Porn isn’t normal

In his Blowback, “What porn says about the man,” John Wright suggests that porn is normal, and anyone who views it is normal, so there is nothing wrong with viewing it. John Stagliano made similar claims in his recent Dust-Up debate with Barry McDonald. But pornography is neither normal nor right.

Pornography can become just as addictive as any hard drug and can have just as negative an impact on family and marital relationships. How can something that degrades women and portrays sexual acts as public and unsacred be normal? Is the emotional damage of the wife who finds her husband viewing pornography really worth the kick he gets out of it? No wife wants to feel second-best to an image on a computer or a raunchy video.

Sex is an expression of deepest love and devotion. Any wife would be horrified to find her husband cheating on her with another woman. Finding out that he is addicted to porn, or even looking at it casually, is just as traumatic and leaves her feeling just as betrayed.

Our society is fast becoming numb to the sexual imagery in movies and television. It’s not that men are the bad guys. Taking into consideration how their minds and bodies work, even a man who finds pornography offensive can be lured into the traps all around him. Pornographic sites sneak into non-pornographic pages, where even the most loyal husbands can stumble upon an addiction they never wanted to feed. This revelation, once disclosed, hurts the relationship between husband and wife and destroys the trust that was once there, replacing it with pain.

Do parents, even those who are OK with viewing pornography, want their children to grow up in a world in which watching sex is just as common as watching the Disney Channel? There are only selfish reasons to view pornography, and only unselfish reasons to fight against it and prevent it from seeping further into society.

No happily married man wants to destroy his marriage. However, viewing pornography is a sure-fire way to help it go downhill. There’s nothing normal about that.

Amy Payne is a 20-year-oldstudent attending Brigham Young University.

Blowback is an online forum for full-length responses to our articles, editorials and Op-Eds. Click here to read more about Blowback, or submit your own by e-mailing us at opinionla@latimes.com.