Thursday, March 28 2024

“If looking at another woman’s breasts at the bar makes your husband go to
work in a better mood, what’s so wrong about that? If watching a video on
the Internet puts him in a good mood, why stop him from watching it? It’s
not like he betrays you with a screen, it’s not like he’s betraying you
with just a look… you should be more open to it.”

A psychologist who deals with couple therapy spoke these words; that is
from a person who is supposed to value a woman’s dignity and her
relationship with a man.

Not everyone will agree with him; probably many of his colleagues will
dissociate themselves from his assesment, but it is a fact that there are
specialists with similar ideas and ordinary people who accept, without any
doubt, the malpractice, or rather, the social plague of pornography.

Yes, social plague, because pornography is more than a vice. Pornography
implies a distorted and insane way of approaching the opposite sex, a
distorted and insane way of thinking about the man-woman relationship.

You cannot defend a practice that makes the woman a mannequin – just a
faceless person.

You can’t think of helping a couple to find each other, telling the bride
to “tolerate” her husband looking at other women and above all looking at
them as objects of pleasure and not as human beings to be respected. And
the reasons are countless.

We have already talked about pornography as a disease, as an

obsession that destroys those who use it and marriages because it
“raises barriers” between spouses.

But what would you think if pornography also encouraged violent or strongly
demeaning behavior towards women?



Pornography and violence against women: a concrete relationship

As it is well explained in

this article

(in which the link between porn and violence is analyzed in a clear and
detailed way), more than twenty years of studies reveal that there is a
connection between the consumption of porn and the social plague of
aggression against women.

The article reports useful and alarming data collected by the FightTheNewDrug.org Association
(which specifically deals with analyzing the impact of pornography on the
person, on relationships, and on society and attempts to offer ways of
healing). Well, a study carried out in 2010 took into consideration the
content of the 50 bestselling porn videos, and it was discovered that in
304 sex scenes, 88% included physical violence, half of them verbal
violence; only one in every 10 scenes didn’t contain any kind of
aggression. In 95% of the violent scenes, women responded to aggression
with approval and smiles.

In short, these videos show violent men and women humiliated but happy,
encouraging in the viewer’s mind – continues the research – the perverse
idea that violence within an intimate relationship is normal or even
positive.

And something dramatic happens: porn has the ability to affect the brain,
creating a powerful association between violence and sexual excitement.

Reality tells us that people who use porn rape.

Other than harmless pastime

Yes, porn favors violence against women by the fact that by approaching
certain contents we end up seeing women as an object, therefore deprived of
freedom to respect and personal dignity. Because with an object you can do
whatever you want.

This alone would have been sufficient enough reason to warn our children
about the use of pornographic material.

Unfortunately, however, the problem is even more serious when analyzing the
contents of the videos, which enhance violence as an almost indispensable
erotic element.

So be careful.



The fight against pornography is part of the fight against violence

Violence against women is a problem deeply felt in our society, where we
are increasingly seeking to affirm gender equality and to defend the rights
of every person, regardless of its connotations.

It is not difficult, therefore, to feel outraged when the news brings to
light a new case of aggression of a man towards a woman.

And there are many initiatives working to defend victims of violence or
prevent this kind of situation. Associations, reception centers, law
enforcement agencies, and people involved in the legal field try to help
women recognize potential perpetrators, to denounce those who use violence
against them, and help to improve the laws so that there is better
protection.

There is a lot of excitement in the field of communication. Let’s think
about the slogans posted in many cities: “There is only one way to change a
violent boyfriend: change your boyfriend,” “If he beats you, he does not
love you,” “Do not leave a man tomorrow who is better left today.” These
are just some of the messages shown in the metro stations and on buses.

We then think of celebrities who take a public position in defending abuse
victims.

All this certainly favors a positive change in culture.

Yet, we must acknowledge the fact that together with these initiatives, in
our society there are behaviors – tolerated if not promoted, as we have
seen in the case of the aforementioned psychologist – that denigrate women
and favor a man overpowering her. This is also the case with pornography.

Fighting pornography therefore means fighting violence.

Enhancing intimacy to reduce cases of violence

We cannot be champions of the defense of women and then joke about or close
our eyes to a practice that is so closely connected with the phenomenon of
gender violence.

We cannot consider “excessive” those women who do not accept compromises,
who want porn out of their marriage.

We cannot educate children about respect for women if we do not forcefully
reject anything that favors them being overpowered.

It is not enough to post good slogans or stigmatize rapists, it is not
enough to change the law: it is essential to start with educating, to value
affectivity, and to reject everything that tries to smear it.

Of certain phenomena, especially if large and complex, we usually only see
what is most evident, and it is difficult to get to the roots of the issue.

But remember that we only ever see the tip of the iceberg, while the rest
remains hidden in the sea.

And it is the ice that is unseen that sinks ships.

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