"-porn" as a suffix

There is a trend now a days that I want to talk about.

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Before i do so, i was asked to do a little disclaimer to any younger or sensitive readers. This post contains no pornography whatsoever. Quite the contrary. But I do talk about the effects of pornography that I've experienced and seen in my life personally and through lives of loved ones. 

If that makes you uncomfortable, feel free to scroll past or wait for the next cheery post. 

This is just something I've felt passionately about for some time, and i will not apologize for posting it.
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I’ve seen more and more people add the word “Porn” to the end of a phrase, or to another word to make it a phrase, to mean that something is beautiful, desirable, or thought provoking.

For example: a Facebook page entitled, “Food Porn” that shares daily photos or videos of delicious looking meals or video recipes for refreshing drinks. 

A photo album on the popular site ‘Imgur’ captioned “Earth Porn”, full of breath-taking landscapes and intricate plants. 

Quotes shared with the title “Word Porn” because of the eloquent speech used.

A comment on a photo of a man’s brand new tool set, displayed artfully on a woodworking bench that read, “#ToolPorn” with a heart-eyed emoji.

WHY ARE WE USING THE WORD “PORN” AS A SYNONYM FOR BEAUTIFUL?

WHEN DID “PORN” BECOME THE DEFINITION OF A COLLECTION OF WONDERFUL THINGS?

Maybe some people are unfamiliar with what "porn" even means, or have forgotten.

It’s a shortened version of the word pornography, which is the capturing of sexual experiences via film, photography, audio, or literature for the purpose of arousing an audience not involved in the sexual experience themselves.

That’s what “Porn” is.

So saying that a picture of the Grand Canyon at sunset is Earth Porn literally does not make sense. 

That’s not what bothers me, though.

People are using “Porn” as more than just a shortened word that describes literal Pornography, they are using “-porn” as a suffix that implies satisfaction, beauty, awe, or inspiration.

That is what bothers me.

Trust me when I tell you that:

- Pornography is not beautiful, it is fake. 

                Pornography is designed to look like a real relationship, but it is a lie. The people you are witnessing do not actually love each other, nor are they actually feeling pleasure. They are faking it. It isn’t sexy, because it isn’t sex. Sex is an ultimate expression of love between two people who want to bind themselves together. Pornography is actors, or slaves (which is an entirely separate topic that I will not delve into now) faking love to earn money or keep a certain status, or a myriad of worse reasons. Pornography is a foul, sordid, and counterfeit distortion of sex that forces images and ideas into our minds that we can’t in reality compete with. Pornography kills real love in relationships by replacing actual displays of affection with false expectations of pleasure. It inhibits the ability to feel and experience true beauty of sex with a loving partner. 

                You will feel frustrated that your partner can no longer fill your needs. You will feel confused, because you don’t seem as close to your partner. Something will wedge between you. The love between you may run out. 

                When one person acts this way, the people around them feel the effects. Pornography doesn’t just numb you, it numbs your loved ones. It numbs whole families, which are the foundation of society. When pornography is mainstream in society, it is available to increasingly greater masses of people, it is available to increasingly younger audiences, who have no other expectation for sex, and who grow up thinking that the intimacy they see or hear in pornography is the only kind there is, when it is only really a lewd imitation of actual love. Those younger people will become used to the ideas they see, and base their relationships on false principles that will not stand the test of time and trial.

That is not beautiful. That is shattering.

-                -      Pornography does not satisfy you, it plants a seed of insatiable hunger in your mind 

Our minds react immediately and drastically to the chemicals produced in our bodies when we view, hear, or read pornography. The reaction can only be duplicated a few times with the same effect. After those first few times, our minds and bodies because used to the amount of chemicals, and the fierceness of their entrance. That becomes normal. That becomes the only reaction that is able to arouse us. From then on, our brains need more chemicals, bigger reactions, more intense material, to create the same feeling. 

Our mind can never get enough to be full, because the reactions don’t last.

They are too potent, too fleeting, and too shallow. Unlike true intimacy in love which produces lasting, bonding effects between partners. 

So our mind stays hungry for more.

That is not satisfaction. That is starvation.

-              -        Pornography is not awe-inspiring, it is destructive and addicting.

As I just said, our minds can’t do just one pornographic image. They can’t handle just one movie, one chapter, or one song. After one, our minds demand another, and another, and then our minds start needing another and another, just to feel “normal”. It is not normal. It is corrosive. 

When addicted to any substance, our minds will put that substance at the forefront of our thoughts 24/7. Our brain makes that thing our number one priority, pushing aside real necessities, and relationships with actual precedence, because it thinks we need that thing to survive. It convinces us that we need it to survive. The substance has successfully taken control of our desires and depleted our will power so that we can hardly fight back. We feel like a shell of ourselves, a slave to someone else’s wishes.

That is not inspiring. That is terrifying.

Pornography does not provoke thoughts that improve us, or that encourage us. Pornography provokes thoughts that decompose our ability to feel, that distort our ideals, and that tear apart our real-life relationships - romantic or not.

Stop using “-porn” as a synonym for beautiful or desirable.

Stop spreading the falsehood that pornography is satisfying in any way.

Stop putting pornography in the mainstream of our society for younger and younger people to see and fall prey to.

Stop perpetuating lies about sex and healthy intimacy.

Stop using “-porn” as a suffix.