Chris Hedges on Pornography, discussing Empire of Illusion on BookTV

[DutchLiberal]

90. That sounds an awful lot like holding rap music and video games responsible for juvenile delinquency

When I saw my first 'porn' at age 14 (soft-porn/'erotica'), I knew it was all fiction and fantasy anyway. It wasn't real. Those people were paid actors, they were playing out a script and what I saw on tv was nothing like reality. Just like I knew that you couldn't really do all the things in real life that Bruce Willis was doing in Die Hard! My parents and my teachers taught me the difference between fiction and reality. And even if they hadn't, I would've known from all the teenagers' magazines I read when I was in high school. Like I wrote upthread, topics regarding sexuality are common in Dutch teen magazines. I don't know how that is in the US, but my guess is that subject is 'verboten' out of fear that parents will complain. I also hear and read constantly about sex education being outlawed in high schools across the US and abstinence-only classes replacing them. Add to that the whole hoopla you've got over there with the 'purity rings' and 'virginity pledges' and it is no wonder American teenagers are clueless about sex and go to porn for the answer.

But the wrong conclusion to draw from that, is to blame porn for misconceptions children may develop about sexuality. That's like saying violent video games and rap music are responsible for violent crime among teenagers. It's a conservative and reactionary point of view. It's the general attitude toward sexuality in the US which strikes me as very unhealthy and repressive. If you listen to what's going on in the US regarding birth control and similar topics, it's no wonder kids don't get educated about sex. They're being taught it's filthy. And frankly, with the attitude of 'second wavers' toward sexuality, they're contributing to it. Then they turn around and blame porn for it. That's too easy. That's demagoguery.