Internet Porn

I'd say that if he has negative attitudes about sex, women, or women's sexuality, they're more likely to come from his peers, or his father figures. It's possible that porn could set the situation for that sort of kibitzing - "hey, check out the Playboys in my dad's attic", "yeah, I heard that women have teeth down there" - but I don't think much of it is going to come from porn.If porn has negative effects it's probably going to be when you die of embarrasment when your dad comes to talk to you about your Vicky's Secret catalogue stash, or worse - when you find out about your dad's tastes in porn. (Dad, why oh why couldn't you learn to clean out the cache and history, as I did?)In my own experience, it was porn that corrected much of my misinformation about women and their bodies. I guess I started looking at internet porn at about 16 or so (back when you had to use Mosaic, and before the img tag could display an inline JPEG... actually, this was before the local university had implemented PPP, so I had to dial in with a terminal, use Lynx, and download images sight unseen at 9600 baud.)This has been Crash's "Ye Old-Tyme Internet" Hour, brought to you by Global Village modems.

Yeah. Well, I guess I'm aware of the impact of the media fixation with thinness on women's (and men's) body image.On the other hand with Americans waddling in at record weights these days I'm not sure that people couldn't do with a little more desire to be healthy, at least.It's not just a problem for women, you know. As many men as women report feeling dissatisfied about their bodies, and if it isn't a cultural expectation to be ripped, it's one that demands enormous levels of personal or financial success in order to be viewed as an attractive man.Obviously that doesn't excuse anything at all. To tell you the truth I think fashion mags are the worse offenders. Women in porn tend to have a significantly greater range of body types, with the caveat that they tend to have similarly ridiculous breast sizes. On the other hand fashion mags seem to be the ones with the most impossible standards of beauty. That and their avaliability to children - when was the last time you saw a 9-year-old with Penthouse - makes them the greater influence in my view. I guess you could argue that it's porn that leads the push, somehow, but I don't think that's true.And I think we're ignoring the fact that there's an evolutionary aspect here. Humans are always looking for the superior mate, and there's a number of ways we judge that, usually based on sex. Men tend to look for attractive women and women tend to look for men displaying an ability to provide. Is it any wonder then that culturally, our views of the ideal are going to reflect these evolutionary drives?

That's cool. Nonetheless I think there's definately some breast configurations that just don't appear in porn. (I hesitate to actually describe them, but I'm sure you could think of a few.)Then again maybe it's just my ignorance. I suspect that people have pretty narrowly defined tastes in porn, and doubtless I've hardly strayed too far from mine. (That taste isn't ridiculous breasts, btw. ) Also all my porn comes from the internet, because I'm cheap.

Translation: "I'm a middle-aged white guy who can't help but oggle titties because my religion is so sex-negative that I'm starving for it, so you should be, too." There's nothing to be ashamed about for putting the divine purpose on hold a bit for a little Channel 55 and a box of tissues. I mean, you'd sit down to eat, right? The body has it's needs. You can either work with that, or against that.

Hey, me too. But like me, I imagine that you've developed those oggling skills - because you don't believe that it's sinful to do so - to the point that you can scope out the babes without wrecking your car.That's the crucial difference, I think. Not that the guy was oggling because of his religion - he was oggling poorly because of his religion.

You mean, something like "Good God what a pair of bazoongas!"? Hell, I think we've all said that, but I hadn't realized it was a prayer.

Oh, we oggle those too, trust me. We're equal opportunity ogglers.

That's a pretty convinient fiction, but it doesn't explain why the single largest group of porn consumers are couples.

That's usually how people who have no facts sound the retreat...

Oh, for Christ's sake. You're like one of those immature teenagers who can't handle the fact that his own existence is the proof that his parents have sex with each other.

Oh, shit! Books are being written! Well, we're hell-bound now, for sure.Actually, I know the book your thinking of - being, as it was, published by the publishing arm of my state's university - and it doesn't say anything close to what you're saying. You might have known that, actually, had you read the book, or at least bothered to inform yourself beyond Bill O'Reilley soundbites.

I think that pretty much explains it all. K isn't a prude; he's just a guy who's so sexually frustrated himself that he doesn't want anyone else to have any fun.

Well, wait a minute, now. It wasn't the porn people that put the code in IE that allows unsolicited pop-ups, now was it?Honestly now that the Russian Mafia is stealing credit cards through an Internet Explorer exploit - even off of MSN.com - can a class action against Microsoft be far behind?

Why bother with any reason but the only one that counts - abstinence-only programs don't reduce pregnancy and STD's, they increase them.What do you care most about, K? The heath of teenagers, or promulgating your ideology? There's a significant weight of statistical evidence to the contrary; that, especially for women, early marriage is astronomically detrimental to one's career and education.Again, K, it's a conflict between what your sexual ideology tells you must be true and what actually is true. What do you care about more, K? Honestly? The truth? Or propping up an ideology that's a stunning failure at everything it claims it can do?

Holmes, I must say that I always find your little glimpses into the porn life to be at once surprising and fascinating.No hidden criticism intended, I just wanted you to know that I for one am edified every time you post on this subject, and often you touch upon (no pun intended) something that my wife and I had discussed recently (in this case, the whole facials thing.) Keep up the fascinating material, please. (Did you ever consider writing a book? Or maybe you know of a good one?) I find your mix of acadmic-style gender role analysis and behind-the-scenes porn information quite informative. Gender roles in porn seems to be a subject I blunder into quite a bit among my friends but I think you're the only person I've heard of that actually has the experience to give it the consideration it deserves.