Before I even get into this, let’s be honest for the next five minutes. Oh come on, don’t deny it, we’re all curious. We’ve heard someone or the other talk about this, and we’ve been interested to find out what this elusive term actually looks like. We’ve secretly seen it in the depths of darkness in our room when no one is around, with just the light of the laptop for guidance. We’ve looked with gaping eyes at those CDs with the rather explicit covers that were being sold on that lorry at that particular crossroad, and we’ve wondered how exactly is it that people have bought them.
Explore the psychology behind human curiosity as we delve into the question: ‘Why Do People Watch Porn?
If nothing else, we’ve all accidentally clicked that link in a side tab in our browser, or just by mistake reached one of those videos, and we’ve seen it through, before quickly shutting the window in shock. Come on, don’t lie. You’ve already clicked on the link to read this article, so might as well admit it.
Pornography, as a dictionary defines it, is “the explicit representation of sexual activity in print or on film to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.”
Bah, too mechanical a definition, if you ask me. For a lot of people, Porn is a solution to many of their life’s difficulties. When you really think about it, it is sex, or sexual acts, amplified into a somewhat larger-than-life form, and made into a visual medium. However, contrary to popular belief, everyone doesn’t watch porn just for the one reason. Yep, there’s actually more to it than that. Here’s some more reasons as to why we grab that laptop/phone/tablet/CD/magazine every chance we get:
Pressure Unload
All puns aside, this is probably the most seemingly obvious reason that most people watch porn for. It’s been a long day, week, month, and year? (You may need some help in that case) – the easiest solution for people is often to turn on the sexy goodness and take matters into your own hands, relieve the stress and the pressure building up. A lot of the moral police will frown upon this, but let’s face it, that doesn’t really change much. Too lazy to make your own fantasy, just borrow someone else’s! Masturbation *cue the gasps* and porn go hand in hand, and really, why is that a bad thing, as long as it doesn’t affect your real-life relationships? Besides, for a lot of men, nothing beats the idea of watching two women going at it, and few real-life situations give them the opportunity to witness this, so porn has to do, for want of a better word.
Huge Industry
The pornography industry is a billion-dollar industry. As is Hollywood and Bollywood, just saying. If we can watch those films, why not these ones? What the world calls ‘blue films’ aren’t just about sex. Like any other film, they have plots, script, sets, costumes (albeit a minimum of those), dialogues and actors. They have stories too, even if they do revolve around sexual lives of people. Try not to dismiss them as two hour long clips of just sex; they may have something more than just that.
Teacher, Teacher
No, this one isn’t about the thousands of teacher-student pornos out there, though it very well could be. Porn, on the whole, serves as a teacher to a lot of young, uninformed people out there. As it is, our country isn’t exactly known for its stellar sex education, so most people do resort to using graphic pornographic material to learn from. If real life hasn’t been kind enough to let you experiment, porn allows you to watch, observe and learn all you want. So all those freaky things that you’ve always wanted to try with your partner but don’t exactly know how to, porn provides you with enough material to learn from. Or if you’re one of those blushing virginal kids who’s preparing for the sexy times to come soon, surely you’ve Googled tips on what your significant other may like under the hood, and how to go about it, and surely that search has led you to a video or two. No shying away from your teacher, right?
Together in Loneliness
If you’re the kid who always put a little salt in their hot chocolate and wonders why more people don’t do it even though it tastes so much better this way, you’ll understand this one. No, this isn’t about using food in bed, though that too. It’s an established fact that the same conventional ideas about intimacy don’t work for everyone. Different things, different scenarios and different ideas turn people on in different ways. Porn allows people with very specific amorous needs to find not only satisfactory wanking material, but also gives them a sense of community, of not being alone in their lust. So if BDSM is your thing, fear not. If sex with people in uniforms is your thing, fear not. Want science fiction and sex in the same frame? That can be worked out too. If specific aged women from specific ethnicities float your boat, don’t worry- the world has something for you as well.
The Freak Show
We’re a rather condescending species, you know that, right? No matter what other people are doing, we scrutinise it and find a way to be dismissive about it. It can be clothes, it can be their work, it can be their company, but the sheer variety of ways that we look down on people amazes me. Hard as it may be to believe this, people watch porn for that too. There is torture porn, alien porn, wrestling porn, anime and Hentai porn, animal porn, machine porn- the list is honestly endless. They look at the kinds of porn being made, the various genres and inevitably, after watching most of it of course, say “Jeez, people are into such crap nowadays. How can something like this even turn you on?!” Well it does, and there’s nothing that you can do to “reform” that.
If nothing else, bored editors watch porn as research to write articles like these, and no one can fault you for work, right?
Pornography is a veritable Pandora’s box, lying there on its own, with people all across the world poking it time and again. There is no denying that it has piqued our interest at least a few times, if not more. Most of us have taken that secretive peek, and either enjoyed it and come back for more, or have been completely flabbergasted and still come back for just one more peek. It’s okay, I’m not judging. However, the need to treat it as a taboo needs to go. Porn presents limitless opportunities- for enjoyment, for relaxation, for human needs, for entertainment, for study and for much more. Why not just accept it as that?
– Columnist, DU Times.
