The guilt of sex from religion especially evangelical

Religion seems to consider nature to be depraved and that man needs to control nature, meaning God knows better than nature, I guess. So, people are not taught healthy sexual attitudes, so they never know the real thrill of natural sex. They do, however, get their thrills out of demeaning the object of their desire. It is usually a female that is demeaned or degraded, treated as subhuman. Those are my thoughts, anyway.

In my mind, pornography is the degradation of another human being for sexual pleasure of the viewer, while erotica is the healthy celebration of sexuality. Yes, there is sometimes a very fine line, unless you are looking for the difference.

There are many people, men and women, who can only understand sex if one (usually a woman) is being degraded. That, I attribute to religious upbringing.

I'm not sure how sex work can be any more exploitative than any other paid employment. Some work in particular areas because they love it while others are exploited with low pay and poor conditions. It's as true of people working on production lines, picking produce or serving in restaurants.
I do find it interesting that violence is blamed on porn for which there is no correlational support while ignoring the strong correlational link between societal violence and violence portrayed in media (movies and computer games). But bottom line, other people watch these things and are subject to these things and they don't go out and kill others.
And why is it always men who commit these attrocities. Women in general are subject to far more abuse and victimisation but their representation amongst murderers is negligible.

Two progressive journalists/authors I really admire and respect have what seems largely a zero tolerance attitude towards porn and sex workers. Not sure if that applies to swinging as that pretty much amounts to a "porn lifestyle" whether filmed or not.

I have online friends (social media acquaintances) who were in the business. One was a former madam in Reno. I was surprised that there were any right wingers among them as conservatives generally paint them as tools of Satan. I just watched the documentary series "Life After Porn" and there are a wide range of experiences as far as the performers go. There were a few that turned to Christ to rescue themselves from the destructive behavior their lifestyle engendered, but while glad for them, it was also sad to see them falling into to standard religionism and associated delusions. One pastor married his porn star rescue, and I couldn't help thinking that for him, "brag rights" however unspoken, was part of the pairing. But, whatever helps someone towards health and happiness I suppose.

The first excerpt is from Prof. Robert Jensen, and the second is Chris Hedges.

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"When you start to look at porn with a critical lens," Jensen, 50, said, "it becomes quite disturbing. Emotionally, it becomes very trying."

Jensen, a self-described feminist and associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas, concluded that the mainstream heterosexual porn industry was "relentlessly misogynistic and racist." Even the contemporary amateur porn and "sex-positive" genres, which often boast of operating outside the traditional porn-power paradigm, are stained by an anti-woman subtext.

"When kids make their own music videos, they still look like MTV videos," Jensen said. "If you look closely at so-called 'do-it-yourself' porn, it still looks like industrial porn."

Jensen said he's not trying to sanitize society (though he is co-founder of an advocacy group called Stop Porn Culture, dedicated to "challenging the pornography industry and an increasingly pornographic pop culture" ). His journalism background and academic range have helped him report and publish two other books, on race ("The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege" ) and nationality ("Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity" ).

Jensen may be best known for his ability to draft timely, acerbic critiques: Just three days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Jensen published a highly criticized column in the Houston Chronicle that observed that "this act was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism - the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes - that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime."

The article turned Jensen into a pinata hanging from the ivory tower for conservatives who questioned his patriotism. He now visits San Francisco with a highly critical analysis of pornography under his arm, at a time when residents here - famously relaxed when it comes to attitudes toward porn and sex - just voted on an ordinance that could decriminalize prostitution. (It was voted down.)"

[sfgate.com]

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""Fifty Shades of Grey,” the book and the movie, is a celebration of the sadism that dominates nearly every aspect of American culture and lies at the core of pornography and global capitalism. It glorifies our dehumanization of women. It champions a world devoid of compassion, empathy and love. It eroticizes hypermasculine power that carries out the abuse, degradation, humiliation and torture of women whose personalities have been removed, whose only desire is to debase themselves in the service of male lust. The film, like “American Sniper,” unquestioningly accepts a predatory world where the weak and the vulnerable are objects to exploit while the powerful are narcissistic and violent demigods. It blesses this capitalist hell as natural and good.

“Pornography,” Robert Jensen writes, “is what the end of the world looks like.”

We are blinded by self-destructive fantasy. An array of amusements and spectacles, including TV “reality” shows, huge sporting events, social media, porn (which earns at least twice what Hollywood movies generate), alluring luxury products, drugs, alcohol and magic Jesus, offers enticing exit doors from reality. We yearn to be rich, powerful and celebrities. And those we must trample to build our pathetic little empires are seen as deserving their fate. That nearly all of us will never attain these ambitions is emblematic of our collective self-delusion and the effectiveness of a culture awash in manipulation and lies."

[commondreams.org]

By religious standards I would be classified as "sex addicted". Lucky for me I love sex way more than I love believing in bullshit.

I'd love to see legislation outlawing these kind of "teachings".

The garbage being spewed by so many religions causes far more harm than good.

They shouldn't be permitted to spread their lies.