How Porn Impacts Us, Part 2: Addiction

In part 1 of this series I wrote a bunch of nebulous crap about control groups and pseudo-science, and wrote very little about actual porn. This despite the fact that I joked about three pornstars opening a “clinic” where they give away free sex, which would have been a great jumping-off point for a fantasy at the very least.

Now let’s talk about a topic that many people probably think about when they ponder the effects of porn on society: addiction. Is porn addictive? And if so, how does the addiction play out – what are the symptoms?

How Porn Impacts Us

Hint: We don’t know.

Let’s talk about control. No, not in a sexual context – maybe later, my pretties – I mean in a scientific context. We’ll start with an example.

What’s the Deal With Wet Girls?

I don’t understand why porn has such a fascination with wet girls.

Porn (And Sex) in the 21st Century

To a certain extent this post is a “me too” post, piling on to what Jamal Registre said in a post on Boinkology 101. (Boinkology 101 is Lux Alptraum’s new blog, and I’ll be following it closely. It promises to be quite interesting.) Registre’s main point (if I may oversimplify) is that his phone is so tied into every facet of his life – including his sex life – that he’s having trouble learning how to cope with the new technology. Or, at the very least, integrate it with his sex life. I especially like the anecdote about him setting the phone down at work only to have the phone’s Live Tile feature start displaying his sex pics for his colleagues to see. I can easily see that happening.

And I feel his pain.

Rape Culture

Although I just wrote a post in which I admitted that I enjoy rape porn, I also tried to make it clear that I’m against actual rape. Not that I’m trying to claim I’m a good person, I’m not, but even a terrible person can be against rape. (I’m half tempted to get t-shirts printed up with that message: “Even a terrible person can be against rape.”) In fact, saying that I’m against rape should be a no-brainer.

Porn I Like: Rape

So I’ll just admit it up front rather than working up to it: I like rape porn. This includes porn in comic, story, or even live action form (when done well). I think this is an extension of the fact that I like the rough stuff, taking it to yet another level, but I couldn’t say for sure.

Why Do We Like Porn?

Did you ever do that thing where you think about a particular word or phrase for so long it starts to lose all meaning? Think about the word... well, the word “word.” Just mull that one word over in your head for a bit.

Word... word... word... word... Word is, actually, a word, which, were I smoking pot right now, would probably blow my mind. Word word word. Wordwordwordword. Word is actually “sword” but without the ‘s’.

If you keep thinking about it long enough the word “word” will stop meaning anything, and you’ll sort of have to reboot your mind, and think about something else for a while before coming back to it to remember that “word” is actually a word that has meaning.

Reasons Porn is Better Than Sex: Food Court Woman

It’s remarkable how similar this post is to a previous one. And frankly, since there’s still no actual sex in this post, these titles are getting more and more misleading as time goes by.

I was having a semi-work-related meeting with a colleague in a food court close to the office. We were sipping our iced drinks from Starbucks, talking about some personal issues and some work issues and just generally avoiding work before a long weekend. As we talked my eye wandered to an attractive woman lugging a large shoulder bag and a shopping bag in our general direction. To my surprise, she sat at a table right by us, though there were plenty of open tables around. It was sort of like this:

Line Between Fantasy and Deviant Perversion?

I sometimes write posts on this blog about Porn I Like and Porn I Dislike (not to mention Porn I’m Indifferent To). When I write about porn I dislike I usually include the following introduction:

There are definitely types of porn that I do not like – that I dislike. One could even go so far as to say that I hate some types of porn. If I ever have any blog readers there may well be disagreements; porn which they love and have a fetish for but that I think is gross or sick or disgusting. They may think the same thing about porn that I like. All I can say to that is: I’m right, you’re wrong, get over it.

That last sentence is the most important part of the introduction, even though it’s mostly (but not completely) tongue in cheek. I’m definitely going to put it to the test in this post and some future ones I’m thinking of writing.

Thin Girls

I’m not going to lie, I like thin girls. I fully realize that our emphasis on being skinny is problematic for women and girls in our society, that we’re giving them terrible body image issues with our emphasis on being thin, but it doesn’t change the fact that I prefer thin girls over fat ones. I am part of the problem, I admit it.

Weird... But Kind of Fun, I Think

I found a video on Vimeo from Cédric BLAISBOIS which is worth a watch, even if it’s not your usual thing.

Porn I Dislike: Gay

There are definitely types of porn that I do not like – that I dislike. One could even go so far as to say that I hate some types of porn. If I ever have any blog readers there may well be disagreements; porn which they love and have a fetish for but that I think is gross or sick or disgusting. They may think the same thing about porn that I like. All I can say to that is: I’m right, you’re wrong, get over it.

It may be surprising, or it may not, that I’m not into gay stuff. When I was a bit younger no straight guys were into gay porn, only gay guys were. I have a feeling that might be evolving and there may be more men exploring gay porn, whether out of interest or just purely out of curiosity. Or dudes are just confused by the whole “emo” thing, which is 90% gay but doesn’t call itself that. Either way, it’s not something I’m into.

To be clear, this isn’t some kind of statement, or moral objection. I don’t expect to impress anyone with my straightness, and I don’t judge anyone for being gay or being interested in gay porn. Actually, it would be easier if I were into dudes (gay or bi), because it would be easier to get laid. (I used to live in the gay neighbourhood of my city, and I got hit on a lot. I’m just sayin, I must have a great ass. That’s how it works, right?)

I also don’t plan on meeting any of my readers, so I don’t need to impress any of you. I’m just an anonymous Blogger account, not a real dude.

The gay thing doesn’t turn me on and neither do it’s different incarnations, meaning that I’m also not into bisexul porn. I’m seeing quite a bit of it lately, where there’s some kind of group sex going on with various people fucking and sucking – I love the whole orgy thing – and there will be a guy sucking another guy’s dick, and it kinda turns me off. Or there’ll be some cuck-related porn with a caption that the girl wants her husband to come and eat the cum out of her pussy; that turns me off too.

Actually, any idea of a guy eating cum turns me off. That could be the reason I never tried harder at #autofellatio; the idea of getting a free blowjob whenever I want is appealing, but not the idea of swallowing my own cum.

And let’s be honest: A blowjob where the cum isn’t swallowed? It’s just not as good.

Reasons Porn is Better Than Sex: Real Women Don’t Have Sex on the Subway

I was on the subway a while ago, watching TV on my phone but glancing up to scope out the women getting on whenever we stopped. (Don’t think that I was just doing this because I'm a porn connoisseur, and therefore a pervert. The reality is that I was doing it because I’m a dude, and we all do this. Some of us are more subtle about it than others, but we all do it.)

Feminism (long)

Alternate Title: Feminism? (long)

Let’s go back in history for a second. Waaaay back. Not quite to the primordial soup, but almost. People who subscribe to the theory of evolution – many Americans don’t but most of the civilized world does – believe that for much of human history, the vast majority of it, we lived in a world which was harsh and unforgiving, in which the strength of men was needed to protect women and children from the elements and from predators. Men slew beasts, built shelter, and mastered fire. (Actually it doesn’t necessarily have to have been men who mastered fire, it could have been women, but we usually lump the mastery of fire along with the slaying of beasts and building of shelter and whatnot.) Later on men also mastered the art and science of farming, to which women may very well have contributed but it took a lot of muscle power to make it happen, so it was still very much a male-dominated type of work.

Yes, Porn is Addictive

I’m terrible at coming up with names. If you want help naming a blog, or a band, or that novel you’re writing, I’m not the person to ask for help. So when I was toying around with potential names for this blog I floundered for a while before I came up with Impenitent Porn Lover (which I’m still not happy with, but too late now), and the URL pornzealot.blogspot.com (which I’m also not happy with, but... again, too late now). Most of the names I came up with had the word “addict” in them, and frankly the name I probably would have been happiest with would have been something like Porn Addict. Plain, simple, and to the point, just like me.

Why is Porn so Fucking Racist?

Let me say, right up front, that I do NOT expect porn to lead the way in bringing society forward. On ANY issue. In fact, when it comes to gendered issues, if anything it brings society back a few steps – which works out nicely for me, since I’m a dude; I get to continue running the world, and women are learning to become voluntary sex slaves. But that aside, there is one area where porn lags behind the rest of society more than any other: race.

Condoms in Porn?

I’ll be honest, I haven’t put a lot of thought into the ballot measure in California mandating condom use in porn (Measure B). I’ll be even more honest: I don’t think at all about protecting the safety of the actors, I think only in terms of whether seeing condoms will impact my pleasure in any way. (The porn actors and actresses can probably care about their own safety better than I can.) Will it take me out of the scene? Will it impact the facial at the end? This is as far as my thoughts go. Sorry, I’m a pretty shallow guy, and even more shallow when it comes to porn.

Spoiled by Variety

I’ve already written about Rule 34: “If it’s on the internet, there’s porn of it.” I’m sometimes amazed – pleasantly so – about the sheer number of subjects about which there is porn. If you’re looking for something general you’re guaranteed to find it, if you’re looking for something specific you’re likely to find it, and even if you’re looking for something very specific and arcane your chances are still pretty good.

PSA: Spanking

Alternate Title: Excuse to Post a Bunch of Ass Pics

In a recent post I gave a Public Service Announcement (which was really just a long-ish rant) about pictures on Fantasti or Smutty of faces with tags indicating they are facials. If I had any readers they probably didn’t get the point, however, since I sprinkled a bunch of pictures of pretty girls in that post and us porn lovers get distracted by sexy pictures. Look, here’s one now:

As it happens, that photo illustrates the point I want to make in this post: it’s a picture of a cute girl in some sexy lace panties, but it’s not (as the tags on Fantasti would indicate) a picture of a spanking. Worse yet, the tags have some incestuous connotations, which is a pet peeve I’ve written about before. (Damn you, incest freaks! Stop besmirching sexy photos with your sick fantasies!)

Porn I Like: Futa

I’m going to start this post by splitting a hair, and hoping that others split this particular hair in the same way that I do: in my mind there are two types of “chicks with dicks” porn, which are 1) she-male, in which a person has both male and female genitalia (usually a dick and breasts), and 2) #futanari (or #futa for short, although Wikipedia seems to make a distinction between the two terms), in which a person is pretty predominantly female but with a cock. In some scenarios, especially in comics, a character will start out 100% female and then grow a cock.

The reason that I make this particular distinction is that she-male porn doesn’t turn me on (in my mind I sort of put it into the gay category, though I know it’s not), whereas futa does (in my mind I sort of put it into the lesbian category, though I know it’s not). Obviously this is a pretty fuzzy distinction – in both cases the characters have both male and female parts – so you could probably also say that if it turns me on I call it futa and if it doesn’t I call it she-male. That would be a bit reductionist, but not wholly incorrect either.