asaris

Sorry, I don't. I remember the study being referenced by a reputable source, but that was a while ago.

I might mention here that I personally don't have a final opinion on whether or not porn is wrong. But someone should play devil's advocate. But it certainly seems to me that in the situation where one's gf is upset because you're watching porn, one ought to give up the porn. People over pictures.

Well, no, but neither does it make it false. Ideally, you would want to show why the tradition thinks that way (which, to be fair, you've tried to do) and why it's false. Even if you were correct that taboos regarding pornography arose from certain medieval views of reproduction that most of us now believe to be false, that's not enough to show that porn is okay. You'd have to show that they were wrong about the nature of sexuality, which is something you've haven't done. And we should never throw out a tradition without a good reason. If you think a tradition is bad/wrong, the burden of proof is on you.

To give you something to chew on, let me throw out a few reasons to think that sexuality is special. I want to stay away from the religious reasons, since it's obvious that we don't share the same assumptions there.

1. Argument from Tradition: In all times and in all places, sex has always been viewed as something special. I can't think of a single counter-example. To be sure, cultures have differed on exactly what constitutes acceptable sexual practice, but there have always been some limits. (To quote C.S. Lewis, "Societies have disagreed about how many wives a man may have, but no society has said a man can have just any woman he wants.")

2. Argument from Observation: From what I've seen, and from the observations of a friend who did alot of counseling in college, sex is powerful, and the abuse of sex can seriously mess things up. Now, there are two possible explanations for this. Either these people are still sufficiently influenced by some latent puritanism in society, or sexuality really does cut close to the being. Since there's not much latent puritanism in society anymore outside of certain subcultures, and enough of these people seem hardly to be influenced by these subcultures, I'd lean towards the second.

3. Argument from Gay Marriage: Why is this such a hot button issue, for both sides, if sex isn't that important?

Well, I've cited Foucault as taking sexuality very seriously; if you can find a thinker who questioned the norm more, I'd like to hear it. And if you want, I can probably find the exact quote. Besides, as far as I can tell, your view is much more prevalent in society than the view I've been defending.

Defensive much? Who's judging? I'm just arguing that viewing porn is bad -- not even maintaining that as a view I hold. I'm not in the business of judging people, anyway. I don't even judge myself.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche