Sexual expression: your opinion

Pornography is a touchy subject in the US. Over here, it's apparently ignored except for child pornography (and there the big question is child exploitation).So let's hear your opinons, and we can get a really interesting thread going. Is it wrong? Is it right? Is it a gift from the gods? What about fetish porn, hentai, Greek nudes, lapdancing, whatever?How do you feel about human sexual expression?A good friend of mine (who is actually involved in the sex industry) once said to me "A human who cannot express themselves sexually is risking insanity and suicide". This friend believes, without a shadow of a doubt, that people have a fundamental need for this kind of expression.

That's fine, thanks.

Only a few replies? And here I thought this thread would be up to a few pages by now.I mean, can you get any more controversial than porn?

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Sexual expression is one way to spend your time. Playing basketball is another. Inventing new tools is another. So is eating tasty foods. I don't see any are inherently more valuable or necessary than any other.

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Well, I'd say on the whole people can get by without playing basketball, inventing new tools, or eating tasty food. Sex, however, is the great leveller - just about everyone mentally and physically capable of it on earth appears to be doing it or wants to do it. (Of course I'm generalising here, if you've got actual stats I'd love to see them.)Does anyone know the long-term effects of restricting one's sexual expression?Anyway... I've heard much talk that the US is going to be banning pornography as well as a host of other related businesses. This is a restriction of sexual expression - can we agree on this?My questions, in order to move the discussion onwards, are:Is this actually going to happen?
If it is, what reasons have been given?
Do you feel the government has the right to restrict it?
What kind of effect will this have on American society?Most importantly, because I'm starting to see this in Ireland as well...
Is sexual expression rated as so much more damaging or dangerous than expressions of violence? If so, why? Is it a cultural thing? An effect of religion? A sign of the times?

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"Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do."

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Lack of physical activity can often lead to depression and illness.

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Not exercising one's mind can lead to faster brain degeneration and cognitive funtion when one is older.

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Lack of eating leads to starvation.

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Bad analogy there, schraf. You're equating not playing basketball with not taking any physical activity. Similarly, not inventing new tools does not equate to not exercising one's mind, and not eating tasty food does not equate to not eating at all.People need some form of physical activity, mental exercise, and nourishment, yes. The actual specifics are up to the individual. So can we say that people need some form of sexual expression too, assuming that they would choose the specifics of that expression themselves? I don't know, hence this thread.(As an aside: David Beckham??? He looks like a dog in a bad wig! How the hell did he make the top three sexiest men??)Thanks for the stats, by the way.

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In women, not having sex leads to a lessening of desire, and in men, it's the opposite. At least, that seems to be the general trend.

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I do wonder if there are any other effects. Has there been any actual studies done?

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"Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do."

Who would have thought it... sex is apparently good for you.How about the flip side of the coin - what are the bad effects? Apart from the obvious ones, like STD's - though I'd contend that they are a result of irresponsibility and not an intrinsic part of sex.I'm wondering where the fundys are... no discussion about sex is complete without one.

I knew there must be at least one hanging around... Hey iano, welcome to the debate! As a fellow Irishman, how do you feel about the questions I posed earlier?

I wonder is it worth reawakening that thread or continuing with this one?My next question would be why exactly the US government is trying to hamstring a particular industry that is obviously profitable and probably paying a nice chunk of tax simply on the grounds of morality. I'd think all it will do is drive the industry out of the country, and seeing as the Internet is what it is, it will not stop people from accessing porn if they want it. All it will do is take away that nice chunk of tax money.My third question would be if there has ever been a case similar to this before - of an industry being repressed due to morality.

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Sexual expression is rated as equal to or more damaging than expressions of violence, and at any rate more damaging than nonsexual communication by people that are not rational. Unfortunately that appears to be a mounting majority.

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It is a cultural hysteria, but finding a home across all cultures.

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In a way this is just a reemergence of the Victorian era, with atheists and theists joining together to hate sex once again... except for the sex that THEY like of course.

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And now I wonder what exactly is the singular factor that can cause this kind of hysteria in all cultures, as you say. Is it the Victorian influence? Do we see this kind of attitude in countries in the Far East, say?(For the record, extreme feminism, i.e. man-hating, scares me a lot. I place it next to racism in many ways; I cannot understand the reasoning behind hating someone because they were born a certain race or gender.)

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"Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do."

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They don't view the income as legitimate, thus the tax revenue is besides the point. I'm sure there is something so egregious to you personally that no matter how much it made in tax money you wouldn't want it to exist as a legal entity.

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That simply raises the question of why they think the income is not legitimate. Is the income of companies using child labour in developing countries not legitimate then? I mean, if we're talking about protecting the kids here...Personally I take the view of Bill Hicks in that matter, by the way. "'Think of the children, we have to protect the children!' What, they turn eighteen and suddenly you don't give a shit anymore??" Course, I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea.I can't really think of an industry that I find offensive enough to my morality that I'd want to shut it down. How about you, holmes?

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Japan has a real interesting history regarding sexual expression. It used to be totally free. Then after we took over we imposed our own rules against graphic sexual imagery. Eventually sex was allowed to be shown but the naughty bits had to be censored. Of course they did not have the child sexual phobia that we had so they produced lots of child porn which they just thought was normal.

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And what do you know, their entire society didn't collapse into a black hole of sin and depravity. Funny that.