Date: January 27, 2010
This is a post I made somewhere, probably out on the “normal” internet…I don’t know if it remained uncensored, or not…but I kept a copy of it…and I’m glad I did.
Many people are uncomfortable with the pictorial, or video, documentation of childhood sexuality. I will admit, in this current social climate, there is no easy answer…
…but, I would never call child pornography “evil”, or outright “bad”, just because it exists.
There have been some good points made in this thread, and amongst them…the overwhelming majority of people, do not have adequate exposure, or experience with, the actual thing in question; whenever they offhandedly condemn child pornography.
Calls for outright prohibition, and outrageous penalties, come from a stance of grossly incompetent ignorance…There is really no justification, for such unfitting reaction.
There is also the practical side of this…that looking at a picture, or watching a video [or holding them in your possession], should never be treated as a “crime”, itself…It is alarmingly dangerous, that things have been allowed to deteriorate to such a point. This is a virtual license, to commit holocaust like expulsions from society, against various sexual minorities.
It is my opinion, that if most people actually got to see, and learn about, the realities of child pornography, to an extent that gained them competent knowledge…then bias against it could no longer be seen as justified. A lot of people would be wondering, what all the fuss has been about.
People react to child pornography, not for what it is…but, for the “phantom menace” which has been painted in their own mind; by “authority” figures, who wont even allow others to explore and discover it; without threat of aggressive and hostile retribution.
People react out of an emotional sense, that something they don’t understand “must be horrible”…and “poor children must be suffering”.
I cannot say that never happens…but, it is not the rule…
There are reasons why people parrot the cliche talking point phrases, whenever they go on a rant about “child pornography”; as though they’ve been given a script, and a cue.
They don’t know how else to categorize it, because their own personal exposure to it is bankrupt…They only have what others tell them about it, to go on when making any kind of opinion.
It reminds me an awful lot, of how people often, effortlessly and without thought, proclaim that the bible, or koran, is “a beautiful book”…out of some sense, that they are obliged to pay them this tribute…It is cultural…and people often do this, even when they, themselves, have barely picked up or read either book.
…I have to say…at best, either one is a very mixed bag…but, people are conditioned to talk in glowing terms, about these texts…and it’s thought to be a foul profanity, to hold either one up, to the acid test of critical analysis…and dare I say, condemn any part of them as vile or unethical [even when, if such things depicted within them were to happen today, they would be considered horrible and evil].
People typically react in “just such” a manner, for the simple reason…that everyone else around them is behaving in that way.
It is all to easy falling into that trap, because it is hard to stand alone for something.
Last, I just wanted to express…If it is beautiful in the flesh…then it should be beautiful in preserved documentation.
Is there really anything immoral about naked children, sexually loving one another on film? Is there really anything immoral, about admiring it?
100 years from now…is anyone going to care in the least, that so much busybody zealotry, and hostile aggression, went into making the lives of anyone who had anything to do with these pictures, a living hell?
You see…we are dealing with a cultural stigma, here…a paradigm…
…a sexual superstition…something to scapegoat.
…and that is not objective reality, nor is it a healthy way to approach, and deal with, issues of social diversity [such as human sexuality is].
We need to be able to step back, out of the fog of indoctrination…and see the entire picture for what it is.
Child pornography panic is a “jim crow”…It spawns from a larger, Victorian style, aggression towards all expression of human sexuality…and deep seeded intolerance, of sexual diversity [often born from organised religion].
Fact is…an unimaginable amount of “stuff” in this world gets caught by a camera…some of it gets called “child pornography”…some of what has taken place, is factually abusive…some of it is not.
How any child/teen approaches and experiences such a thing, has everything to do with the variables of the situation, and how they have come to think about their own body and sexuality.
I don’t believe in outlawing, something which is naturally healthy and beautiful.
…but even if it were an ugly, hideous thing being captured…I still do not believe in outlawing it, anymore than I believe in outlawing the possession of pictures, depicting murdered Jews during the holocaust.
Not having these kinds of pictures and movies, is going to do nothing to stop the orientation…nor is total deprivation going to do anything, to slow down the hunger and drive.
If anything…for me, anyway…
…after coming online, and going through all those speedo, and nudie newsgroups [and other things I will not admit to] years ago…it has removed the mystique…and given me a much more practical vision, of the average boys anatomy…They are not all fantasy, “super models”…
It was a healthy progression, which “I” needed to experience…It helped me get through some issues, and move on. It also gave me invaluable knowledge, which others cannot deny from me today.
Something like that should not be hidden…and it is my educated opinion, that child pornography is just as ethical, as adult pornography.
What needs to go extinct, is our social paradigm saying “you are damaged goods, if you have anything to do with pornography”.
Pornography, itself, is value neutral.