In this day and age you’d think some basic things that have plagued our society would be addressed.   We all know tobacco is bad. There’s an entire organization specifically dedicated to raise awareness about the harmful affects of smoking. (Truth campaign, anyone? I love their ads!)

Well there is something that is as old as the oldest profession, that has always loomed in the dark corners of society, that most people rather not talk about but we all know is there.  Ok, that’s not entirely true, a lot of people talk about it all the time.  Because it’s become “normal,” and “acceptable.”

I’m talking about pornography.

From mainstream movies like Don Jon, to scientific studies conducted introducing the concept of the Coolidge effect, it has become glaringly obvious that pornography is NOT a GOOD thing!

Especially in this day and age of high speed internet where not only is any amount of pornography available at our fingertips, but in blazingly fast internet speeds.  The speed here is important because if you click on the hyperlink I have on the Coolidge effect it says:

“What happens when you drop a male rat into a cage with a receptive female rat? First, you see a frenzy of copulation. Then, progressively, the male tires of that particular female. Even if she wants more, he has had enough. However, replace the original female with a fresh one, and the male immediately revives and gallantly struggles to fertilise (sic) her. You can repeat this process with fresh females until he is completely wiped out.

This is called the Coolidge effect—the automatic response to novel mates. It’s what might have started you down the road to getting hooked on Internet porn.”

It has become SUCH an issue that organizations have popped up because pornography addiction has become rampant, and we are desperately trying to fight it.  Organizations such as Porn Harms, Fight the New Drug, and Porn Addicts Anonymous to name a few.

So if we consider that high speed internet gives an opportunity for the Coolidge effect (ie many “partners” in rapid succession) but READING an erotic novel takes more time, effort, and commitment, causing the reader to have longer dopamine releases then why, OH WHY, do people STILL call them “romance novels,” or “adult novels” when it truly is nothing more, than porn?

If you click here it leads to a site called “Your Brain on Porn” and it addresses this specific issue from a recovering addict, who states,

“I find erotic stories can be worse than porn in some ways, as it takes much longer to read a story, which can lead to very long dopamine rushes. They are often broken up into multiple parts, which the author keeps building upon, leading to an endless need to keep returning for a fix.

You think binging for hours for that perfect shot in a video is pathetic? Imagine searching for that “perfect” scene in a sea of words. Looking for that one sentence in a 20 page story that will scratch that itch. Not in this story? How about the next one? The next one.. Years of my life have been wasted chasing the fix in erotic stories. sigh“

So porn is bad.  No matter what form it’s in.  Video. Pictures. Novels. You name it, Porn = BAD.

Now that this poorly written porn fan fiction has turned into a movie, women all over the country are falling over themselves to go watch it.

Pause

Hold that thought.

If you are familiar with the “war on women” you know it’s a common phrase to denote certain conservative policies that really aren’t about women’s rights, as much as they are trying to push their own liberal agenda of “free health care” i.e. contraceptives, abortions.

Unpause

The 50 Shades series has recently released the movie version of the first book.  In it, the protagonist begins a relationship with a man who introduces her into the BDSM lifestyle.

BDSM AKA Bondage, Dominance, Sadism and Masochism. Or Sadomasochism. I’m only going to address the latter two.

If we go to the DSM IV {Diagnostic Standards for Mental Disorders] (I know the DSM V has recently been published, and I’ll address that in a minute) it states the diagnostic criteria for sexual sadism are

“A. Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving acts (real, not simulated) in which the psychological or physical suffering (including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the person.

B. The person has acted on these urges with a nonconsenting person, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.”

(Sounds like something we should all know the definition of… something called RAPE.)

Masochism was actually only addressed in the DSM III, and taken out of the DSM IV, but part of the definition in the 3rd edition is this:

“The masochist deliberately provokes, solicits, and incites angry, disparaging, and rejecting responses from others in order to feel on “familiar territory”: humiliated, defeated, devastated, and hurt.”

The full description is here.

 

Now as far as the DSM V is concerned this 5th edition has made a drastic change and has begun using an umbrella term called “Paraphilic Disorders” to identify any unusual sexual behaviors, but ONLY (get this) IF the person “feel(s) personal distress about their interest, not merely distress resulting from society’s disapproval; OR ha(s) a sexual desire or behavior that involves another person’s psychological distress, injury, or death, or a desire for sexual behaviors involving unwilling persons or persons unable to give legal consent.”

Essentially saying that no matter what your sexual exploits are, it’s no longer  a “mental disorder” unless you feel personal distress about it.

…

Unless you feel personal distress about it.

So now the medical community is saying that you only have a sexual mental disorder IF YOU feel personal distress about your own actions?!?  (ie a rapist only has a mental disorder if he or she feels bad about being a rapist.)

That is giving the green light on so many different things that I didn’t even want to address in this post but now feel obligated to. I mean, do I even have to say it?

Pedophilia, necrophilia, beastiality.

(And if anyone reading this even attempts to rationalize pedophilia, necrophilia, or beastiality, then you are clearly not a rational person, and I will not dignify any attempt of rationalization with a response.)

Back to the topic at hand, sadism is “intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving acts (real, not simulated) in which the psychological or physical suffering (including humiliation) of the victim is sexually exciting to the person. ” And masochism is WANTING to “incite…feel(ings) on ‘familiar territory’: humiliated, defeated, devastated, and hurt.” (Once again, rape.)

There is nothing about either of these behaviors that is healthy. There is nothing about either of these behaviors that is “average.”  There is nothing about either of these behaviors that is GOOD!

I had somebody try to “explain” it to me one time, because they were participants in the life style.  This person tried to tell me how BDSM is about love and trust.  Someone please tell me how causing psychological or physical suffering or wanting to feel humiliated, defeated, devastated and hurt has ANYTHING to do with LOVE!?!

Love.  Compassion. Tenderness.  Intensity. Passion.

Psychological & Physical harm. Humiliation. Devastation. Defeat.

These feelings cannot healthily co-exist .  And anyone who is excited by the BDSM lifestyle does in fact have a mental disorder.  Regardless of what the DSM V says, if you have these kind of feelings and they are NOT causing you personal distress, that should be even MORE of an indication that you need help with some deeper lying issue than someone who DOES have personal distress over it.

So while the mainstream media is trying to play this lifestyle off as acceptable, exciting, and “normal,” newsflash; IT’S NOT!!!  And the fact that they are promoting it as such and encouraging this type of behavior is the true “war on women.”

 

-Joseph Forefathers