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Friday, September 14, 2007

Dear Annie

I'm very disturbed by a column I read in the newspaper a couple of days ago. It was a regular advice column (Dear Annie) which I read almost every day. I usually agree with the advice being offered and have come to view the writers as moderate and trustworthy. Two days ago, however, one of the letters published was from a woman who was concerned because her husband was looking at pornography on the Internet. She said he was a good man and treated her and their children well, but she was uncomfortable with this habit of his and wanted to know if she was overreacting. They told her that she was! I was stunned! Their response to her said, in essence, that most men look at pornography and some women look at it with them. The writers more or less told her to deal with it. I was very upset after reading this. I don't think pornography should be socially acceptable for anyone. Pornography presents people and situations that are unrealistic; this leads viewers to change their own expectations to unrealistic ones. Once you've seen an image, it sticks in your brain. If you're looking at pictures of your kids, then your mind is full of your kids. If you're looking at pictures of people in sexual situations then your mind is full of sex. This is not a good thing. Physical intimacy definitely has its place but thinking about it constantly makes it difficult to think about anything else; e.g. work and family. Pornography is also extremely selfish. People who look at pornography aren't doing it to help someone else, they're doing it for self-gratification. Being selfish is not ever the way to be happy. I'm sure this sounds very self-righteous and preachy but the fact is that I believe we are all capable of controlling our urges and passions. Not only capable, but morally responsible to develop a certain level of self-control. Besides, my kids are still young and innocent. The thought that they might lose that innocence to pornography keeps me up at night. I can't make their decisions for them, but I will do all I can to change social perceptions before they're grown.

1 comment:

sues2u2 said...

Another point is that once you've seen some of the weird things on those sites you search for weirder & more obscene things. It's a fact.