Internet porn is the most important technological development of our generation. Whether or not this conclusion disturbs you, it’s difficult to ignore the influence of easily accessible graphic content.
Accessibility aside, the Internet’s ability to repackage the world’s most lewd sexual behaviors into digestible chunks has altered our perceptions of sexual normalcy. The ease of obtaining and enjoying porn has blurred the line between fiction and reality.
I am reminded of the 1976 film Network, in which Howard Beale proclaims, “You’re beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal.... This is mass madness, you maniacs.... We are the illusions!”
This confusion becomes more pronounced as we struggle to internalize the filming of a real event for fictionalized purposes.
I blame porn every time I catch myself making another Brazilian bikini wax appointment with the sadistic cosmetologist who laughs when my eyes start to tear up. Centuries from now, scholars will wonder why the ancient world’s most advanced civilizations allowed hot wax to be poured in close proximity to the body’s most sensitive regions only to gain attention from the opposite sex.
“What do men expect? You’re not a prepubescent girl or a porn star.” No, I’m not a porn star, but in an age when most adolescent boys were exposed to Jenna Jameson’s breasts years before the real thing, girls embrace stray hairs at their own risk. Given the difficulty of finding a YouPorn video catered to women’s taste, I’m baffled by the extent of public baldness amongst college-age females.
The parade of Seven jeans and Longchamps on the plaza is an easy trend to observe, but a proclivity toward South American-inspired waxing is a little more difficult. Yet the majority of my peers have embraced the razor and waxing appointment. They possess some innate knowledge that this agonizing routine is as necessary to sex appeal as frequent mascara application and a low-carb diet. What bred these universal expectations?
The sexual pressures bred by pornography overexposure are not limited to the female gender. The natural endowment of the average male porn star should require little discussion or analysis. Although most females do not use pornographic units of measurement to determine their partners’ bedroom worth, pornography equates female orgasm production with sexual mastery.
If one were to survey the few dirty videos geared toward women’s pleasure, every cinematically produced sexual encounter would end with an earth-shattering orgasm. Consequently, real world hook-ups have yielded the fake orgasm to meet these mutually inflated expectations. Artificiality infiltrates reality.
What’s the difference between illusion and authenticity? Between ACES and Facebook, we have the opportunity to observe any possible explicit act. Porn doesn’t use stunt men to distinguish between the real and the constructed.
When it comes to sex, how can we possibly determine what is real?
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