Foreword: It would help if you pre-read articles written by April Garris, the reformed pornstar, featured on the site, theporneffect.com.
Disclaimer: This article is entirely my perspective. Though it may appear otherwise, I do not intend to be judgmental here.
One question that unfailingly arises during my regular consumption of internet porn is “What the @$%!$ is this amazing looking female doing here?” I admit my prime focus is the reproductive parts of the female anatomy, but thereafter, as if searching for perfection along the lines of a connoisseur of fine art, I also look at the face, the eyes, fingers, etc. of exhibitors who specially catch my fancy. Why would such beautiful women, who could have men at their bidding, ready to do anything, resort to this career option? If I had a woman, half as beautiful (and probably quarter as willing) by my side, I would be at the top of the world. Some of them look so delicate that they ought to be showcase models, until I see them being pulverized by sometimes unnaturally large men in methods that are not mainstream cultured sex acts, and later profess their enthusiasm smilingly. What gives? Really?
In one of these internet sleuthing exercises, I inadvertently stumbled upon one very debased website, the address of which I will withhold for obvious reasons. That was my first introduction to BDSM at its worst, and I’m told by friends in the know, that even more decadent versions exist, extending right up to banned, illegal snuff films. What shocked me was the depravity. But what disturbed me even more, was my response to that debauchery. I can’t describe being repelled and turned on at the same time, and immediately switched off, fearing that I had ventured into an area that should never be visited. The horror movie, Hostel, implies the tendency of certain human elements to gradually and inadvertently cross from mainstream porn to higher forms of carnal excitement such as the snuff stuff. But enough of me!!!
Let’s revert to the original intention of this article: why would such pretty women who could command all male attention with a hint of a look, who would never do their acts with husbands / boyfriends, much less members of their own gender otherwise, subject themselves to humiliation, abuse, pain and, in BDSM, horrible torture? Granted that every pornstar is not visually appealing, but can’t most of them, for the lack of locally available honest/moral professions, easily clinch modeling deals, acting stints in developing countries, etc., at the very least?
The answer to that eternal question hanging above is “money”, pure and simple. Money is the root of all evil; money is what makes the world go round; money is what can buy an indecent proposal; money is what can be used to sell your soul and drive you into the ground. It’s happened before in Judas’ time; it has happened now in Garris’ time; and it will continually happen again – that’s a guarantee.
Commercial enterprise will always be about money at its core, with service lines being the most exploitative. Everyone looks for an ROI. The very fact that prostitution and porn exist, is that there is an abundant market for them. (In fact, porn is an industry that is credited to being the first to adopt all new computer and distribution technologies, thereby driving the price of modernity affordably down eg. Blu-ray). It’s very easy to dialogue on internet forums on the subject matter and call for a boycott of pornography consumption, but will that happen? I wouldn’t hazard a guess; at least not until sex and desire are abolished. It’s like wanting the drug problem to disappear – won’t happen, as long as money is to be made. So what then is the best solution, or something close to that? But before I come to that, I must take you along another route.
Pornography caters to all forms of interest, and the human stars – other unwilling creatures are sometimes made to partake too – are from the entire spectrum of age, right from children to “seemingly” bed-ridden grannies. When you trawl the internet for porn, you will see such a magnitude of “fresh” faces. Where does this unending supply of “willing” women come from? To assume that all these women are victims of childhood abuse and/or parental neglect would be to pre-suppose that (almost) all men are (those) abusers, and that is definitely a lie, simply because I can point out examples of those who should have entered porn, but didn’t, and vice versa. Excluding the genuinely abused women who enter porn to paradoxically relive their abuse, I am more inclined to believe that the remainder of the female porno lot is first entrapped by the lifestyle illusion, seemingly like the one they are coached to project. They sign up for the money, parties, glamour, etc., and some, of course, the sex. In their eagerness to acquire that lifestyle, they fail to check all the terms of the devil’s contract. When peno-vaginal sex suddenly turns peno-anal, or worse, they start complaining. And they complain but don’t quit, citing lack of alternate work options. There is no known scientifically gathered evidence other than coloured opinion that confirms otherwise.
I disagree with Garris’ article that all porn actresses are “innocent” victims. She confesses that she was exposed to porn via forms of media: magazines, etc., much before she entered porn. In the US, as opposed to a developing or conservative country, where sexual liberation is a given, no one can confess ignorance of what porn entails. So I suspect that Garris entered the porn business from the money angle and is crying rape when she felt shortchanged.
As part of a parish excursion, we visited an adopted village in rural India, and were greeted by extremely pathetic situation there. The poverty, hunger, disease, living conditions (which includes co-habitation with animals – the source of their livelihood), is simply deplorable…The Government of India draws the poverty line at earnings of INR 20/day – totally absurd!!! (1 USD = ~45 INR). Even your pet parakeet would die of malnutrition on that budget, much less families with only one wage earner. Needless to say, after being in a far better position, I was thoroughly ashamed of badgering God for freebies. Yet, none of those poor women are into prostitution. Oh, and I didn’t find the existence of other evils that generally plague the urban world: wickedness, adultery, etc., either. And I have excluded villages not adopted by charity organizations / philanthropic people. For people fatted on God’s goodness, it’s easy to cry injustice at every opportune moment. So, then, it boils down to personal God-given choice. I chose to barter my dignity, sexual integrity, morals, health, etc for a few pieces of silver. Yes, I, the pornstar, am solely to blame, first, and I am not in a moral position to attribute parts of that blame to others for secondary viewership.
What we have established so far is that Garris knew about porn and its athletic requirements before she entered porn. She then willingly signed on the contract on agreement that she would be paid a (possibly) negotiated sum of money. It would be safe to assume that her employers may have adumbrated the essentials of work, even if she claims not to be cognizant in this regard. What’s in doubt is that Garris may have not anticipated that the extra work / act requirements would come with no corresponding extra remuneration, and is crying foul. While advanced countries like the US have formulated water-tight work agreements and laws, many developing nations (such as India, for instance), have white (and other) collared workers working far beyond the 40 hour work week, for free, for there is a horde of newly graduated entrants willing to do more for about half any senior employee’s salary. So, which industry does not exploit even a teeny bit? If Garris felt cheated, why did she take 20 years to quit? She says that pornstars lose their money to the lifestyle requirements, and confesses that she did too. Depending on how you look at it, why did/didn’t she stop if she was back to square #1 financially? This makes no sense in light of her original intention to do porn. If she felt violated on doing the first scene, why did she continue doing such films? What is her financial support system now and couldn’t she have adopted the same system before she entered porn? Did she approach anybody / any institution for help? Did she try petitioning God? We don’t even know if she sincerely attempted to acquire honest and moral work before backing her story. Here (in India), there are women who literally live off the streets (rag pickers, etc), who work hard under the harshest of conditions, seek God’s help and are assisted by cosmic benevolence, while there are those who choose the shortest and easiest route, and hide behind polished excuses. And, though I’d hope otherwise, the probability of such reformed people, straying in moments of weakness is high, for, like sin, the memory of quick-fix shortcuts always remains dormant in memory, which the devil exploits to the hilt. One doesn’t have to be an expert in human psychology to deduce that. In India, when the government provides some fortunate slum dwellers free flats to live in, they respond by selling the flats for its monetary value and go right back to live in the slums in conditions they know so well and are accustomed to. Personal choice again, influenced by monetary gain.
Let’s compare pornography to others forms of recreation / sport. Why would participants hammer each other in the Bellator free style fighting championships for a shiny belt and some money, which they will spend on insurance and hospital bills? Can someone who is bashed up later complain that I didn’t know I would be hit so badly? Or Oh! they made me fight someone stronger / quicker. Hey, I didn’t get paid for losing an illegal street fighting competition…The crux of the matter is about choice freely exercised at risk and profit. What about the modeling industry? And the list goes on…
Garris says that porno girls fake emotions and actions. Who cares? A woman in a swimsuit gets paid to pose for a tyre advertisement; the buyer associates the tyres with the girl and makes a purchase; the advertiser gets his profit / commission. Each gets what they want and who loses? In porn, who is bothered about similar loss? Porn users will argue that they didn’t influence any girl to barter her dignity nor contribute in her continued debasement, and they are logically right, for it is the girl’s own choice to sign up for the money and be an artistic exhibitionist. In fact, most porn viewers don’t know the seamier side of porn employship and a select subset of these are not bothered any which way. Garris says girls get manipulated or are threatened on porn sets. Who told them to go there in the first place? If I am willing to join the mafia, I must be prepared for deception and loss of limb / life. Finer details of such industry streams are never covered in any contract. People willing to play with fire must be willing to get burnt. Doesn’t God say, those who live by the sword, will die by the sword?
Garris also says porn is an inaccurate representation of the sex act and that videos are doctored to selectively include what viewers wish to see. Again, at the risk of sounding insensitive, but logical, who cares? In India, courtship in movies was depicted for decades as running around trees and kissing was shown as flowers meeting each other. People know/suspect that doesn’t happen in real life and are there for the entertainment value, or in the case of porn, the titillation. But what of the lives that porn destroys – this again, is the personal choice of the viewer and the level s/he takes porn to. If we need to destroy all that is wrong in the world, let’s start with cigarettes and booze and gambling…Churches and medical doctors have cried themselves hoarse on the ill-effects of such vices, but have we had luck with their eradication before?
Since sex is such a powerful drive and a lot of people do not get their needs met, self-regulation propaganda will not be effective, even if the dark side of porn is tutored to the masses. Conscientious people will revert to their “sinful” state when their body makes continuous and prolonged demands to be satisfied of its baser instincts. The simplest solution for the eradication of porn is not to tell men to stop using porn, but for women to stop exchanging sex for money. This looks one-sided, but just bear with me a tad bit longer. Think, if all women firmly vowed to never use their bodies for any form of sexual advertisement, the supply side of porn (and general advertisements that relates a woman’s body to unrelated products sold) would be effectively crippled. It is natural that you would ask me why not make men culpable and cut off the demand side of the porn equation. As per God’s design, men are visually stimulated (as opposed to women being emotionally stimulated). So a man needs to see to be aroused. Since the emotional and lust circuitry is compartmentalized, a man can feel lust without feeling love – this is something women accuse their men off when the man, devoid of any love, gives an attentive eye to a lady passing in the street. If he is in love and has a strong moral inclination, he may be able to control acting on such arousal to stick to one partner in thought and deed. Telling men not to seek porn is tantamount to telling women not to seek romance. Not possible. What compounds the problem is that, as years go by, a country’s economy makes daily life more difficult and expensive. Therefore, more men (& women) need to work harder for longer hours, and therefore, delay of marriage is unavoidable. As a resultant consequence, there is no sexual outlet until someone is well established in a career and with an earning / providing capacity for a family, which may be decades later than the onset of puberty. So, what you get is porn, masturbation and damaged relationships in the interim. Even factors influencing matrimonial choice of a partner in current seemingly good and modern relationships is no longer governed by God’s design: so men will choose women based on their attractive quotient, as opposed to her goodness quotient, while women will choose the man with the most money. Neither will get what God intended to provide within marriage and both will look elsewhere within a short period of time. So the divorce percentage has climbed to more than 50% and, with a living-in mentality, we are fast approaching a time when the institution of marriage will be treated as an outdated aberration. Meanwhile, the body’s sexual demands will continue to rise to the fore and give way to predictable social results.
A woman told me to stop using porn. She accused me of willfully supporting the porn industry with my money, thereby justifying cruelty to women. Besides, it is a sin to watch people fornicate. But I have complementary news. I have never paid for porn – it’s free on the net. People will not stop fornicating if I am not in attendance – they will do it for the money they receive from the pornographer, and I am not providing any of it. And you will also have the skilled lawyer types who hassle with God, saying, “Hey, I was not looking at a woman with lust, I was looking at a picture of a woman with lust; so technically, I was not sinning to the letter”. Essentially, it’s the same difference.
Porn will never go away. But if you want to decrease its hold on society, part of God’s basic intentions and common sense must prevail:
- Imparting age appropriate sexual information is a must, by the parents, teachers, mentors, church, etc. I was appalled when I watched the BBC’s Vagina Monologues wherein a woman post 70 years of age didn’t know / hadn’t seen “what was down there”. Seems unbelievable and I don’t know if it is too far to look, reach and/or feel.
- Every man must have his own wife at the age when the body is set for that kind of fun. If there is no wife, other outlets will be sought, pornography and masturbation being some of them, as the first choice.
- Sex must not be regulated, rationed and/or controlled by any partner. A couple must be willing to have as much sex as they possibly can. In fact, sex must be had even if only one partner wants it. God’s direction is explicit: only if both partners wish to refrain from sex on account of time for prayer, can they do so, not just one, for that one may be tempted by immoral means to satisfy sexual desire, leading to the breakdown of the relationship. I read a lot of women complain that their men are viewing porn; are we just hearing one side of the story? Did these women contribute by saying no to sex too often or regulating sex based on the social mood between the couple?
- Collectively brainstorming solutions to relationship obstacles and vocalizing sexual needs is a must for both partners to be satisfied. Many women expect men to be mind readers – come on, woman may use telepathy, but guys woefully lack in that department. Sometimes things need to fall on a guy’s nose for him to be aware of it.
- Willingness to try new things within boundaries and respect of each other’s capabilities and inhibitions must be exercised. When sex with the spouse gets boring, sex with someone else / something gets interesting.
- Prayer, work partnership and fun are contributing essentials to a good sex life.
When God creates a human being, they come into this world in a fully working order. We satisfy all the requirements of growing up: education, nutrition, etc., but, believe it or not, sex education is sometimes hesitantly and hastily implied on the wedding night in some countries.
Initially, children look outward emotionally, and when there is no reciprocation, an inward orientation takes place, which generally signals the birth of masturbatory activities. Couple this with God’s injustice that only married couples can morally have sex and you have a motive for evil. What does an unmarried man with a body craving sexual release do? Masturbate, look at porn, masturbate, look at more porn and masturbate. And since masturbation needs higher levels of excitement for similar levels of pleasure, a market demand for pornography is anticipated and created, as it is needed to fuel the act of masturbation on a continual basis. Most people are satisfied at this level for years, except some deviants who graduate to higher forms of debauchery. Then comes a (usually, married) preacher to muddy the pond with self righteous justification: “Being married, I can have sex to my heart’s content, but God will punish you singles if so much as think about the word”. Tell me why should unmarried men not kick such preachers in the family jewels several times just for fun and re-focus on a denied release strategy? Simply telling people not to masturbate and watch porn without a backup plan to handle their sexuality in a practical manner is never going to yield tangible results. Refraining from sexual immorality is a lofty ideal. Yes, it may build character, but who is / how many are ready for such character building? Tibetan monks build character by sleeping nearly nude on the freezing ice capped mountains; martial artists, too. General people don’t. With stress abound, people are growing increasingly intolerant of minor irritants in life. Do you expect them to hold out on sexual fulfillment when their body torments them? Cajole them if you must, but it is not going to happen, for you would not be able to “hand-hold” a problem when the sexual head rears up in the middle of the night and the parish priest and God are “seemingly” asleep to the predicament.
Please be aware that I am sympathetic to Garris’ abuse, as everyone is a child of God and deserves a second chance; in fact, God forgives more than 70×7. I am no saint to hold Garris to the dock. All I’m stating it that Garris, like any other human being in this world has been given a choice. She made a mistake and we need to support her on her road to redemption if that is her wish, as we must be willing to support others like her to journey back home to God’s love.
Please tell me how you regard my deviant articles along with your responses, for it may encourage me to write more / simply kill the habit.