Published: March 01, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Study: Christians Consume Online Porn as Much as Everyone Else
By Robert Paul Reyes
Feminists and fundamentalists may rail against porn, but the adult entertainment business is thriving in spite of its detractors. In fact it's one of the few recession-proof industries, everybody wants to get their freak on in good times or bad times.
Porn is ubiquitous, you can see adult images on the Internet, cable and satellite TV, iPods and cell phones. I just hope that not too many people will stop reading my article after a couple of paragraphs in search of porn.
Pornography isn't an evil enterprise, there's nothing inherently wrong with filming people having sex. However many porn flicks tend to objectify and demean women. Bot today there are many ladies producing and directing adult films that don't treat females like mere sex machines whose sole purpose in life is to pleasure men.
There are niche markets in the X-rated business that pander to the worst instincts of humankind, and all intelligent and reasonable persons will condemn child porn and bestiality and other unseemly sub-genres of porn. When I say that I don't see anything wrong with porn, I'm referring to mainstream pornography.
Watching porn in the safety of your living room or bedroom is a safe alternative to engaging in promiscuous sex with strangers. You may get a computer virus by downloading porn, but you won't get AIDS or the clap.
Even the most vehement critics of porn are avid consumers, with the possible exception of feminists. Sixties style women radicals are the most joyless bunch on the face of the Earth, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of them are celibate. But Christians of all stripes love them some porn, and researchers have the credit card charges to prove it.
"Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.
However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.
The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16680-porn-in-the-usa-conservatives-are-biggest-consumers.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news
Those upright Mormons in Utah love porn queen Jenna Jameson as much as they love Joseph Smith. When some Christians ask themselves "What Would Jesus Do?", they are contemplating which porn Web site Jesus would prefer. Now I know what to get my fundamentalist friend for her birthday: Debbie Does Dallas
It's an integral part of the human condition to be fascinated and obsessed with sex, and I'm glad that evangelicals are getting in touch with their inner freak-a-leek.
All I ask from the religious community is that they stop being hypocrites, and quit condemning the porn industry. Instead of making blanket condemnations of the adult entertainment business, they should be more focused in their criticisms. For example I would agree with them if they complained that porn film soundtracks are really cheesy.
However I do have to give Christians props for curtailing their porn viewing habit on the Lord's day:
"Church-goers bought less online porn on Sundays - a 1% increase in a postal code's religious attendance was associated with a 0.1% drop in subscriptions that day. However, expenditures on other days of the week brought them in line with the rest of the country, Edelman finds." http://www.newscientist.com
Today is Sunday, but I'm not an evangelical so let me end this essay so I can search for some life-affirming mainstream porn produced by intelligent and empowered women who aren't uptight feminists.
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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