"Porn has taken over people's minds and is corrupting the youth," is the most typical justification we hear when news of rape and the victim's graphic brutality emerges. The news makes headlines for a month or two and then fades into obscurity. The question to be asked here is whether porn encourages rapists or whether patriarchal society does not hold rapists accountable.
Rape has been for millennia, long before the porn industry existed. The victims were largely women and children, just as they are today, but they were treated unlawfully in those days. Survivors were forced to marry their attackers or were murdered by family members in numerous nations, including India, Nepal, the Middle East, Pakistan, other Asian countries, and certain European countries. Children were among those raped by their uncles, brothers, fathers, and grandfathers. Their moms also played a significant role in silencing them and pushing them toward lifelong trauma in the name of protecting the family's honor.
If we leaf through our history books and try to trace rape culture in any civilization, I'm sure many historians will agree that it was one of the most widespread practices among many racial and ethnic groups. In the Middle Ages, barbarism was at its peak. Kings fought among themselves for land and wealth, the conqueror took over the kingdom of the other, and the women who remained were raped and put into harems for prostitution. A girl at the tender age of eight was also considered a woman and eligible for marriage, so even they weren't spared if their husbands lost the war.
To put down a rebellion in the twenty-first century, the government sends forces to not only slaughter the crowds at gunpoint but also rape the protesting community's women and children to undermine the people's morale. In 1958, when Sri Lanka was conducting ethnic cleansing of Tamils, Tamil women were raped by Sinhalese mobs. The Sri Lankan army got involved in this heinous act in Jaffna, in 1960. Rapes occurred again in 1977, 1981, and 1983. Following the outbreak of conflict, the Sri Lankan Sinhala armed forces raped Tamil men, women, and children as a collective punishment for their support for the LTTE. The rapes continued during the conflict, and other organizations such as the Sri Lankan police and the Indian Peace Keeping Force were also implicated. Sri Lankan army forces continue to systematically rape and abduct Tamils to this day. The rape of civilians by the army is one of the porn genres, but again the question arises, whether the armed forces are influenced by this form of porn movie or whether this genre mirrors reality. Think about it.
Porn began under the alias blue/adult movie. Softcore sex, which is akin to the current abusive sex known as hardcore porn, was formerly the most popular genre in film. According to a Sexual Alpha poll, over 6 in 10, Americans have watched porn at least once in their lives. Porn videos are among the most popular videos on the internet, accounting for approximately 35% of all downloaded videos. The top three porn websites receive 5.81 billion visitors every month, with 134491 hits per minute, implying that users spend an average of 18 minutes on these sites. In a sex poll conducted in Hong Kong, 75% of people aged 15 and under have watched porn, and 15% were under the age of nine. Men watched porn more than women, according to a poll undertaken in Germany, the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. Most people under the age of 13 were introduced to porn by unintentional means such as pop-ups and advertisements, or through peer pressure.
It is said that the only three things by which a person is known and remembered are their thoughts, words, and deeds; these are the foundation of one's character. Let us now dissect these three essential foundations into cognitive-behavioral phases in the construction of an individual. A character is created when a habit is developed; a habit is formed when a certain action is repeated continuously, and the action occurs when a thought takes position in the person's head after thinking about right and wrong. To generate a thought, a person must engage with his surroundings, both physically and virtually.
Thought + action(words) + habit(deed) = character.
The brain is designed to capture and memorize what it sees visually, which is why films are utilized in classrooms to assist students to grasp and memorize the content being taught. We recall films and music videos much better than dialogue or lyrics because our brain easily captures the aesthetically calming gorgeous craft. Impressionable people who are heavily impacted by specific characters in the film begin dressing like them, and some begin adopting them into their daily lives as part of their new personalities. When they become emotionally involved, particularly when they are angry and seek to frighten their adversary, they begin to recite the character's dialogue. Even though reality conflicts with their perception of events, in their minds they are the hero and a formidable force to be reckoned with. This type of behavior is thought to be a person's way of dealing with reality and soothing their injured ego from not having the life they want. According to these people they deserve the life that was shown in the movies and today's case what a podcaster/influencer says. The majority of the time they are living their fantasy life, but time and again the reality keeps breaking their castle in the air. The deliberate decision to not discipline one's mind can lead to blaming their environment, family, intimate partners, particular gender, age, caste, race, or animals, and channeling self-loathing in violence against them as their punishment for impeding his/her progress.
We indeed are what we eat. The food we consume impacts our physical health, which is inversely proportional to our mortality; similarly, what we see and hear is nourishment for our brain, and the type of images we input influences our thought processes and mental wellness. A person seeking to improve their mental, emotional, and physical health goes through motivational films, yoga and healthy recipes, meditation, and mindfulness videos. He or she will spend less mental, emotional, and physical energy on unfavorable video content and discussions.
What we see is what we think, what we think is what we speak and act, and what we speak and act is what we are.
Subtle sexual harassment by males of all ages has been mentally decriminalized by patriarchal culture, directly encouraging them to commit more major sexual harassment in the future. "Boys will be boys," the most prevalent narcissistic statement of patriarchy's guardians, is constantly used in every community, in every corner of the planet, to defend men's culpability for their acts and words. Social media has become a tool for expressing society's biassed treatment of sexual abuse cases and the age-old victim blaming of survivors, but the disadvantages of globally accessible tools like social media are being skillfully used by men, who portray themselves as elegant, classy, and people with strong character, to target women and young girls, who use the platform for fashion, dance, and entertainment. They make videos about these girls and women with derogatory remarks. They label them as "characterless" women who are contaminating boys' and men's minds by sharing these films; others even go so far as to say they are "asking for it." The possible expression used primarily by rapists, pedophiles, and their allies in society to justify sexual violence against females.
Social media and search engines operate on a simple algorithmic basis. The SEO keywords typed by a person aid in the acquisition of a feasible topic related to their search and the continuous input of these words is stored in the algorithm, which then continues to come up as suggestions when the user logins to these sites and types the first alphabet of the similar word he has been doing consistently. The irony of this hypocrisy is that these men are the ones who religiously watch these women's videos, like, comment, and follow them, and then on a page promoting women athletes and motivating females, they complain about those women by comparing them to women from different professions and lives and blaming them for corrupting young boys and men's morales, which they don't have to even begin with. If they had any they wouldn't be watching it in the first place. To add icing on the cake if anyone, man, woman, or transgender, confronts them about their hypocrisy, they resort to verbal abuse, xenophobic slurs, taunting/questioning one's masculinity, prostituting themselves to embarrass the other person, rape threats, and finally slut shaming.
Men and boys that exhibit this type of behavior are typically from two kinds of families; 1, where their mother is treated as an object rather than a human being who should be respected by their fathers. Although many despise their father and harbor contempt for him in the first scenario, they become their father or, in some circumstances, worse than him. Hatred is a quick way to become the person you despise. The process of loathing and diverting oneself from the path of becoming a wholesome person is subconscious, but the choice to continue acting like them and following in their footsteps, particularly the meaning of "real men," and merging it into their identity is conscious. 2. Because he is a boy, the youngster was treated like royalty and protected from all forms of reprimanding their disruptive behavior. When their precious child was confronted, the parents lied on their behalf and acted aggressively toward anyone who opposed them and said "No". Children imitate their parent's behavior, and in the second case, the youngster learns that taking responsibility for their conduct puts their privileges as a man in peril. When challenged, he would spout a web of lies and then turn violent to subjugate his victims if they dare say no. Unfortunately, throughout the world many view violence as the symbol of power, but it is actually a disease.
Porn addicts number around 200,000 people in the United States. Hentai, a Japanese anime porn, is the most searched genre on Pornhub. Hentai was one of the most searched words on porn sites in the United States, while MILF was the most searched and watched in India, the country where all mothers are supposed to be seen as God. The UK has its fair share of porn consumers, with 21% of viewers being women. The top searched word by women users was Lesbian, while the most searched and watched category by men in the UK was Teen.
You are also one of those who accidentally came across a porn video or you voluntarily watch it. There are people around the world who watches it, but how many people have raped their wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, stranger, mother, father, siblings, neighbors, children, teens, in-laws, relatives, friends, colleagues, grandparents, friend mother/father, teacher, boss, employee, authority, maid, salesman, debtor, and so on? How many people intend to rape? Are you among them? Or are you the one who uses victim blaming to justify rape?
If you aren't any of these, will you be the one to accept responsibility for your actions and ask others to do the same?