If CNN says it, it has to be true, right?
“For many millennials, porn is less taboo and simply part of life. In some ways, that’s a positive thing. Porn — or, as we call it in my field, sexually explicit Internet material or visual sexual stimuli — can be a valuable aspect of a healthy sex life,” Ian Kerner writes. Kernel, a licensed psychotherapist, just published an article for the media giant outlet CNN on a ‘new wave’ of porn that is story-driven and even romantic.
And therefore, in his view, ethical.
In his piece Kerner makes a case against adult visual fare speaking to our ‘baser’ natures-the very popular short and XXX clickable porn scenes-for what he calls “better porn.” Taking a cue from clinical psychologist David Ley (the doctor’s scathing attack on the seeming cause célèbre of sex addiction in his The Myth of Sex Addiction is a must have) Kerner says that porn is more ethical indeed when it is made legally, performers and viewers are respected and when the action celebrates “sexuality as a diverse, complex and multifaceted component of being a human being, without judgment.”
In the end of course it is up to the individual to find and enjoy–celebrate-that visual stimulus that interests them most…be it “ethical” in Kerner’s definition or not. But a trend for the public (and mainly millennials as Kerner found) to look for adult material with deeper layers of meaning from well-intended producers might actually be on the upswing.
Kerner, Ley, CNN, The Erotic Heritage Museum would all agree though, that no matter what kind of porn it might be we are enjoying, porn is certainly never going away. The culture will continue to reflect that which interests its people; from ethical or triple XXX, at least we can celebrate the diversity.
Image Credit: Nikki Silver