14 DAY TRIAL // Now, as the new iPod Photo can download and play short movies it is said that porn will get absolutely everywhere. But is this a brand new piece of news and subject of panic? Can the pornification of society be stopped? Should anyone try stopping it?
Does the possibility of watching your porn on your iPod change that much the way things were?
First of all, as this is an editorial, one thing must be made clear: I am pro-porn. So some people might find reading the following not exactly refreshing.
I am a believer. And I am sensitive and rational enough in order to understand that little children should rather watch Disney's Little Mermaid instead of Anal Mermaids. And yes, I agree that watching porn at the working place is not at all a good idea.
But I also strongly believe that porno-phobia is just as damaging as porno-mania for individuals and communities both alike. That's why I am rather amused by all the angry, desperate or just loud voices that rise against porn.
Because no matter the reasons those who think and wish to stop porn invoke, they all seem to ignore that the history of mankind's culture is the history of pornography. Or the other way around.
One might argue that ancient civilizations had their own, barbaric (yet tolerant) relationship with sex and the related issues (porn, homosexuality, masturbation, bigamy, you name the rest) but ever since the Christian Religion appeared things have totally and dramatically changed.
"Good Christians don't like porn" is, as far as I'm concerned true only by adding two little words "say" and "they". So "good Christians say they don't like porn" is 100% true.
Before feeling hurt or offended take a minute to think about the facts: leaving the Japanese aside (as they mostly consume their own twisted species of porn) what nations do pay the most for porn subscriptions and memberships and watch the biggest amount of pornographic images?
A few clues: it's not the Chinese (they might be the biggest and most populated country on the planet but communism and porn don't go hand in hand) not the Arab World (yes, some of them could afford thousands of monthly memberships and hundreds of pay per view channels but their Koran and religious leaders strictly forbid consuming porn) and it's definitively not the Indians (as most the population lives in poverty).
Yes, America is the biggest porn consumer. Citizens pay money for porn and support one huge industry they from time to time decide to feel disgusted by.
The Western world also has a certain fascination for pornography, but as most puritans left Europe centuries ago its laws regarding porn are not so tight and they get most of their porn for free.
So the world's most (technologically) developed countries (the vast majority of them inhabited by huge Christian communities) consume porn.
The last 30-something years witnessed tremendous developments of technologies that brought the porn closer than ever imaginable to everyone's life.
The (octopus-like) movement of pornography from paper magazines and obscure movie theatres to the vcr, tv channels, the internet is to be named "pornification" and we have all suffered (aware or not) its effects and implications.
As technology became more and more efficient, faster, smaller in size and oriented towards the portable items (I can't help quoting Jamiroquay's Virtual Insanity: "we're always governed by this love we have for the useless twistings of the new technology") the porn industry grew larger and larger.
Coincidence? Not at all. It's not the race for conquering the outer space or the medical science that took the most advantage of the brand new technologies. The best user (and abuser) of the technological progress is the porn world.
What's really remarkable about the unbelievable extent porn has reached is that, unlike all others things marketing is used to sale, porn never needed to create new necessities and new wishers. It always had (and always will have) its own world-wide market.
Now, as porn can be purchased from news stands, seen on the pc or laptop, on cable or satelite television, available for palmtops, on cell phones and in dvd format, people worry just because the iPod can be discretely filled with filth. Well, their concerns are partially justified, as the iPod in no ordinary technological device: it is the brand new hip, and with its uber-designed curvy aseptic looks it is THE must have.
You just hold your all time favorite music in your own palm. Ever felt so close to something that now, more than ever, you really own and have total possession and control of?
I don't think so. And the masterminds of the porn industry know how that feels. So just use Google and see how many sites that offer for download porn movies in the standard H.264 video, 768kbs, 320x240 hi-res ZCD format iPod uses have already appeared.
Many. In fact, lots of. Obviously for most downloads you have to pay. But who can afford a $500 excessive gizmo fetish item can spare a few bucks.
If you are not certain about the way the implementation of porn movies on your iPod can be done, don't you worry. There are sites that teach you how to.
So, now it's high time I became sensitive again and present the threats to life, society and God the iPd porn presents. Basically parents are worried that little Timmy would download (let's pay some tribute to South Park and say) Fisting Fireman 9 on his iPod and watch it far from parental censorship and guidance. That wouldn't bring joy to anyone, would it?
Well, assuming Timmy's parents are responsible adults their home pc has already a cyber porn filter installed so their child will never have access to adult oriented sites.
And if he really wants to get porn (on his iPod photo or not) Timmy will certainly get porn, with or without cyber patrol like programs running on his home and school computer.
Fact is you can't fight and win porn and the same applies to natural curiosity. And don't you worry, in no time cyber filters for iPod downloads are found to pop on the market. For a certain fee, of course. So if it's not the porn industry it's the anti-porn industry that will eventually benefit from your money.
The second issue, the one regarding the eventuality of employees watching porn at work due to the iPod facilities is almost not worth discussing as the ones who will do that I can bet are already watching porn at work, so why even bother?
In fact in an office the moral behavior is something essential and I think that, as long as the employees are not horny teenagers, they will be able to establish and maintain a decent and respectful behavior towards their co-workers.
And, for Heaven's sake, just think of the size of that screen! How could anyone (else than the owner of the device) be able to see (and get offended by) what's going on that nano-screen?
Honestly I think that any crusade against porn is futile and eventually will cause the crusaders more harm than accepting porn as something that exists because people want it and pay for it. Remember Adam and Eve and their banishment from Heaven? Just forbid something and people will suddenly become terribly interested. Story as old as mankind itself.
