It never fails that any discussion of pornography is met by accusations of a prudish, "anti-sex" attitude driven by religious fanaticism. Neither does it ever fail that proponents believe pornography to be widely accepted by the broader public; that they represent the mainstream of public opinion and that it's just a dwindling group of old or especially conservative know-nothings who can't accept change who remain opposed. And also, maybe you just hate "sex workers" and can't respect other people's free choices and all that.
According to
Gallup's annual survey on moral issues, not only is pornography conceptually struggling for public acceptance a lot more than the media portrays, but in fact it has become less accepted over the last couple years.
2018:
43% say OK
55% say not OK
2019:
37% say OK
61% say not OK
2020:
36% say OK
61% say not OK
This appears to be a reversal of the previous upward trend in public support...which seems to suggest that the theory industry advocates have often advanced that people's lack of support for their business is owned to ignorance is bull$#@!. There have never been more Americans consuming pornography and Americans have never been less religious, and yet public support for porn it appears to be waning.
As you might be able to tell by my tone, or just from following my posts in the past, I'm among the industry's principled detractors, and my motives are not religious (I'm an atheist) or motivated by contempt for "sex workers" (having been prostituted myself in the past). I don't hold a lower view of people who consume pornography. It's made to be biologically addictive (at least for men anyway). I do have a low opinion of pornographers though.
The problems I have with the industry are numerous, ranging from the ready availability of content produced without the consent of the female participants (i.e. "revenge" porn photographs and videos, upskirting photographs and videos, videos of actual, non-simulated rape and molestation, etc.) to the simple reality that the wanton proliferation of porn since the turn of the century in particular thanks to the internet has made people's sex lives worse than they were before overall. Some of the more muted ways in which people's sex lives have worsened include the increasing commonality of erectile dysfunction among men (i.e. inability to achieve erection during actual sex) and the fact that
only a minority of women today report "always or nearly always" achieving orgasm during sex today, down from 56% in 1999. Some of the less subtle consequences have included a
dramatic uptick in strangulation of women during "consensual" sex, which has, in many cases, been wielded as a legal cover for cold-blooded murder. Today's young women
often show signs of trauma from theoretically consensual sex because of how violent and abusive the standard practice has become. Is it really any wonder why
younger people, and younger women especially, today are delaying sex and child-bearing longer and having sex less often than their predecessors at the same age despite all of this glorious sexual liberation they've supposedly been handed by the internet?
More:
"A 2019 study published in Archives of Sexual Behavior also confirms links between porn consumption and “adolescent dating violence and sexual aggression,” showing that violent pornography exposure was associated with all types of teen dating violence. In fact, the study reports that “adolescents who intentionally viewed violent pornography were almost six times more likely to report sexually aggressive behavior than those who had not.”
...
Today, a majority of scenes in mainstream porn contain both physical and verbal abuse targeted against the female performers. Psychologist Ana Bridges and her team at the University of Arkansas also found that 90 percent of scenes contained at least one aggressive act (if both physical and verbal aggression were combined). And that’s just the regular stuff. There is even harder material available (the so-called “dark web” material, which is illegal) for those who can afford it — snuff movies where the violence can reach a point of no return for the female victim, including death."
Not trying to say you have to agree with me, just pointing out that there are, in fact, actual reasons why many Americans object to a culture of sexual objectification and they're not all rooted in a religious type insistence upon personal modesty. Label me whatever you want.