anti-life, it has become a killer, a cancer invading our homes, towns and cities. It is increasing in epidemic proportions especially among young people. It is insidiously devaluing the human being in God’s sight. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your body.” 1 Cor. 6:19-20.
Let’s not forget that human dignity lies in the holistic person namely: Body…, Mind…. & Spirit.
Dr Jeanette Pinto, an educator for the past 5 decades, headed the Department of History was Vice Principal of St. Xavier’s College Mumbai, and retired as Principal of Sophia College, Mumbai. She is a counsellor and conductor of Personal Enrichment Programmes for students and teachers.
She set up the Human Life Committee in the Archdiocese of Bombay. As a sex educator she has given talks on Human Sexuality in India and abroad. In 2014 she received the Rachana Outstanding Woman of the Year for her Pro-life work presented by the Diocese of Mangalore. She has attended many National and International Pro-life conferences and given talks at other fora on various women’s issues.
She is author of a couple of books, her most recent ones are titled: I’m Pro-Life Are you? & Sex Talk: Parent to Child. She has also written a number of articles on a variety of themes and subjects, which have been published in research journals, The Examiner and other Catholic publications.