Pornography Essay, Research Paper

Sexual morality has declined in America today. The immoral life can be seen all

around us. We see it in drugs, alcohol, movies, magazines, gangs, teenage pregnancy,

pre-marital sex, and society as a whole. A person can walk into almost any convenience

store and purchase a magazine depicting naked women. Videos and movies with graphic

sex scenes can be rented or watched in any movie theater. They have become more

common than ever before. Almost every movie with an “R” rating will have at least one

sex scene. Even Forrest Gump, a highly acclaimed movie, had a sexual act and nudity

involved. Also public television has been known to show nudity and sex. Allusions are

made to sex in every part of our life. Work, school, sports, and recreation are all forums

through which unhealthy sexual views are expressed.

One of the more predominant and obvious forums for the proliferation of

unhealthy sexual desires is pornography. Pornography is displaying the human body in a

perverse, sexual way. It can be found in film, magazine, television, on CD-ROM, and

even the internet, and can range from “soft-core”, depicting natural poses and action, to

“hard-core”, or depicting sex combined with violence, that any reasonable, decent, well-

adjusted human being would recognize as horrible and disgusting. Much pornography is

socially acceptable, with few people actively speaking out against it.

Pornography can be bought at many “adult” or “adult novelty” shops. One only

has to listen to any popular local radio station after 8 P.M. to hear strings of

advertisements for local pornographic outlets. Television advertisements are shown

also, but not as often as on the radio. Pornography is so socially acceptable in

today’s society, that it is protected by the same amendment to the constitution that allows

Pro-Life groups to protest abortion, the first amendment to the constitution. For years,

the first amendment has been quoted to support pornography, as well as everything from

freedom to protest abortion, to freedom of holding Nazi views. The first amendment was

drafted, not to protect boring, popular, or inoffensive views, however, but to protect the

right of people to hold and express controversial ideas.

There is a line, though. A television network cannot show images of children

having sex, but it can show a naked woman, if the perspective is such that certain parts of

her body are not seen. In Germany, access is blocked to certain “chat rooms” which

contain pedophile pornography. In Denmark, the government has dropped all legal

barriers against pornography for adults. Explicit magazines cannot be sold to anyone

under the age of eighteen, showing some morality is still intact in America today, if not

entirely.

The Church’s stand on pornography is clear and obvious. The Catholic Church is

adamantly against all pornography. Pornography “…offends against chastity because it

perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave

injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one

becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others.” The church’s view is that

“…civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic

materials. God has willed that the expression of sexual ideas be within the confines of

marriage. No man has the right to violate the will of God, and pornography is a violation

of this will. It is an unnatural act, a immoral human act.

The responsibility of the church over the matter of pornography is to be a clear,

constant teacher of the faith, especially objective moral truth. We live in a time of

permissiveness of moral violation and confusion. It is a time that demands that the church

be a clear voice of morality and its role in society.

Pornography and wanton violence in the media can blind people to the divine

images, the very likeness of God, in the human being. We are made in the image of God,

and to portray that image in a perverse and corrupt way for the enjoyment of others is not

only immoral, but goes against our human nature and purpose, to know, love, and serve

God in this life, as well as through to the next. To willingly disobey God and pervert one

of his creatures is sacrilegious, and a grave offense against God.

We must educate those in Catholic schools as to why pornography is wrong, and

why we must fight against it. Combined, the voices of all morally fit individuals in society

would be loud enough to cause the communications industry to cease the senseless

proliferation of immoral content into society. Everyone must resist the temptation and not

give in to the grip that pornography has on a lot of people in this world.

As it is now, in an unscientific poll, if offered just $100,000 to pose for a

pornographic magazine, almost fifty percent of high school students would seriously

consider performing this immoral and unspeakable act.

Pornography has many obvious as well as not-so-obvious consequences within

society. Pornography has the power to ruin marriages, destroy trust, excite a person to

the point of sexual crime, or create an unhealthy view of human sexuality and the opposite

sex. If a married man purchases a pornographic magazine and looks through it, he

involuntarily loses some respect for the opposite sex, by reducing them to an object to

satisfy his sexual desire. If the magazine is discovered by his wife, she loses faith in him,

weakening their marriage bond. If the magazine is discovered by one of his children, male

or female, that child begins to form an unhealthy view of sexuality.

Any person allowing themselves to be used to satisfy the sexual desire of another is

sinning by causing another person to lust. There own perception of self-worth is

diminished, as well as their perception of healthy sexual expression.

Dress is another thing that causes a person to lust. If a young woman is dressed

immodestly, it causes a man to desire her. Therefore, it is very important that every

person dress modestly and not care what others think of their dress. When a young

woman dresses immodestly, this may suggest that she is “easy” and some people will

look down on her. The restaurant chain Hooters is a perfect example of a bad taste

in dress. The restaurant features scantily-clad women working as waitresses giving food

to men who are only there to lust after them. Over seventy-five percent of the men are

married.

On society as a whole, pornography acts as a moral anesthetic, deadening us to the

effects of immoral life. Pornography is as much as a drug as alcohol is. When you get

started on it, you cannot control yourself, and is hard to quit. The view of moral human

sexuality is greatly harmed, when a person can walk past storefronts boasting “Girls, Girls,

Girls”. Society as a whole needs to re-think its position on pornography, as well as human

sexuality entirely. Also as individuals, we need to think about how our actions in regards

to human sexuality affect those around us, as well as ourselves, our relationship with

others, and our relationship with God.

Pornography is accepted in the world today. Any movie theatre won’t hesitate to

show a movie with pornography depicted in it if it will sell. The same goes for any

bookstore which sells magazines. You can go into any major bookstore chain and see a

Playboy magazine on the rack next to Sports Illustrated. Now what does this suggest?

It suggests that Playboy is as widely read as Sports Illustrated.

The movie industry has glorified pornography in many movies. Movies are the

main source of pornography, along with magazines. Any person can see pornography

when watching one of the pay channels on the television late at night. This provides the

oppurtunity for anyone with access to these channels to see pornography. Many children

have access to this. Also anyone with a computer and access to the internet has the

oppurtunity to pick up some pornography. Some restrictions should be made on these

things but people say that it violates their First Amendment right.

Pornography is something that shouldn’t be around. Women shouldn’t be

portrayed as sexual objects, but as an individual. Pornography is a very bad thing

that severes your relationship with God and is a big sin.

————————————————————–

31d