The Standards of The Pornographic Industry Are Immoral

Con's first argument is that the porn industry is responsive to the desires of its consumers, but he fails to show how this makes it moral. Just the fact that the porn reflects people's desires does not say anything about its morality. My main contention is that the contents of the porn (and therefore the consumer's desires) are immoral. Con's first argument does nothing to refute my claim. "Pro claims porn portrays people as sexual objects. I counter, so what? What's so bad about this? People are as much their bodies as they are their minds or souls. What if I were to concentrate on a person's sense of humor to the exclusion of their other characteristics, would this be a problem? No, it wouldn't. There is nothing wrong with portraying someone as a sexual object because we are sexual beings who function as sexual objects during sex. Pro's argument is like if I were to say, televised sports are bad because they exclude the "human dimension" and focus purely on the physical. Of course, this is ridiculous. Just because porn (or sports) focus on the physical doesn't mean they exclude other aspects of being human. " Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my second argument. I should have been more specific. I agree that people are essentially sexual objects during sexual acts. That is simply one aspect of being human, and there's nothing wrong with portraying that aspect. My argument here is that a large portion of the pornography that exists is based on the sexual degradation of women and sexual stereotypes of women. The women are supposed to look and act a certain way, and it does not represent reality and it dehumanizes women. It sends the message that some women are only there to please men and that they are "just for sex. " "Pro claims the pornographic industry is bad because the healthy and safety of actors is secondary to profit. Pro fails to provide any sources for this claim. But supposing Pro is correct, for the sake of argument, it still doesn't follow that the pornographic industry is immoral. Entering the porn industry is a choice that individuals make. There is not a single person working in the pornographic industry that forces actors to engage in dangerous actions. The actors and actresses in the pornographic industry are there by choice, and any risky or dangerous behavior they engage in is, likewise, by choice. Thus, the porn industry is not responsible for any harm that comes to the actors/actresses. " It's not quite as simple as that. A lot of times actresses in certain types of porn are inexperienced, and they have bad reactions to doing violent scenes. The producers or directors then coerce them into finishing the scene, sometimes threatening not to pay them if they don't do what they agreed to, regardless of whether or not the actress feels comfortable. There is also footage of actresses saying that they are in pain, asking the male performers to stop doing something during a scene, and being ignored, as well as breaking down emotionally during a scene due to the verbal and physical degradation, and the challenging violent nature of the act they are performing. If you honestly need a source in order to believe this, I can provide it in the next round (a censored YouTube video). I apologize because it's difficult to provide appropriate sources for my above claims, but you must agree that such is possible, and you could agree that it is even probable, considering the vast amount of violent pornography that has been made. It's a fact that some women are negatively impacted by it, and so are some consumers. I will talk more about the consumers in a minute. The point is, if such emotional and psychological toil is possible within the environment of the pornographic industry, then the standards of the industry must be morally and/or ethically inferior. Violence is almost always immoral. A large portion of pornography depicts sex mixed with violence, and gender-based violent themes (violence against women). If porn is responsive to the desires of its consumers, and it depicts men enjoying being violent against women, then it is encouraging violence Encouraging immoral behavior is itself immoral Therefore the porn industry has immoral standards "Porn, I contend, is not only moral but good. It gives us a view of the world's sexual possibilities. " "Sexual possibilities" -- like what? Consuming fecal matter? Mutilating animals? There are a lot of sexual possibilities in the world, and I think most people can agree that some of them are better off unknown. And it's exactly these kinds of possibilities that porn is encouraging. I have nothing against being nonconformative and sexually adventurous, but a lot of pornographic niches, like I mentioned before, push things that are inherently disturbing because they are dangerous, harmful, or otherwise immoral, for the sole purpose of pushing the limit to be more stimulating. This perverts and demoralizes human sexuality. So the point Con is trying to make here is not well-made. Con's last three paragraphs are not unlike a lot of arguments in defense of deviant porn that I have seen. They basically defend porn as the positive expression and exploration of human sexuality. But the bulk of modern porn does NOT celebrate human sexuality. It degrades it. It trivializes and manipulates it. It takes advantage of the highly stimulating and addictive nature of sexuality and violence [1], while completely disregarding the romantic and emotional aspects of sexuality and human relationships. Pornography can also harm the consumers. Although many proponents of pornography completely dismiss porn addiction, it is a real thing and it has a lot to do with excessively deviant pornography. The way it works is this: A user is exposed to hardcore porn. The first time he uses it, he finds it very satisfying. He keeps using it, but it gradually becomes less and less satisfying; he gets desensitized to it. So, he seeks out more extreme material. This is satisfying for a while until he becomes desensitized again. Before long, he can only get off watching rape porn. After that, it's scat porn. This goes on until he can't get off on anything except watching animals get tortured on camera, and this consumes his life and his mind. He might even act out and hurt someone in real life. Granted, this is an extreme example, and only some people will be affected like this. But nevertheless this is one problem that extreme and perverse pornography can lead to [1]. In order to refute my claim that the standards of pornography is immoral, Con must show that it is acceptable to encourage or promote sexual violence, and the degradation of women. [1] . http://www.askmen.com...