The Relationship Between Pornography and the American Culture

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An analysis of the relationship between pornography and the American culture reveals that the industry is blamed for dozens of social ills for the men of our society. Those ills also work to damage the women in several irreparable ways. Some of the damages to men include: illegal sexual behavior, illegal non-sexual behavior, callousness, sexual harassment, casual sex, and multiple sexual partners. The problems for the women directly involved in the industry are long term and long lasting, creating overall issues that affect women’s economic and social status. But what are there damages caused by the type of movies most women love, the type of movies they drag their boyfriends and husbands to, the type of movies millions watch unashamedly in public-the romantic comedy?
Steve Carell, Hugh Grant, Jennifer Lopez, and Jena Jameson have at least one thing in common. They all portray characters in movies that leave an unrealistic expectation about how love and sexual relationships actually work in the minds of people who repeatedly watch this type of media presentation.
A review of the contemporary research on the negative effects of pornography is replete of scholarly and anecdotal evidence and opinion about the damages associated with viewing it. But the evidence is limited when it comes to criticism of mainstream media’s damages to certain groups, particularly young women with their romantic comedies.
My review of pornography research did reveal an overwhelming theme. Porn is bad. It tells a false story about what it means to be a man and a woman. (7 Negative Effects of Porn).
A review of the online library of romantic comedies on video streaming sites like Hulu and Netflix revealed no less than 50 highly consumer-rated romantic ...

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...o not believe it anesthetizes the emotional life of the viewer: it romanticizes life. Women take away from the experiences that sex in a relationship is perfect, communication with the partner is perfect and if there is a disagreement or misunderstanding, it is grounds for a breakup. How damaging are these expectations to a new relationship? During a literature review, I found several researchers concluded that these expectations cultivated from romantic comedies contribute to increased divorces in society (Segrin & Nabi 2002).
More research can be done to examine the relationship between repeated engagement with romantic comedies and specific expectations held by those who watch them. Furthermore, it would be interesting to thoroughly compare relationship expectations in both men and women who watch porn and romantic comedies and to learn why they watch either.

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