A Dozen (or so) Alarming Trends Directly Related to Porn Addiction, Pt. 4
As I reflect on my past of porn consumption/addiction, I cannot recall one moment of mutual consent.
In fact, the experience of viewing pornography is discordant on every level. While enticing one with passion, delight, and satisfaction, pornography is cloaked in power, domination, and self-absorption.
In short order, it’s all about consumption. The consumer both consumes and is consumed!
Porn consumption (a.k.a, viewing) ignites an insatiable urge to, first visually and then physically, consume the flesh of another. Once we give in to this desire, we are sacrificed on the altar of power, control, and self-inflicted slavery.
I often utilize Zombies as a metaphor for the personal (and ultimately societal) enslavement that porn addiction causes. I do so because a common characteristic of Zombies is the insatiable desire to consume another human being, becoming less human with each bite!
Becoming less human is what precisely happens in the heart and mind of someone who is consistently viewing or is addicted to pornography.
The Fantasy World of Porn Births a False Narrative that Erodes the Mind, Soul, and Body
The fantasy world one creates by viewing porn on a consistent basis erodes the mind, soul, and body. This erosion then causes one to see everyone and everything as objects to be used to satisfy the distorted but demanding sexual urges porn viewing and addiction nurtures.
Viewing others as objects designed to quench our distorted desires is known as dehumanization: the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.
Others become a means to an often perverse and distorted end.
There are, at least, two primary areas where we see the dehumanizing effect of viewing porn:
- The one viewing.
- The one being viewed.
The Personal Form of Slavery for the One Who Views
The personal enslavement of the one viewing porn is, perhaps, the most obvious yet often overlooked result of pornography addiction. If you are hooked on porn, then you understand what I’m saying. If you’re living with someone who is hooked on porn, then you, too, know all too well.
I remember how extreme porn’s pull was. As crazy as this may sound to those who have never struggled with compulsive behavior, I never felt like I had a ‘choice’ in the matter. It was as if I couldn’t get away from porn.
When I was alone, I’d find myself wanting to view porn.
When I was tired, I’d find myself looking for opportunities.
When I was stressed, I’d find myself running to porn for relief.
It was my drug of choice in my hopelessly shortsighted efforts to alleviate my pain.
I was trapped and couldn’t get out.
Then, of course, when I viewed porn, I’d go through the all-too-familiar addiction cycle:
- Shame/Guilt: “I’m bad because I did this again.”
- Anxiety: “What if I get caught?”
- Hide/Cover Up: I relentlessly tried to cover my tracks
- Stress: “Will I ever break free?”
- Medicate: I began to feel the urge to medicate the pain.
- Trigger: A moment of weakness that sent me spiraling back into porn consumption.
Second verse, same as the first.
It’s a debilitating and unsustainable lifestyle.
And, of course, the addiction always – always – takes you further than you ever intended to go and keeps you longer than you ever intended to stay.
It took years for me to break free. My journey out of porn was and is a combination of ‘grace and grit.’
While porn traps the one viewing, it also enslaves the one being viewed, particularly women!
The Perpetuation of Slavery for the One Being Viewed
While porn is gender inclusive in its exploitation (and has laid the groundwork for gender fluidity, by the way), there is one gender – an entire subset of humanity – in particular – that is bearing the brutal wounds of dehumanization: the female population.
Noticeably, pornography has reshaped the life-giving rhythms of human sexuality into experiences of sexual objectification, domination, subjugation, and inequality. These realities are experienced at nearly every turn and evidenced in virtually every form of pornography consumed on a daily, moment by moment basis.
For example, porn’s real contribution to society is to position and promote women as tools to be used to fulfill the distorted sexual desires of men.
Ironically, such female subjugation and objectification has given rise to the dominatrix or female who wields power and control. The rise of the dominatrix is, however, another result or societal trend that is directly related to porn addiction. It’s a shameful porn-produced gimmick to the problem of female subjugation and dehumanization by the porn industry.
Indeed, female subjugation holds pride of place in the porn industry (see, http://pornharmsresearch.com/2011/04/increases-violence/)
In such a world, sex becomes an experience of conflict and competition, bondage, and control.
The Porn Industry is, in fact, producing one of the greatest ironies of human history: The irony of a world which is seeking equality (rightly so) all the while perpetuating the fundamental rhythms of inequality in the most meaningful moments of our lives. The phenomenon of 50 Shades of Grey is perhaps the most explicit example of the acceptance of sexual subjugation within mainstream cultural forces.
This mixed messages buried with the ‘Grey narrative’ are so clearly evident, yet so willingly overlooked and, unfortunately, enjoyed by the very people the narrative exploits.
We need to break the cycle and work toward the end of porn addiction in our lifetime.
Next week (or in the next post), I’ll consider the most destructive reality of them all: the reality that porn addiction is the soil in which the global human slave-trade (the third largest criminal industry in the world) has grown.
Disrupting to Renew!
