So is porn , by it's very nature bad. or is it capitalism, neglect of  teaching about sex, or sexism or some other ism that makes porn bad?

Unattainable, idealized, media body images are all over the place. Porn is one media. It is certainbly not alone. Cosmo and Hollywood and all the others play their part, also.

I do not think demonising a topic helps with solutions.  For me, we certainly need to talk about media and its influence. I also believe we need to acknowledge that we do not provide adequate sex education. Kids should not have been getting their education from National Geographic magazine years ago and they should not now from the Internet. The lasting effects of Puritanism...

Back to media... they are businesses. The goal? Money.

By presenting an ideal impossible or difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits. If you are content with your looks or weight, they have no business.

So, from a business point of view, if you can get what is in porn from a sex partner, why would you watch it? So, to ensure growth and profits the women have to be bustier, the men more endowed...

When "real" partners, "real" sex, pales in comparison, the impossible and difficult to achieve means more room for profits and growth.  

They also cover fetishes that will build an audience and create demand. Create demand and create profits... Cover the niche markets....

Healthy people have boundaries and most require being treated as more than a body part. When it is with the best looking,  as often, as many times, any way, any style/type/position... they set it up that "imaginary" can be/is/becomes better than "real" and you come back for another helping of the imagined. Marketing....

It is not bad, it simply is. It is entertainment. The problem comes when it becomes something else, like a pattern. obsession, or an ideal.

Falling into the trap marketers and profit makers have set for you, that is bad.

I'm going to pro/con this.

Pro for porn:

1. Can help people understand how sex works, preventing harmful ignorance.
2. Keep young men sane.
3. May possibly help reduce male recklessness around women (especially in the teenage years). i.e. it can help channel sexual frustration.
4. Could even help reduce teen pregnancy!
5. Could help reinvigorate a sexual relationship.

Con for porn:

1. Can present an unreal expectation of female (and male) beauty and sexuality. 
2. Can preoccupy someone to the point of addiction.
3. Could awaken desires that could prove to be dangerous and wouldn't have come about without the catalyst of porn.
4. Could lead to criminal charges (accidentally having something that could be construed as child porn on a computer or phone, or something of the sort).
5. Could lead to taking unnecessary risks involved with sex (no condom etc...)

Pro for sex:

1. Real, tangible.
2. Can be cherished, and teaches someone that other people are involved (i.e. reduces selfishness)
3. Culmination of a relationship, a reward.
4. Can teach responsibility.
5. Positive emotions.

Con for sex:

1. Pregnancy.
2. Infection.
3. Negative emotions.
4. Could possibly end up being illegal depending on the ages of the people involved.
5. You don't have control, it's as much in the hands of the other person as your own.
6. Unpredictable.

I'll continue to ponder this.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

I have watched porn.  I don't think it poisons real sex.  That is my opinion.

Why is pregnancy a con?  Some would argue that pregnancy is the main point of sex.  I don't know if I would go that far, but sure from an evolutionary standpoint it is.

Let me revise it by also adding pregnancy to the pro side, but also leaving it on the con side.

And if you really can see why pregnancy can be a con then...well...

...oh dear.

As-salaamu alaikum

-Omni

Amen SG.

People are funny (ed. note.  I am increasingly coming to the conclusion I am an alien, I just don't fit in any more).

Where was I, oh yes:  People are funny.  They are always looking for one single thing that is the root of *all* problems.  They seek one cure for *all* diseases.  But that isn't how life works.  There are as many why's as there are people.

People complicate sex and yet at the same time try and simplify it.  Sex is both complicated and simple.  There are as many reasons for wanting sex and sexual practices as there are people.

This may sound like this alien is saying "throw up your hands and stop seeking solutions" but I'm not.  What I am saying is looking for a single cause and a simple solution to any problem will make people blind to both the big and small picture.

Is porn bad?  Yes to some it has a devastating impact but anything can have a detrimental effect if it becomes all consuming.

Is porn good?  Yes to some it can have a positive impact if it provides an opportunity for greater self awareness.

There are individual and group dynamics at play in every human interaction.  Part of discovering a solution is to look at both and determine what factors from all are causing the problem and then work toward the solution.  If the problem is individual then the solution must come from the individual.  If the problem is the group then the solution must come from the group.  Ignoring one or the other will doom the exercise.

LB

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This poor ersatz Martian is saying that sex is a way to be happy. Sex should be a means of happiness. Ben, the worst thing about sex is that we use it to hurt each other. It ought never to hurt; it should bring happiness, or at least pleasure.
     Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

I think it's an issue of moderation. Watching an occasional "dirty movie" is no big deal. Immersing your life in it would be very harmful. Think of it like alcohol. A beer here and there or a glass of wine with dinner is fine. Getting routinely wasted is not.