There's Nothing 'Adult' About Porn

A repost from two years ago...

Over the summer we got Sky Sports so I could watch the Ashes (I still think I should ask for a refund).

One morning I turned on to watch some highlights and caught the end of  'Aerobics Oz Style.'  I immediately laughed remembering the show from my youth in Australia.  As I recall, the whole thing was basically an ultra-gay fitness instructor in ultra-pink lycra teaching ultra-fat housewives to star-jump.

But it seems Aerobics Oz Style has changed.  The gay guy in spandex has been replaced by 5 supermodels - part silicone, part botox, part peroxide, all legs and boobs and hair and teeth - gently stretching in the Australian sunshine.  I stood there holding my remote - my laugh of recognition turned into this boyish burble.  "Hur hur hur- the purdy laydies with their purdy hair, hur hur."  After a few seconds of slack-jawed, misty wonder I snapped out of it and changed channel.  But I couldn't help asking myself - What just happened?  How did I go from grown-up to idiot boy in the space of 5 blondes?

Well here's my quick answer: when women uncover themselves to serve passive men some fundamentals of masculinity are reversed. Or to put it another way: pornography turns a man into a child. (I'll leave to one side women and porn here - though that needs thought too.)

Think about it:  A man is meant to go out from himself and win a bride.  He is meant to proactively serve an actual flesh and blood woman with real and costly service.  He - and he alone - is to uncover her nakedness (a common biblical phrase, see Lev 18) and enter into a deep oneness, not only of flesh but of soul and spirit also.  The woman is to be discerning, to give herself only to the one man who lays down his life for her.  She is to warmly receive him (and him alone) with single-hearted faithfulness.

But then, what happens with the man who indulges in pornography?  He doesn't go out from himself but turns in on himself.  He pursues nothing but his own desires.  He woos no-one but himself.  He is not the active servant, he is the passive recipient.  He doesn't uncover her nakedness, she indiscriminately uncovers herself.  He doesn't engage her mind or heart but merely consumes her flesh.  This image calls forth nothing from the man except his credit card details.  And the habituation of this selfishness will only shut him down further.  Pornography turns a man into a child.

Which is why the male icon of the porn industry pads around his mansion in his jim-jams.

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