Societal Moralistic Calamity and the Virtues of Pornography

A contemporary item that has great influence on the morals of people around the world is Playboy magazine. Playboy magazine has many explicit photos of nude women, a few sexually orientated articles, and occasionally an investigative article that is worth reading. The magazine itself does not really try to convey a message to its readers, but instead claims to be an entertaining and informative magazine. Playboy is in the magazine business to make money and does not really care if the magazine conveys a message or not as long as men keep buying it. There are many people who are offended by Playboy and many others who are against the magazine because Playboy is a form of pornography. Although the magazine does not attempt to influence people, it succeeds in influencing people’s morals. Many people believe that there are two basic reactions to pornography: 1) it causes people to commit sexual crimes like rape or child molestation, 2) it suppresses sexual aggressiveness in would be rapists or other perverts.

Playboy magazine can affect a person’s morals for the worst. The magazine is capable of turning a man who previously had good morals into a rapist. A man could be walking down the street and notice Playboy on the shelf at a news stand and decide to purchase the magazine because it has an interesting article in it. The man would go home and start scanning the pages trying to find the article. Before you know it, the man stumbles upon the centerfold which contains a picture of a lovely, young girl and the man gets so sexually excited that he forgets all about the article. The man starts to get obscene thoughts and decides that he must satisfy himself, so he goes outside and sees a woman who reminds him of the naked girl in the centerfold. He cannot control himself and he attacks and rapes here. What is it that can turn an honest, law-abiding citizen into a madman? Playboy, or pornography in general, works on a man’s natural sex drive to turn him into a “Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde” type of person. Of course this example is an extreme case, but it is possible for men’s morals to be affected by something as simple as a magazine.

On the other hand, some people say that pornography (Playboy) is a blessing to society. People claim that pornography actually satisfies the sex drives of perverts who roam the streets of America. I find this statement hard to believe and I raise the question: How did these perverts come to be sexually deviant in the first place? The answer to this question in my mind is that the pervert was exposed to pornography at one time in his life which affected his morals. The pornographic exposure could have been a peek at a Playboy at a young age or exposure to a family member. There is no valid way that pornography can influence morals for the better.

Everyday, millions of people are exposed to some form of pornography. Some people can control themselves better than others can and are not affected morally by the exposure. But there will always be some person who will be affected for the worst and take it out on an innocent victim. As long as pornography is so easy to get, there will always be sexual crimes committed all over the world. I am not saying that pornography is the one and only cause of sexual crimes, but I believe that it is capable of affecting the morals of even good men.