.jpg)
A study on how young people rely on porn for information on sex recently graced its presence on The Vibes.
While the study mainly focused on young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 who found it helpful to refer to porn to learn about sex, Dr Emily Rothman, the study's lead author, briefly mentioned the drawback of watching porn for ‘lessons’.
“The bad news is that young adults are misunderstanding what porn is there for. Most free, online pornography is there for entertainment and to make money for the creators. It isn't there to teach you what you are supposed to do when you are having sex.”
This study hopes to help improve the teaching of sex education, and we hope that porn literacy will be part of that improvement.
Contrary to how the term sounds, porn literacy is not about cruising teens and young adults around the table of contents of porn.
In reference to the Teen Health Source, by Planned Parenthood Toronto, porn literacy is about asking questions to better understand the porn that is shown and how users use it.
Without going into the taboos surrounding conversations about sex and especially porn, porn literacy is essential especially in a day and age where it has become so easily accessible, even with parental controls available.
Porn, as a form of performing art, depicts only content that people want to see and not necessarily the reality.
“Even amateur porn (or professional porn that looks like amateur porn) still only shows scenes the people making it want you to see,” as mentioned on the Teen Health Source page on porn literacy.
And at an impressionable age, young minds who are exposed to these materials without proper guidance or pre-amped understanding will take to it as they see fit.
The biggest setback to this organic method of exposure and learning is navigating between reality and performance.
Just as romance movies paint a Disney-perfect image of what love and relationships are like, porn depicts fantasy ideas of sex.
What viewers think is raw, unedited, perfect snapshots of sex, is in fact pre-planned shots that go through retakes and editing and coffee breaks; like typical movies and television shows.
“Sex in porn is entertainment: it’s not always instructive for real life sex.”
So if and when the act of sex takes place for an individual, and things don’t finish ‘porn-perfect,’ the potential of them getting stressed rises.
Apart from the potential misconception between reality and fantasy, understanding the business aspect plays a role in porn literacy.
By understanding how the porn industry works, users are better informed on what is ethical and what isn’t.
Ethical porn is not focused on the kinds of content created, but whether or not the production itself was ethical.
Who created/produced/funded the production? Did the people in it consent to every aspect of the shoot? Who is getting paid for this?
When done ethically, porn can often be seen as a form of art.
There is also the understanding and awareness that not every adult performer carries the victim narrative – a narrative that puts them in a position of abuse and trafficking.
These kinds of education help us understand the legitimacy of this industry, and give support where support is due; especially when this is an individual’s livelihood.
At the end of the day, porn literacy is not about encouraging children or teens to start binge watching porn to find their flavour.
Porn literacy is about educating people that porn, like any other film, needs to be approached with a clear understanding of its implication and ethics.
And essentially, flowing into a society that respects everyone regardless of their sexuality, gender, bodies and identities. – The Vibes, January 14, 2021
