[gitmo]

Porn requires no commitment, no effort, and no risk. You don't have to spend non-sexual time with your porn "partner", you don't have to spend the effort and energy wooing her, and she is never going to say no. She always wants you right now.

But here's what I find more disturbing: men like porn because it involves a gorgeous naked female with a mind like a man. She isn't interested in a relationship, about feelings, about her partner's mind or even his money. She wants SEX, and lots of it. In any form imaginable, and then some. Just like his drinking buddy.

The flip side is the romance novel. The man in a romance novels has a buff body, tight pants, no shirt, and the mind of a woman. He's more interested in feelings, relationships and his partner's mind than he is in sex. The female reader is looking for a stud with her best girlfriend's mind.

Both environments lead to dissatisfaction with a normal partner of the opposite sex.

[A_perfect_lady]

You and I did NOT grow up reading the same romance novels. Those smutty bodice-rippers of the 1970s and 1980s had the most ruthless, stalking rapists imaginable. They were absolute cads but had two things going for them: they were incredibly hot and generally rich. In the end they cleave to one woman, but as for talking about feelings... most of them just growled something sexy, grabbed her by the hair, and up the stairs they went.

[Psalm 144]

All good points. Porn and the purple prose novel - both being fantasy environments where the main actor wins the lottery and does not even have to buy the tickets. Indeed, prescriptions for disappointment, and missing the good that is in reality.

[Sola Veritas]

“Porn requires no commitment.....The flip side is the romance novel.”

“Both environments lead to dissatisfaction with a normal partner of the opposite sex.”

Your entire post was extremely well said. Your last sentence is an excellent summation. Reality is never like pornograpy or romance novels. They both create unrealistic expectations that will never be met by a real person. Even putting aside moral considerations, pornography is bad and a blight on society.

[potlatch]

[Porn requires no commitment, no effort, and no risk.]

I disagree that porn poses no risk and will repeat that it skews one’s desires regarding sex. For a Christian it is also a ‘sin of the mind’, just like greed, envy, lust, hatred, etc.

Remember Jimmy Carter saying he had ‘sinned in his thoughts’?

And - don’t fool yourself about those women never wanting anything more than sex. Most women do want more, even the ‘loose’ types. Even prostitutes usually have a desire to ‘find someone’ and live a happier life.

I’m not a ‘romance novel’ afficiano and find them boring and somewhat silly. I much prefer Mystery novels where the evil doer is caught, lol.