And this is the source of any real problems right here. But I will never agree to censorship of anything intended for adults because of parents being negligent in their duty. I will thus be unresponsive to any argument that porn is any way to blame for "teaching" children anything, because children should not be watching it to begin with.
I‘m not saying that there should be censorship, but there is some middle ground between saying that porn is fine and good and having draconian laws banning it. Of course bad parenting is a worse problem than the prevalence of pornography, but it influences lots of other issues as well, but we can still discuss the possibility that pornography has a bad influence on society.
Because some of us have a pretty good handle on separating fantasy from reality, I guess, just like any other form of media. For all the autistic screeching from feminists, you want to know one of the most common female sexual fantasies? Rape. Does this mean all those women want to actually be raped? Of course not.
Yes, rape is a common female fantasy and you’re right, that doesn’t mean that women want to get raped, but that doesn’t mean that the fantasy is completely disconnected from the reality of female desires. Perhaps the desire for a dominant partner, the desire to submit of a man, maybe the thrill of a dangerous sort of guy.
I’m just not so sure if we can say that the media we consume has no effects on our desires or our values. In fact, that seems like a pretty extreme claim to me.
Of course, people can separate fantasy from reality, but don’t you find it even a little bit troubling for people to become aroused by the sort of comic which I described? That would seem to at least be an indicator of some sort of problem if not the cause of one.
The horror...
It seems like you’re deliberately distorting what I said in my post:
but could watching pornography make people more interested in having anal sex, engaging in bondage, bisexuality, or preferring a certain shaving style? I’m almost certain that is the case. Those may not seem so important, it probably isn’t, but what could be a subtle yet powerful effect of rampant viewing of pornography could be a cheapening of sexuality or the creation of unusual expectations or the normalization of promiscuity.
I said that those particular effects (anal, bondage, and shaving) probably weren’t important, but that other influences could be more harmful - such as normalization of promiscuity. As I said earlier, I’m not expressing disapproval of kinky sex.
Are you now saying that maybe pornography could influence a person’s sexual desires? That a young man who watches porn with big breasted girls with shaved pubic hair have anal sex might develop a preference for big breasts, shaved pubs, or anal sex? If watching pornography can influence such relatively trivial tastes, could it not also influence people in more harmful ways?
I don’t think that we can so quickly dismiss the potential side effects that pornography might have on society.