Mormons declare porn a public health hazard

[peacetraveler22]

A Utah Senator recently declared a crisis in the State by introducing a new bill that describes porn as a public health risk that must be curbed to "protect our families and young people." The core essence of the bill is that porn is bad - very bad. You can read the full text of the bill here. In the Senator's view, porn "perpetuates a sexually toxic environment" and "is contributing to the hyper-sexualization of teens in our society." Basically, porn treats women as objects and commodities for the viewer's use, teaches young girls they are to be used, and condones men as the "users." In the Senator's mind, all of this porn culminates into an epic disaster because it lessens the desire of young Mormon men to marry, leads to dissatisfaction in marriage, and promotes infedility.

So what should Utah do about it? The Senator isn't trying to ban porn, but advocates for Utah to take steps to conduct more research to measure the detrimental impact all these sex videos and images cause to the mostly religious State, where over 60% of residents identify as Mormon. He pushes for education to curb and prevent addiction, and better policy making, but of course doesn't offer any concrete means to achieve these policy changes. What do I think?

First, this is an example of why I hate organized religion. It often embeds all kinds of neuroses in children from an early age, because the primary focus is always on what you CAN'T or SHOULDN'T do, rather than what you can achieve. It doesn't take a trained psychologist to understand the mind fuck this creates for some people, because as humans, we shouldn't live as caged animals, suppressing all emotions and expression. The end result of all of this brainwashing that sex is bad, porn is bad, etc. is that Utah has one of the highest online porn viewership rates in the entire USA.

All of these archaic views about sexuality were also forced upon me in my religious school. Dances were forbidden in my high school, and there were no proms because teachers were concerned that boys and girls would be in close personal contact. This slight exposure to another's flesh could lead to impure thoughts, or God forbid!, an innocent kiss between two teenagers, or something more carnal and pleasurable. We were to save ourselves for marriage, and spread our legs for only one man in life...All of it, a form of mind control, like most religious dogmas. They are meant to manipulate the weak, who are unable to think for themselves, or too lazy to do it. I'm not talking about faith here, but about organized religions like the Mormon church. I recently saw a classic bumper sticker which emphasizes the point.



Overconsumption of anything is bad - porn, alcohol, tobacco, food - all of it creates addiction, which is never healthy. Personally, I'm totally immune to porn. I've written before that I have to watch a lot of it for my legal job, and almost nothing shocks me now. Away from work, I rarely watch it and when I do, I can only be enticed by "romantic porn." Yet it has has absolutely no impact on my sex life, and I've never once felt the need to mimic the wild sexual antics of any porn actress in my bedroom. Porn - it is a fantasy, and we all need some type of fantasy to survive in a very cruel world. However, I do agree that we live in a hyper-sexualized world now, and this is very bad in my view. Porn is only one small component of the equation that led society to this point. About this topic, I'll write in another post...

On the subject of women being treated as a commodity because of porn - you are what you allow. If a woman portrays herself as a commodity, she will be treated as such. With or without porn.

What do you think about all this? Is porn a problem, or has it had a negative impact on your life or relationships?