Have you been warped by pornography

• One-third of Pornhub’s 15 million UK monthly viewers are women, figures show
•  There has been a dramatic increase in Porn induced erectile dysfunction. (PIED)
•  Young women are become less sexually active due to Porn.
•  There is a distinct increase in aggression towards women as a result of Porn.

Concerns have been raised in recent years about young men watching explicit content and the potential harms it can cause, including erectile dysfunction and depressive disorders.

Roughly half of twentysomething men watch adult material at least once a monthly, according to recent surveys. But experts have now sounded the alarm over the damage that viewing pornography can have on women.

Recent studies have shown that women aged 18 to 24 are having 20 per cent less sex than women their age were a decade ago.

‘The biggest change we’ve seen over the past few years is that pornography has gone from something that was considered naughty to the norm among young people,’ says Anastasia Sprout, a psychotherapist specialising in porn addiction.

‘It’s almost as if women are seen as sexually empowered and confident if they like it – it’s viewed as a positive thing. And if you don’t watch it, or you don’t like it, there’s something wrong with you.’

The ‘increasingly extreme’ nature of adult content today is making young women fearful of sex. She says: ‘Women who watch it a lot become worried about the way their bodies look or perform sexually, because they’re making constant comparisons.

‘Often, they don’t want to do what they think is expected of them, because it is painful or just isn’t pleasurable for them. This all leads to overwhelming anxiety and a sense of dread about sex, and this can lead to pain during sex.

Studies have shown that adolescents who look at a lot of these sorts of images – enviably trim women wearing revealing underwear – are more likely to develop anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

Recent research revealed that at least 40 per cent of the free-to-view adult content online features some sort of verbal or physical aggression directed toward a woman.

Brain imaging studies have shown little difference between the genders in how they respond to pornography. Watching explicit videos triggers a surge in the brain chemical responsible for reward and pleasure, dopamine, which also happens during sex. But over time the brain becomes desensitised to dopamine’s effects, meaning porn users must seek out increasingly unrealistic or extreme content to feel good. This also means they find it increasingly difficult to become aroused during real sexual encounters.

What is happening here?

During the reign of Queen Victoria, men would become aroused at the mere sight of a woman’s limb. Over the decades, we have been presented with an ever-increasing display of nudity and sexual connotations everywhere we look. In recent years, we have reached a point, where I personally, would spend more time looking at a woman who is beautifully dressed, than one who is naked, that is not good, in fact, that is catastrophic.

For those of us who grew up in the pre-porn days, the odd glimpse of a nude in a magazine, or even the PE teacher’s bra showing, would drive us in a frenzy of arousal, but sadly, that is not more.

Today, similar situations would simply inspire a will to create a video for TikTok, to humiliate, or just for fun, the respect for intimacy and all matters sexual has died, but with that, there are far deeper concerns.

The evidence indicates that there is a distinct difference between those who began to watch porn as an adult and those who began watching porn during puberty, or more importantly, those who have experienced orgasm frequently by watching porn, before they ever have sex with another person, but what effect does this have?

Once again, the evidence suggests that in adults, watching too much porn, can reprogramme their mind, to the point that they are aroused more by porn, than by sex with another person. This eventually causes a serious problem, which is called ‘porn induced erectile dysfunction’ the inability to maintain an erection without porn.

The reality is, that real-life intimate encounters are not like porn, there are no perfectly scripted words, no professionally choreographed actions, no orgasms on cue and the entire event is fluid (pardon pun) as it is, or rather, should be, about the mutual expression, exploration and emotion of two people, that definitely is not the case with porn.

The danger is, that although adults who immerse themselves in porn, can be badly affected, no only becoming addicted, but also eventually suffering PIED, but in these cases, the problem can be overcome, with something called a ‘sexual reset’ which I will cover later.

However, in teens, the damage is far more sinister, as young minds are still being shaped and developed, therefore there is sadly a growing number of young people whose entire sexual chemistry has been moulded by porn, leaving them with a serious form of PIED. The tragedy is, that once again, the evidence suggests that in the case of teens, a sexual reset is not always successful, sadly, due to the fact that porn has been set in their psychological development, the damage is increasingly permanent.

In addition to this, the violent undertone of porn is also having a damaging effect in the manner that young people interact when they are intimate. Using the word intimate, is almost inappropriate nowadays, as there is less and less intimacy, and increasing degree of emotionless hedonistic gratification.

Where young women are concerned, they too are being seriously affected by porn, with around a third of those watching porn being women, they too are being serious damaged by its effects, but in a different manner.

Women are allowing themselves to be sexually programmed by porn, being slowly indoctrinated with the submissive aggression that is so prevalent in sex in the modern day. The consequence of this is that women feel that they need to be willing participants in acts of aggression, degradation and acts that they neither find arousing or pleasing. With women constantly feeling that they are being directly compared to the perfectly choregraphed porn stars, many go on to be diagnosed with a condition called vaginismus – a fear of vaginal penetration, which causes the muscles to tighten involuntarily.

As a result, young women are gradually finding sex unattractive, as I have already said, women between the ages of 18-24 are having sex twenty percent less than a decade ago. This is catastrophic, as we all have fundamental needs, which are not to engage in a replay of porn, but to be intimate, to feel and share emotion, to be both physically and mentally aroused. The increased abstinence from sex, or the increase of aggressive sex, which leaves women feeling inadequate, abuses or degraded, this is causing serious psychological problems for young people.

There is a growing online movement devoted to giving up masturbation and even sex for extended periods – typically around 90 days. There is an organisation called ‘Nofap’ described as a community-centred sexual health platform, designed to help people overcome porn addiction and compulsive sexual behaviour.

Here are some of the benefits of Nofap:

Countering the argument for nofap is the well-documented benefits of sexual activity, including masturbation, on health. The release of endorphins during orgasm leads to positive feelings. Masturbation can help relieve built-up stress and assist relaxation, improve sleep, boost mood, release sexual tension and cramps and even allow a better understanding of sexual wants and needs. And in men there may even be some possible protection against prostate cancer from regular ejaculation, although this relationship is not fully clear yet.

Psychological reasons

In fact, masturbation as such doesn’t appear to have any negative effects on sexual and general health, and particularly in relation to testosterone levels in men. The problem may lie in excessive masturbation and attitudes towards self-pleasure.

Personal perceptions of masturbation can cause psychological effects that impact testosterone levels. A build-up of anxiety and depression can occur if someone has feelings of guilt following masturbation. This guilt could be based around feeling immoral, such as being unfaithful to a partner or having religious conflicts.

A study investigating the motivation for abstinence found that the reason was mostly due to attitudes, specifically the perception of masturbation as unhealthy or wrong.

This stress from prolonged guilt, anxiety and depression can cause decreases in testosterone levels and in these situations, abstinence may relieve such feelings and could then theoretically lead to a testosterone increase. Maybe, then, the argument shouldn’t be about changing the tendency or frequency of masturbation, but more about improving understanding and attitudes towards sexual behaviour.

That said, abstaining from masturbation could help people with destructive porn addictions. Taking a break from pornography, masturbation, or even sex altogether for an extended period of time could help break the cycle, or reboot from porn addiction.

As the benefits in the table suggested, abstinence in some actually lowers sex-drive, but why is that? Despite the common misconception by men, that women who have abstained from sex for a long time, may be in dire need of it, that is not always the case. Unlike men, with women, the case is often that continued abstinence results in a lessening physical need for sex, although the need for intimacy and emotion frequently remains. Therefore, a sexual reset for women can be significantly more difficult than in men, as the damage is ingrained far deeper than in their emotional needs.

Once women have subjected themselves to the sexual in doctrine of pornography, they struggle to remove the images that they have seen, they have flashbacks during sex, they feel that they will be compared, judged and cast-off as frigid, if they do not willingly and wantonly engage in the aggressive and degrading acts that they have watched online.

In conclusion, our society is being badly damaged by porn, this is not a case of young boys swooning over the photo of a naked lady, this is not the heightening of sexual desire through interaction, or any natural means.

As many of us know, on an evening out, interacting with someone who we find attractive can have a very positive effect on us, it can arouse us, excite us, it can ignite the flames of passion that lay dormant within us, inspire us to become passionate, sexual and driven by the ways of Eros, which is not only perfectly healthy, it also contributes to our emotional and psychological health.

This is not even about attraction to another person, it is not about intimacy, it is not about affection, this is an infernal demon that is implanted within us and nurtured by some of the worst emotions that humanity is capable of. We are not in need of immoral promiscuity; we are in need of natural human interaction that feeds the very instinct that drives us.

For over a century, women have fought a very difficult battle, just to be empowered with the right to be treated equally. Yet over the last two or three decades, we have seen this honourable and much needed battled skewed by sexuality. Younger and younger girls vying for sexual attention, flaunting themselves on social-media, in some sort of perverted exhibition. Is it not ironic, that many women’s movements objected to the famous beauty contest, ‘Miss World’ that we all used to love in the seventies, but they seem to be distinctly muted at the ubiquitous self-imposed exploitation of young women, who have been pressured in to feeling that they are judged on their sexuality, their lack of morality and ultimately, their lack of self-respect?

Is this a case of society being so engrossed in rights for women, that it has forgotten that respect for women is even more important?

There has never been a more urgent need for us to address this, as individuals, communities and societies as a whole, because if we continue along the current trajectory, we face a serious social breakdown in the very near future. The incidence of abuse of women is increasing, sexual assaults are increasing, the basic lack of respect for women is in freefall, this is not how decent societies should function.

Those of you who have read ‘Brave New World’ by Aldus Huxley, will already be aware that these are clear indications that our society is rapidly moving in to an age of hedonism, that may or may not be by design, but one thing is for certain, everything that decent people sacrificed their lives for in the past, is under threat, as we steam-roll in to moral bankruptcy.

I will cover my view on social structure and the correlation between democracy, hedonism and collectivism in another article. What does this have to do with pornography? I would say that the relationship between pornography, hedonism and dystopian totalitarianism is closer than you may realise. Yes of course, this is in my opinion, one which I am happy to step out on a dangerous ledge to articulate, but not only am I willing to do so, I feel that I am obliged to do so, because the minute that we feel compelled to accept the narrative, to accept that which we are presented without question, is our complicity in our own destruction.