Whether you’re anti-porn, pro-porn, or just secretly pro-porn during weak moments and anti-porn in public or when penitent, we all should agree on one thing: sexuality, and its co-conspirator, nudity, are powerfully commanding forces that demand (and certainly get) our attention whether we like it or not. In fact, I daresay, that sex, next to greed, is the driving force behind terrorism. That’s right, not oil, not religion, not nationalism, but sex. Let’s face it, "sex is industry, it sells cars, it sells magazines," as the Switch Foot song goes, and whether we admit it or not, we "can’t get no satisfaction," because if we could, none of this would matter.
The reaction to sex, and it’s co-conspirator nudity, is a wonder to behold among us Homo sapiens. For example, when is the last time you held up the picture of a dog and then your dog start going into heat or humping? Nor do you see teenage female hippos get disgusted when they see the overweight buttocks of a fellow hippo protruding from the waters edge of the local swimming hole. The ability to cause disgust, anger, surprise, wonder, awe and arousal by depiction of the human form is both an amazing and powerful thing. Some would argue that its power should be completely suppressed, others that it should be let loose without limits. Neither approach is right.
Unfortunately, the data cannot prove that pornography causes certain sexual depravities. Consequently, the verdicts still out. What came first? The chicken or the egg? The desire and drive to feed the depravity with pornography or the pornography and then the depravity? On the other hand, if giving into sexual desire led to criminality, most of us would be criminals. All sexual beings have a drive to explore their sexuality. It is innate, it is inborn, you cannot cut it off without damage any more then you can lop off your own arm or gouge out your eye.
Although we are entitled to live our lives as chaste and nonsexual as we choose, we should not become puritanical, prudish, Victorian and self-righteous. King David and King Solomon were among the first pornographers. Although their explanations and focus regarding their many wives and concubines may have been different, their desire was no different than that of our modern-day Flints. Furthermore, I remain unconvinced that the choice of our modern-day Mormon leaders, including Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, to have many wives had nothing to do with sex. This is not to say that if those choices were influenced by sex, they were necessarily evil. When Mormons say that Brigham Young’s decision to have many wives had everything to do with complying with God’s wishes and nothing to do with sensual pleasure, they are deluding themselves and equating sexual pleasure with evil. Using an analogy that even right-wing, gun-toting ideologues will understand, sex is not evil anymore than guns are evil. It is equally wrong both to deny the reality of sexual desire as it is to proclaim that monogamy has and always will be the rule.
There is nothing wrong with the maximization of sexual pleasure, so long as it doesn’t involve force, coercion, minors, the need for welfare, undue risk, physical harm, and disequilibrium. On the other hand, as a society we should not begrudge the desire that many of us have to control when, where, and how we and our children will be sexually aroused and sexually involved. While we should respect the sexual expression of others, we should not have to experience a constant barrage of conduct which either directly or indirectly destroys all ability to choose the boundaries of our sexuality.
Saturation cheapens sex’s currency, gives free rein to those who are prone to overstimulation, and destroys freedom, while creating complete depravity for the weaker among us. Suppression, on the other hand, ignores the force that, when unduly bottled up, will erupt surging in unexpected and uncontrollable manners.
Just as we have learned to give freedom to speech, the practice of religion, and the pursuit of happiness, we need to find a way to provide both freedom and security for those who believe sex can be plowed under by cold showers, jumping jacks, hymn singing, and emotional and physical castrations, as well as those who believe that their sexual pleasure should include everything and anything up to ensuring that their fence posts and knotty pines have been introduced to their sexual prowess.
Loren M. Lambert
©August 2006
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