If you voted in Long Beach last week, you probably voted on county Measure B, which makes pornography actors wear condoms while “acting.”
The majority of voters supported the measure at the polls, which means we like our porn stars STD-free, thank you!
This law not only protects the porn star but also portrays safe sex, which could influence the viewer to use condoms the next time they have sex too.
With the amount of people watching porn these days, we would want them to get the message that having safe sex is important and can save a life. By watching porn stars have sex with condoms, that message might just be received.
The law doesn’t, however, protect the mental and emotional health of the porno viewer at the same time.
Promoting safe sex through pornography is wonderful, but how about promoting realistic sex through pornography?
If watching porn stars get it on with condoms makes viewers go out and have sex with condoms too, then porn has a pretty strong influence on peoples’ sex lives.
If porn is shaping the perceptions that viewers have on how sex should be in real life, then porn has bigger problems than just the lack of condom use.
Have you seen how porn stars look these days?
Forget the condoms; just the ideals they set on what makes a person sexy is severely damaging for a viewer.
Half the time, you’re sitting there wondering if that’s two people having sex, or a horse and a woman. What regular guy can live up to those standards?
According to porn, men should do nothing but work out all day and keep going like the Energizer Bunny. We no longer have porno movies, we have porno series. They never end!
What about poor women who watch porn? She’s probably thinking to herself, “I can’t make my voice go that high!”
Plastic boobs, fake hair, fake nails, trashy clothing and a waist you can only get with an eating disorder.
What real woman looks that way?
The even more disturbing part is, not only is porn setting unrealistic standards of what men and women should live up to, but they’re also setting unrealistic standards of what men and women should expect from each other.
Men now expect high pitches, and women expect anacondas.
Looks aside, what about the unrealistic story-lines? Who knows how many pizza delivery guys have been sexually assaulted as a result of porn? Mail men are no longer expected to just deliver the mail – they’re expected to deliver a whole lot more.
Porn is telling viewers that unless they’re having group sex in some type of prison scene, there’s something out of the ordinary about what they’re doing at home.
The point is, voters did a good job protecting the health of porn stars. Now something needs to be done to protect the mental health of those watching.
Standards need to be set on porn that makes the sex portrayed more realistic and less damaging of the self image and esteem of viewers, who can’t possibly live up to those standards.
The men and women doing the “acting” need to look and behave like the men and women who are watching.
At the very least, plug some warning in credits telling people they “may be influenced by the unrealistic standards in this movie.”
Now that we’ve protected the porn star, next election we should protect the health of the viewer, because you shouldn’t have to emotionally and mentally suffer while you’re trying to enjoy some porn. Unless you’re into that.
Jack Chavdarian is a senior journalism major and an assistant social media editor for the Daily 49er.
