My Response to “100 Reasons Not to Look at Porn”

Well, with exactly what kind of photo did you expect me to head off a post about pornography? Did you really think I would risk my blog’s more-or-less good standing as being family-friendly by having a nudie shot right up top for everyone to see? Anyway, a shaggy dog seems quite appropriate considering this post weighs in at around 8,000 words. Don’t worry, it’s long but fairly painless — most of it is in numbered point form.

I was sniffing around the interwebs and came across several references to what looks like a now-defunct comment thread entitled, “100 Reasons Not to Look at Porn”. As near as I can figure it, this page dates back to February of 2010 and was part of a site that had been around since at least as far back as 2007. TeensAgainstPorn.com described itself thus:

“Teens Against Pornography is an online community where teens who are struggling with sexual purity can seek advice, prayer, and support.”

My best guess is that the page was put up as a project for a church’s youth group that had a number of members struggling with resisting temptation to look at porn. Apparently someone came up with the idea that the group’s members could support each other in their quest to become porn-free by sharing their own private reasons for thinking that staring at porn is not the best way to spend time. I guess they opted for an on-line forum to discuss this issue instead of bringing it up at meetings because…

• An on-line presence they might reach a wider audience than just the Wednesday Night Meeting crowd, and…
• It’s very handy to be able to hit a bookmark linking you to some quick help should you be on the computer and suddenly get tempted to check out some juicy porn, and…
• Visiting a website is more anonymous than speaking out in front of other parishioners at a face-to-face meeting so only God knows that you’ve been sinning, and…
• No one is going to see you pop a woody just thinking of all that porn you’ve been peeking at.

A flaw in having an on-line support group for this kind of thing is that after reading everyone’s reasons for not looking at porn it only takes a couple of quick keystrokes to go find some porn of your own, a pretty easy route to “relapse”. It’s been a while since I was a teen but if I remember correctly, everything reminded me of sex so telling me about the evils of sex would only get me thinking of sex and the only possible way to distract me from the topic would be to throw a plate of food in front of me (unless a cute waitress was the one bringing me the food). So even discussing porn and putting it in a negative light will get teens thinking about sex, and for those teens whose sex lives depend entirely upon porn,  they’ll naturally start pining for porno.

Another flaw is that the site assumes that God, and specifically the Christian God, doesn’t want us to get sexually aroused outside of the procreation-with-a-legitimate-spouse arena and that porn peekin’ is something we should be discouraging people from doing. The way I see it is if God doesn’t want us to have premarital sex and looking at naked photos distracts us from this, He must score porn (featuring consenting adults as voluntary subjects and nobody’s getting hurt, of course) lower on the sin scale, right?

On the “100 Reasons” page there was no real guidance given to these young people, unless it got stripped away during the archiving process or was on another of the site’s pages. A smut-troubled teen might find support in the knowledge that there are other young people who also enjoyed looking at porn. This in and of itself wouldn’t have suggested to me when I was a teen that looking at nudie shots was immoral, but it would kinda make me feel that wanting to see naked pictures of women was normal, at least as measured by its popularity among my peers.

Another thing that really bothers me about “100 Reasons Not to Look at Porn” is that we are probably smack-dab in the middle of The Golden Age of Free-flowing Erotica, and these teens were trying to spoil the fun for themselves and others. We members of Western Civilization can now flip a switch and browse through a staggering amount of smut for free in the privacy of our own homes, without fear of the cops busting in. The sheer number of models willing to strip for the camera suggests not only that they don’t see this vocation as being particularly stigmatizing but also that their appearing nude in photos and film is voluntary, otherwise we would have heard reports on the news about squads of kidnapper-pornographers roaming the countryside abducting top-heavy women and photographing them against their will. So except for a few exceptional cases and the question about what Divine Morality has to say about it, porn doesn’t really hurt anyone, is hugely popular, and just about anyone can get their hands (or retinas) on it without same.

The contributors to “100 Reasons Not to Look at Porn” didn’t know, or simply didn’t care, what it was like to try to get quality explicit erotica in days gone by. In the first half of the Twentieth Century anyone posing for photographic erotica was practically a social outcast and my understanding is that it was mostly produced underground by the criminal element. A matter of fact in places where possessing or producing any kind of sexually explicit image was illegal anyone involved in its production were criminals by definition!

Then the Fifties rolled around and a magazine called Playboy took nude models out of the shadows and printed their real names right there on the naked photos! Not many people paid attention to the names, for obvious reasons, but they were there. After that breakthrough, printed “men’s magazines” increased in popularity and respectability but you still had to go out and buy one or risk a pummelling if you snuck a peek at your older brother’s porn stash that was cleverly hidden in plain view on the lower shelf of his bedroom bookcase (but the dirty magazines’ thickness and saddle-stitched-with-staples binding were dead giveaways), or so I’ve heard. [*ahem*]

In The Seventies a fourteen-year-old boy could take his paper route money to a kiosk in another part of town where no one knew him and he was unlikely to ever pass with his mother. The express purpose of the voyage to this far-away newsstand was to buy a magazine that would reveal all the marvellous mysteries of womanhood. While the ticket for the bus in which he rode back home (possibly with the magazine hidden inside his winter coat) only cost 10¢, the magazine ate up a good portion of one-week’s earnings. You can still get printed dirty magazines today but now you have to be eighteen or older to buy them. On the other hand you can see just about anything your heart desires for free on the internet (and they have no way to check your age), and nobody really cares.

This veritable pornucopia of easy-access erotica cannot last forever. Mark my words, sometime very soon someone is going to devise a tax that makes you pay for internet porn and they’ll find an ironclad way to prevent you from seeing it until you’re old enough to vote. If you like looking at arousing shots of naked people in unnatural poses, you better hurry and see it now because the Religious Right and the tax inventors are going to shut the whole thing down. Enjoy it while it lasts, lads. If they get their way one day our grandsons will have to get their jollies from the unmentionables sections of department store catalogues like I used to do before I got that paper route (hypothetically speaking, of course). Anyways, we had better get back to “100 Reasons Not to Look at Porn” if we’re ever going to get out of here.

Hopefully the original commentators have long since sorted things out but just in case they, or others with similar concerns and/or objections to porn, are still troubled, I’d like to help them out. So let’s go through these “100 reasons to not look at porn” and I’ll add my thoughts in blue. I’m very much looking forward to seeing your thoughts on individual points or even the greater issue at hand in the comments section.

By the way, I’ve just cut and pasted the whole thing without correcting any of the original commenters’ errors and I won’t be marking them up with “sic” — in some cases the errors add perspective into who was contributing to the thread. Here we go!

1. It takes you away from God. Right off the top you’re hitting me with a heavy one, eh? If you were on the original comment thread listing reasons why porn is bad, you have a conscience and God probably gives points for that. Besides, wasn’t it God who hardwired your brain to want to look at naked people in the first place? That makes porn at least partially part of His Plan, doesn’t it? I don’t lose sleep over stuff like this.
2. It supports the Mafia, running most of the industry. You’re grasping already. Maybe the mob was a big player in the porn industry in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s but where are you getting your information that they’re “running most of the industry” nowadays?
3. It achieves absoluetly nothing good. Not true, without porn a lot of models and actors would not have the well-paying jobs they have, plastic surgeons would lose a lot of business, not to mention the ruinous effect a pornless society would have on the lingerie and weird costume industries. Think of all the second rate script writers, camera operators, and lighting techs that would otherwise have to find employment within the wonderful world of fast food. If you’re talking about the consumer, maybe if you didn’t look at porn you’d be out seducing someone, and I think God takes off more points for a physical seduction than for just looking at pictures and imagining stuff.
4. It takes time away from studying. Depends on what you’re studying. Students of photography, cinematography, anatomy, etc. could derive something useful out of looking at nudie shots. How much more studying could you get in if you cut out sports, personal hygiene, talking to your family, and church? Just because something takes time away from studying doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. Get it?
5. It becomes an addiction. Not necessarily. I have no trouble keeping my porn viewing to under 6 or 7 hours a day and there’s no reason why you couldn’t achieve the same kind of balance in your own life.
6. Well-dressed people are more beautiful (not saying more lustable) than naked people. To people who have leather, latex, cosplay, or complicated lingerie fetishes, yes. Which is your favourite? But I think for the rest of us regular folk it depends on the person we’re looking at — nothing I’ve seen Pamela Anderson wearing makes her look half as good as when she’s naked and, on the other hand, I’m perfectly content seeing Jackie Gleason fully clothed.
7. It trains us to look at people only for their physical aspects. Really? Does watching sports only make you respect people who can run fast? Do you go to the doughnut shop and think doughnuts are the workers’ whole lives? Don’t you think the bus driver who takes you to school would like to get his hands on a Lamborghini?
8. It creates a false notion of self-reliance. Explain in 500 words or less how self-reliance is a bad thing in any other aspect of life, how self-reliance suddenly becomes a bad thing in this solitary case, and then close off the essay by telling us what the hell self-reliance has to do with looking at porn.
9. It distracts you from more important things in life. “It” doesn’t distract you, “you” are avoiding those “more important things in life” and seeking out the porn. If it wasn’t porn you’d just waste your time playing video games, napping, or playing Parcheesi. Don’t blame porn for your own teenage irresponsibility!
10. The images you see in porn will be burned in your brain and pop up randomly, whether you want them to or not. Are you looking at porn while dropping acid or something? I’ve never heard of purely-porn flashbacks so I think you’ve made that one up. It would be great if it were true, though.
11. It literally alters your brain whether you’re aware of it or not. What’s your point here? I thought absolutely everything you experience alters your brain and if you’re unaware of it, what’s the problem?
12. It creates expectations that are unrealistic for future spouse. You’re just not thinking this through, are you Son? Sure, you can look at porn and be disappointed when your hypothetical future spouse doesn’t boink you back into the Stone Age like a professional nookie practitioner or you can watch the pros going at it, pick up some pointers, and be less of a disappointment to your bride on your wedding night. Maybe your finesse will inspire her to [insert your dirty dream here] you without her ever having seen a moaner flick. Your sexy skills might even bring you guys closer once she recovers from the love coma you put her into.
13. It makes you feel guilty. Only if you let other people lay a guilt trip on you. Besides, are you announcing to the world that you look at porn and then get the guilts? Try keeping certain tidbits of information private and you’ll not be opening yourself up to others’ judgement. Here’s a rule of thumb for you: “Anything that happen between your knees and your belly button is inappropriate conversational material except with a certified doctor who you are asking to fix a problem or a with very good friend who has already done something to that area of your body that you want to remember forever.” Grow up and shut your mouth.
14. It ruins your innocence. Only the first time you see it and only if you stumble upon it by accident, but since we’re chatting about it you must be already past the “Golly, why are the naked man and lady wrestling in a sudsy bathtub?” stage. You know what they’re doing and you like to watch, you normal little boy, you.
15. It ruins other peoples innocence. (The people in the porn). Sure, there are some really sick people out there who seek out innocents and film them being raped (and they should be locked up forever) but the vast majority of porn actors are just people who don’t mind being filmed having sex with people they hardly know, and chances are that they had a lot of sexual experience before even considering doing it in front of a camera. Some are exhibitionists who get a real charge out of knowing that people are going to see them doing the humpty dance on film. Some people aren’t scared of heights, and others don’t mind speaking in front of a crowd… if we watch films of them doing this stuff are we contributing to the destruction of their innocence, too?
16. It kills your self-esteem. How so? Are you not “measuring up” to the porn people you’re looking at? Does watching The Olympics kill your self-esteem because you cannot do the stuff they are doing (or not as well or for as long a time)?
17. It makes you lie to cover it up. Didn’t we already cover this in Comment #13? You look at porn because you have a natural desire for sex — and even just to look at stuff that arouses you — and you lie so that other people (who also get turned on by porn, by the way) will not try to make you feel bad for satisfying your natural curiosity.
18. It kills your spouses future self esteem if they find out. Didn’t we already cover this in Comment #16? Sure, they might feel insecure if you’re paying more attention to porn than to them. Why not try to involve them in your little hobby? Maybe porn will open up all kinds of new things to do and talk about for you both! Or if your spouse doesn’t like you looking at porn, don’t look at porn and pay more attention to them.
19. It’s not art. Nor artful. Now you’re being closed-minded. I’ve seen some fine porn in my day and sometimes wondered why the photographer didn’t open a portrait studio until I realized that their art is just that, nude portraits. Besides, there are plenty of worthwhile and respectable things that people do that have nothing to do with art. [This commentator numbered his comment#18, just like the person before him, being the first but not last person to screw up the manual numbering of these points. Whatever was so distracting that caused him to cipher 18+1=18?]
20. It puts un-helpful thoughts in your mind that might not be there otherwise. As I already pointed out in my response to Comment #12, porn can be helpful. And life is all about constantly learning and getting new thoughts into your head. Besides, ask any guy who has never seen porn if they get sexy thoughts. If they do, you’ve invalidated your own comment and embarrassed yourself. Besides, if a thought scratches an itch and doesn’t hurt anyone else, what is the harm in it?
21. It opens up the door to all kinds of other temptations. Yeah, sure…. porn is the gateway sin. Porn leads to masturbation, which leads to kissing, which leads to premarital sex, which leads to homosexuality, which leads to lying, which leads to murder. Can I interest you in joining my spiritual pyramid scheme?
22. It gives money to those making it. Money makes the world go around, Charlie. If there was something you were good at doing, wouldn’t you want to get paid for doing it if it gave pleasure to others? Would porn stars doing it for free make it more respectable in your eyes?
23. It’s emotionally and physically destructive to those involved (or often trapped) in the making of porn. Didn’t we already cover this in Comment #15? I don’t think I’ve ever seen coerced porn and, if I did, I don’t think it would convey the same kind of fun that models who are into what they’re doing bring to a photo-shoot. The people in it look like they are there voluntarily. If you come across porn that you think depicts the victimization of the models, report it. I certainly would.
24. You can get computer virsus’ from it. Yup, and some say they’ve even caught viruses from porn sites, too. I got one opening my e-mail once and the message didn’t even claim to have porn in it. Those virus guys should get sent to jail for ruining porn like that.
25. You can get arrested for looking at some of the bad stuff. Yucky. That’s true but you could also get arrested for doing some of the stuff stuff that The Bible says is OK for you to do, like owning slaves, sacrificing living creatures, and stoning your children to death for being unruly. It just goes to show you that no matter what you do you should exercise a little common sense and judgement.
26. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses – Hebrews 12:1. Rabbits chew cud and, as such, are an abomination before God (Leviticus 11:6) yet Hugh Hefner seems to have not been cursed too harshly for his devotion to porn and bunnies . His parties at The Mansion seem to draw pretty good clouds of witnesses, too.
27. God has so much better stuffed for us. I bet He does but why can’t we enjoy some of His lesser “stuffed” [Freudian slip?], like the beauty of the human body?
28. It destroys your credibility. I’m having a bit of trouble connecting the dots between liking looking at snapshots of naked people and being perceived as believable by others. Maybe the people judging you are the ones who are wrong and shouldn’t be listened to. Maybe you would rather be dishonest and deny looking at naked pictures than be accused of being a sinning perv by idiots. Didn’t we already cover not blabbing every single personal detail about yourself to judgmental assholes in Comment #13? Do you tell these people about you BMs, too?
29. It leads you to believe that it is your only way of coping with anything. Porn does that? Really? Are you sure you’re not getting porn mixed up with alcoholism, tranquilizers, or eating chocolate?
30. You go to bed late and are tired. Start earlier, like right after supper, and take ten-minute breaks every hour.
31. It disturbs your thinking of your partner. Again, we covered this in my answer to Comment #12. You looking at porn has nothing to do with your partner unless you get them interested in your little hobby or they feel insecure that your looking at other naked people means that you want to cheat on them. If you want to look at porn and your partner doesn’t want to and tries to pressure you into not looking at porn maybe this is the wrong girl for you. If you have to force yourself to stop looking at porn just to please her, what else is she going to demand you give up if you really love her? Jockey shorts? Your G.I. Joe collection? Your dubstep CDs in the car on long trips? Red meat? Running shoes? It’s a slippery slope, my friend. On the other hand, if you love your partner and you looking at porn makes them uncomfortable, maybe you could compromise and arrange for them to sit around naked and let you look at them or just give it up. Once you con a real live girl into loving you this whole “porn addiction” thing will work itself out.
32. It makes you lie to yourself. ie “there’s nothing wrong with this. I’m not really a bad person, it’s just some pictures.” You still haven’t established that these are lies, you’ve just made an unsupported claim. How is catering to a natural curiosity that you share with probably 99.99% of the adult male population make you a bad person? How are the pictures “bad” if the person posing in them did so voluntarily? What is your benchmark for right and wrong and if it is not a product of your own thinking, how are you able to assess that it is a “good” source of morality?
33. It makes you paranoid i.e. did you clear the history last time? what if someone comes in? Which way should I angle the screen? etc… Here we go back to Comment #13 again, Scooter. Nobody has the right to tell you that exploring your own sexuality is anything bad. Go ahead, clear your history and turn the screen so others don’t see what your looking at but don’t do it because you’re ashamed of what you’re doing, do it because it’s none of their goddamn business to know what you are doing! It’s not the porn that’s making you paranoid, it’s the judgmental assholes around you who are doing it.
34. It gets even worse when they do find out. I wish I could find out what the fudge you’re talking about. Until then I guest the safest thing to do is send you back to Comment #13… it’s turning out to be a real popular destination.
35. It gets you grounded when they find out. And also makes others lose respect for you. Yeah? Spend a little bit of that time you’re grounded poking around your dad’s computer and see if he hasn’t been doing any porn surfing himself. If you find any evidence don’t tell your mom but mention it quietly to your dad. It might not get you off the hook this time but it might get him to work to soften the punishment the next time your mom catches you looking at porn. You just might have earned his respect. The other possibility is that you might get a savage beating for violating your dad’s privacy and exposing his little photo collection. Even if Dad doesn’t have any porn on his computer (because Mom knows all his passwords, no doubt) or stashed in garage he could still throw you a beating just for snooping in his stuff. Funny how they think it’s OK when they violate your privacy but don’t like it done to them, eh? At any rate, you know that the guilt they’ve been laying on you is their hang-up and is not because you are an abnormal immoral pervert, don’t you?
36. It enables the sex-trafficking industry. I don’t know about that… it seems a lot easier to bring the cameras to wherever the girls are than to set up a huge illegal network just to make a couple of movies or take some pictures. You’re probably thinking about human trafficking’s links to areas with liberalized prostitution laws. I’ll give you half a point and a cookie for having your heart in the right place.
37. It encourages and promotes a product that ruins marriages. Another unsubstantiated claim… from where are you getting this info? I have never heard of a marriage that went south (pardon the expression) because one spouse was looking at porn. How many divorces that you know of were caused by people looking at porn?
38. It sets a bad role model for younger siblings. And maybe future children. What are you doing, looking at porn in front of your younger siblings? We’ve gone over this already, your sexuality is your business and yours alone. And this future children thing… sounds pretty sci-fi to me. How are your future children going to be affected by you checking out a couple of bikini models (without their bikinis) today?
39. It hurts. Especially when you fall. I learned very early on that it is unwise to look at porn while sitting near the edge of a roof or while perched atop a flagpole. Go indoors and sit down in a normal chair. If you still find yourself falling down, put on a hockey helmet and e-mail me the porn that’s causing you to tumble… I don’t think porn has ever caused me to topple over and I’d love to get my hands on some of what you’re looking at!
40. It can lead into further addictions, to worse and more destructive things. Really? Name some. In the meantime look at what I wrote in response to Comment #21 or skip ahead to Comment #66 and imagine I’m writing it all fresh and especially for you.
41. Its just a dumb little thing, that doesnt need to control your life. sure we may think that porn is a HUGE problem, but i think in reality, its just a dumb little thing, dont beat yourselves up so bad, but dont live a life based on lust. which i am confident all of you are ok with. I’m OK with that but I have a funny feeling the Pastor is not going to let you too far out of his sight with that level-headed talk of yours. Full points for not buying into this whole guilt and moral-decay epidemic propaganda that’s going around.
42. It diverts our attention away from more important and lasting qualities. If you don’t understand the value of a little diversion now and again I seriously hope you don’t have any easily-accessible firearms at your house. “All work and no play makes Jack a crack shot from the clock tower.”
43. It may start as small thing, but it can take over your life. Could be, or you could develop a second personality in which you’re an angry tuna. Or you could rob banks to feed your Lego addiction. Or you could go around with an electric razor in your pocket and shave off one eyebrow from every passed-out person you come across on the subway. I’ve known people who have wrestled with these very issues and I’m sure a nice comfy porn addiction would be a step up for them.
44. Because it makes you ashamed of yourself. Take a number and join the rest of the gang at Comment #13. No queue jumping!
45. It makes you dependent on something other than God. I’m kind of curious as to which god you are worshipping that makes porn a reasonable alternative to it. Specifically, what could someone rely on your god to provide that could also be provided by porn?
46. [numbered as #45] It’s not, at all, what God has in mind for us. How can you pretend to know what The Creator of The Universe has in mind for us when you numbered your response with the same number as the guy before you, and he was wrong because another guy did the same thing earlier?
47. It’s 200% selfish. Only if you’re looking at porn and using both hands.
48. It’s REALLY hard to quit. “That’s what she said!”
49. It’s gross. Lemme guess, you’re a girl, right? This just isn’t your dance.
50. It’s a waste of valuable time and completely unproductive. You must get a lot of invitations to parties. Have you ever just cut loose and done anything just for the fun of it? I bet your girlfriend thinks you’re a real romantic, huh?
51. It is a betrayal to your partner and more so God. Yup, some people think that their partner just wanting to look at porn is a betrayal but most porn fans don’t look at porn thinking that it is competition for the one they love. And how is this a betrayal of God? He’s the one who made men so responsive to visuals of naked ladies… it’s part of how He made us to be!
52. It makes you feel worthless. It does? Have you ever personally seen porn? How does an addiction (as some on the thread seem to be saying looking at porn invariably becomes) where the big payoff is a feeling of worthlessness perpetuate itself? Or are you disagreeing with a lot of the contributors to “100 Reasons…” who say that looking at porn is an addiction? Seems like you never liked porn in the first place and are just trying to scare off people who have never seen it, either that and you’re a poser who loves porn but are just trying to look good for the rest of the people in the youth group.
53. It teaches you the vice of insatiability. Interesting. So being insatiable is, in itself, a vice. What about a thirst for knowledge or a fervent desire to come to know God? Are these vices, too? How about never getting enough of helping others?
54. It makes u live a life of secrecy. No, there’s something called “The It’s-None-Of-Your-Business Concept”. Here’s how it works… you don’t owe anyone an explanation for anything that is going on inside your head unless it is directly affecting them. Same thing goes with anything you do in the bathroom — you can lock the door and have privacy and unless your age is a one digit number anyone who wants you to leave the door unlocked is an idiot and you don’t have to oblige. Another thing I’ve already mentioned that also falls under this None-Of-Your-Business Concept is anything fun that happens between your knees and your belly button that doesn’t hurt anyone else or ruins furniture or broadloom that belongs to someone other than yourself. There’s a big party happening at Comment #13… bring some ice because they’re probably running low by now.
55. It causes you to believe you are enough by yourself, for yourself. That makes no sense at all. If porn makes you believe you are enough by yourself then wouldn’t you prefer looking at yourself naked (e.g. in the mirror) rather than looking at other people in peeler movies?
56. It causes you to doubt your faith. Another nonsensical claim. Just how does this work? You see some skin and all of a sudden you stop believing in God? What’s the connection?
57. It alters the way you see the opposite sex (and possibly your own…). Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t but even if it does it is only a problem if you begin treating people in a way that makes them uncomfortable. And even then it will be your fault and nothing inherent in the porn itself because at some point in your life you’ll have to come to terms with learning the difference between reality and fantasy. By the way, before you started looking at porn was the way you saw the opposite sex (and possibly your own) the correct way? How do you know?
58. It forces you to continue walking in your human nature and not your divinely given nature. Didn’t God give us our human nature, Cousin? If so and if God is divine then it only makes sense that our human nature is a divinely-given nature. Is there a double-divine nature that differs from the normally-divine human nature? Is there a triple-divine nature beyond that?
59. It makes you doubt God’s promises/power. This can only be true if you believe that God promised to use his power to never let porn exist or to prevent you from enjoying it. Chapter and verse, please!
60. It uses up your internet downloads and then you don’t have any internet left. Bandwidth is cheap these days — I recently added 25 GB per month for $5. If you cannot afford the fiver, stick to naked pictures and avoid the video clips. If you absolutely must download a certain video, get the standard resolution instead of the HD.
61. Its can give you virus’s and bad stuff on computer! No, there’s nothing inherently “viral” about porn. Find yourself a good, clean, respectable website that updates its clothing-optional content every once in a while and stick with it. By the way, didn’t you notice that someone said practically the exact same thing in Comment #24?
62. It is in itself bad stuff on your computer. Depends on how you define “bad”. Chances are you’re listening to other people who are condemning porn just to cover the guilt they harbour for all the porn they have stashed on their own computers. Next time you’re over at their house do some snooping and see if I’m wrong. If you find any, e-mail some to your minister using the person’s own account so the minister knows where you found it.
63. You often end up sleep deprived. Are you related to the guy who wrote Comment #30? Again, “Start earlier, like right after supper, and take ten-minute breaks every hour.” And don’t forget to eat your vegetables.
64. It could lead to identity theft, and therefore bankruptcy! It could if you’re a doofus and are paying for it when there’s more free porn out there than cute kitten pictures and videos. Free porn is bigger than Facebook, YouTube,  and Twitter put together so there’s no reason to have to give any website a credit card number.
65. If people find it on your computer it can cause them to judge you and or start rumors about you. and in high school that is the last thing you want. It changes how people look at you. Don’t let people snoop around on your computer… there’s so much more damage they can do there than find stuff to fuel rumours about you looking at porn. Besides, they can make up rumours like that even if you don’t have any porn on your computer. If people start treating you badly after finding out you look at porn, sever ties with them and make friends with the people who didn’t make fun of you when that cretin outed you. Join the crowd at Comment #13… the line forms to the left.
66. It opens a door in your life to worse addictions. Another variation on the theme of Comment #21, eh? I think I saw a report from the CDC saying that the chain of addiction escalates like this… Cool Aid, comic books, porn, cigarettes, booze, marijuana, central air conditioning, prime time TV shows, crack, heroin, cellphones, and finally spandex corrective underpants. Once you give up porn you’ll start smoking cigarettes and your breath will smell worse that it ever did during your porn days.
67. Just because alot of other people do it… doesnt mean its cool… its actually hurting them too. How is it hurting them? C’mon, tell me and don’t just pull stuff out of the air. Cool? You’re not sitting around together looking at porn and seeking each other’s approval, are you? That’s really sick.
68. It desensitizes us to the world around us, and allows us to more easily join the world rather then be separate from it like we are commanded. I thought God made us from the dust of the Earth and put us here on Earth. Just what do you consider to be this world He doesn’t want you to join? I thought God made this world for us to have dominion over it. What you’re saying smells a little elitist and possibly anti people of other religions if you ask me. You’re not a member of one of those self-castrating UFO cults, are you?
69. You become a follower rather then a leader… then you cannot share the word, but hear the false praise to a consuming sin. I’m just not seeing the connection between sexual curiosity and disqualifying someone from being a leader. I don’t have any solid evidence for this but I’m pretty sure it would not be too hard to find a president or prime minister of a major nation who likes erotica. You’re not vying for some leadership role in your youth group, are you?
70. [Marked as Comment #69] (there is nothing funny about the number 69) It makes you tell, and laugh at immature jokes… (and no that is not what she said!). I’m glad you had something of value to input and if you have any decent (meaning “funny”, and not meaning “not dirty”) 69 jokes, PM me. And that’s not how the “That’s what she said” thing works. [Interestingly, I never heard of the “That’s what she said” thing until about two days before I found “100 Reasons…” on the internet and here it is again. When it rains it pours]
71. When you get married and have your own sexual life… you will realllllllllly regret it. What do you think I’ll regret, my married sex life or having looked at porn? Either way, why would I regret it? Didn’t happen to me and I’m actually happily married and looked at porn before I got married, thank you very much. How long have you been married? What do you regret?
72. It can make you use all your free time on this site, lol. That’s nothing, think about how much time I’ve spent responding to all these comments!
73. Hurts the families who have people in the porn industry. Best answer of the bunch so I won’t even try to be funny. You’re absolutely right… sometimes. People vary greatly in their level of modesty. Nude models and other people working in the sex industries probably rank among the top percentiles of immodesty and are likely to cause shame in their more modest family members. We see families’ black sheep defined not only by their public immodesty but also by their politics, ambition, education, wealth, level of alcoholism, etc. Sure, we shouldn’t go out of our way to intentionally hurt those who love us but at the end of the day shouldn’t everyone have the right to live their life the way they want? I feel for the families, I really do, but the best thing for them to do is not alienate the porn star and talk with them about it… maybe understanding will help everyone feel better.
74. It tells God that we don’t trust Him to fully satisfy and meet our needs. What is it that people say God can do for them that people get from looking at porn? Where is it written that God will sexually excite you? Go to Comment #45. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
75. Some time you will do it again at a time you don’t really want to. Are we still talking about looking at porn? I have never looked at porn at a time I didn’t want to do it. Please explain how this Zombie Porn Watching Syndrome takes hold of a person.
76. Habits are bad, period. If you don’t want to do something, but you do it anyways from force of habit, you are not the free being God created you to be. Is this your own off-the-top-of-your-head idea or are you just responding to the previous guy’s comment about The Zombie Porn Watching Syndrome?
77. [Numbered as #75] Contributes to our lack of understanding toward the opposite sex. A friend of mine gave this as his response when we were talking about porn one day. He basically said he has no interest in it because it’s deceiving – girls aren’t like that in real life. Sure, there are girls that do that stuff in real life, but they don’t like doing it. Is your friend trying to get girls to do the stuff he saw in squeaker movies? If not, why believe him? If so, don’t you think that it’s more moral to look at smutty vids than to try to get untrained neighbourhood girls to do stuff like The Double Half Reverse, Crab Cakes with a Twist, The Firey Fetch, The Delicate Dodge, and The Stenographer’s Delight? Besides, your friend is full of hot air — him not looking at porn because he thinks it is not a realistic representation of women is just plain dumb. Erotica is not meant to be an honest representation of women or men, it’s a tool to fuel your fantasies like The Terminator was not a documentary but still has value as Sci-Fi. Your friend is wrong on another count… lots of girls like doing it, and lots of girls like it a lot. I bet if he was dating or married to one of the porn stars he was talking about they would do “that stuff” and love doing it (unless he’s not very skilled in “the horizontal arts”). The idea that sex is a “woman’s duty”, is not pleasurable to them, and they just do it to please their man is hogwash. Women have an organ called a “clitoris”, an organ with one purpose — to give women pleasure during sex. Was your friend born in the 1800s by chance? His ideas about women’s sexuality were.
78. It forces us to feel alienated and isolated from those around us. I wish I had a business on the same corner as Comment #13… it sure is drawing a lot of traffic! Again, judgmental people and your willingness to allow them to invade your privacy is what is making you feel alienated and isolated. Why don’t you propose to your anti-porn group at church surprise random inspections of all its members’ computers? Suggest that the people who are the loudest at judging others should be the first ones to have their own computer combed for porn, and insist that it’s done right after the meeting and everyone has to be present at all the inspections so no one can slip off and delete or hide their porn. Bet that would tone down the rhetoric a tad!
79. It just makes us crave it more. It’s a vicious cycle. I don’t think so. Your desire to see some skin is what’s fuelling your desire to look at porn. In biblical times a kid your age would already be married and have a bunch of kids of his own, and probably have to work damned hard to put food on the table. Being a 21st Century teen leaves you with a lot of free time and energy to think about sex, which is perfectly natural and normal. Religion and some aspects of modern society are trying to give your sexuality a cold shower. You don’t have to take it and it won’t make you a bad person.
80. It just brings fake pleasure that makes it all hurt when it’s over. How is the pleasure fake? What the hell are you doing that makes you hurt all over afterwards? If it’s too racy for my comments section, PM me… you’re obviously doing something wrong.
81. It makes us lust over others, instead of getting to know them properly. Just how are you going to get to personally know the girl in the picture? You might even get served with a restraining order if you try. And if you try to see a girl you already know naked and she lets you, congrats! You no longer need the porn. The point of erotica is to provide you with a starting point from which you can begin an imaginary relationship with whoever is in the picture. You can imagine her to be your wife or a one night stand, it’s up to you. And why is lust wrong? Every healthy marriage has a little lust peppered in with the love. 
82. It makes us obsessed with things we shouldn’t even think about. If you’re a teenage male it’s not the porn that’s making you obsessed with wanting to look at naked females, it’s what teenage guys are built to do. It’s just that porn is the number one easiest and most victimless way to satisfy your curiosity. Trust me on this one.
83. It causes us to loose all motivation. To become apathetic about everything. I’m not buying what you’re trying to sell me — I’m apathetic even when I’m not looking at porn.
84. It makes you feel powerless, weak, unable to control yourself. I feel the same way when I double up on my laxative dose. Why do you think that porn makes you feel like that? You wouldn’t happen to “lax up” and then take your laptop into the bathroom with you to look at porn, would you?
85. It will take away your stress. (then Kevin_NL responded: It will add to your stress.). You can reduce the stress you feel if you’d just pull up your pants and stop looking at porn while driving your car on the highway. There’s a time and a place for everything, Kevin.
86. It will cause problems in your future marriage if you are still struggling when you get married. Look back at Comment #12 but before you do, go to Comment #18. If you’ve been dating someone and you feel you have a serious porn addiction, tell them about it before you get engaged. Either they’ll break up with you (freeing up a lot more time for you to look at porn), not care if you look at porn, confess that they too like looking at porn, or try to help you quit by “taking the bull by the horns”, if you know what I mean. Overall you’re looking at a much better outcome if you’re honest in a relationship, and I’m not just talking about porn issues.
87. [numbered as #85] It will only continue to break you, never build you up. I flatly refuse to address what you wrote on the grounds that it sounds way too much like a Rick Astley lyric.

So this is where they leave off, coming up with 87 reasons and not the 100 that they were shooting for. Not only did they fall short of their objective by 13, many of the reasons listed were essentially duplicates of others and seemed to center around how others will judge you, how others will break off  relationships with you if they find out that you look at dirty pictures, and other things not having to do with porn’s effect on its audience. When they do try to be on-point, there’s no substance to their arguments.

As much fun as I had bashing their responses, I honestly have a lot of respect for the people who commented on the original “100 Reasons…” post — at least they are trying to better themselves. There were a couple of good points made, like about how some porn stars’ family members feel knowing what they do for a living and the dangers of human trafficking. The former really is not something that makes makes porn universally immoral, it’s just family sticking their nose into each other’s business. As for human trafficking, I have not heard of anything linking it to porn, but human trafficking is a bad thing no matter what industry it feeds.

In addition, I think a couple of people got close to one thing I wonder about which has to do with people getting involved in the sex industry out of financial hardship or youthful rebellion and living to regret it. We all make dumb decisions when we’re young or suffering some sort of hardship or setback but people who grudgingly model nude to pay a bill have to live with knowing their images will be floating around in cyberspace forever — not an attractive prospect. The whole issue of people working in the various niches of the sex trade because they have no alternative makes me quite uncomfortable.

So anyways, where do you stand on erotica? Feel free to chime in and point out the flaws in what these 87 people wrote or help provide one of the missing 13 reasons.

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