Pornography

In the strict sense, pornography refers to the presentation of images — photos, videos — in which the human body appears in a way that incites the obtaining of sexual pleasures. In a slightly broader sense, texts and audio that incite those same pleasures, even without images, are also described as pornographic.

It may involve any human body. If minors appear in the images, they fall under the crime of child abuse. If men appear, they tend to be linked to homosexuality. However, the great majority of pornographic images are of women. (It is to these that we refer here, although the same applies to the other cases.)

It provides the benefit of giving much money to those who sell it. But pornography causes many harms:

• It deteriorates the image of women in the eyes of men. Pornography presents woman as something that gives sexual pleasures. If a man looks at many pornographic images, he ends up with a distorted idea of women, and when he sees girls he sees only females; friendships and work colleagues are no longer appreciated but only seen as things that give pleasures.
• A woman's self-worth deteriorates. Pornography spreads the idea that a woman is only valued for the sexual pleasure she provides, leaving her other qualities undervalued. A girl who lets herself be guided by this idea will desire not so much to be a woman but a female who provides a great deal of sex, and will neglect the exercise of other qualities.
• Pornography fosters infidelity in marriage. This is rather obvious. Such images incite the obtaining of sexual pleasures with women other than one's own.
• Pornography deteriorates the image one has of men. Men are regarded as males, and females are offered to them. Pornography animalizes human beings.
• Pornography diminishes human dignity. By treating the human being as an animal, it attacks human dignity. It also negatively affects the dignity of sex, which ceases to be considered human and becomes simply animal instinct. Pornography destroys the affective and spiritual union between persons, leaving only the male-female instinct.
• Pornography harms young people in particular, instilling in them a distorted mentality regarding relations between men and women.
• Pornography damages good feelings. Such images distort reality by presenting human beings as objects of selfish desires instead of persons worthy of love and respect. They introduce into the heart a wrong way of thinking and reacting. On the other hand, not looking at those images is defending and maintaining a heart with good feelings toward others.

The opposite is rather the case: pornography enslaves woman and reduces her to a thing that provides sexual pleasures to the man.

Pornography is anti-human because it treats men and women as if they were beasts, diminishing the dignity of both. Moreover, pornography is sexist because it uses women for the use and enjoyment of men, and this attitude of using and discarding is unjust toward women. (See machismo.)

No: she must not take drugs, get drunk, poison herself or commit suicide... Besides, no woman wants her body to be used and discarded by anyone who sees it. Pornography — like prostitution — is a business conceived by men to make money, even if it harms the dignity of women. For these few men, women are worth nothing and neither are their bodies; they are enjoyed and discarded, as happens with pornographic images. What is strange is that feminists do not protest firmly against pornography.

Pornography has succeeded in spreading the idea that men and women desire nothing but sex and more sex. But this is not true. In this area, what both men and women desire is to be loved; sex is not the main thing. (See love.)

Pornography resembles drugs in that it is highly addictive.