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Watching pornography is an unspoken taboo in our modern society.

Before we begin I’d like to start by saying: I am a woman and I watch porn.

I am not one of those women who read romance novels. I would rather see the real thing than have unrealistic visualizations about two fictional characters. Sadly, women think reading sexual novels is safer than watching pornography.

To each his own concerning this matter, but I utterly believe that reading romance is way more dangerous than watching two people—or more—having sex. I know plenty of women who read sexual novels and what I see from them is that they have unrealistic views about relationships, sex and men. Those books can have awful effects on the woman’s psyche and women do not realize it.

Women mostly have stayed away from porn because they believe it to be “wrong.” Our society as a whole perpetuates this view of pornography being immoral. Truth is, everyone is secretly on a porn site, but we’re too ashamed to admit it. When we’re asked whether we watch pornography or not, we flip out and repulsively say: yuck!

We always talk about the disadvantages of porn: How it can affect our relationships, how it can turn us into porn addicts and how it gives us false expectations.

But porn isn’t wrong—we are. Take smoking for instance. If I don’t have the tendency to smoke, I will rarely think about grabbing a cigarette. Even if all the smokers in the world are smoking around me, I will not be interested in taking one.

Same goes for porn. If we have the tendency to get addicted, we will get addicted. If we don’t know what we want in our relationship, porn will definitely affect it. Nevertheless, if we approach porn just like anything else in our life, it will be no less than having a burger in a regular restaurant on a normal day.

For once, let’s talk about the pros of watching pornography. Personally, porn was of great help in my life and I am not ashamed to admit it. Below are five positive aspects of porn that I have experienced and know other people have as well:

1. Discovering your body.

I utterly believe that porn help us feel at ease with our bodies. It makes us love ourselves, love our bodies and feel at comfort with our sexuality. Unfortunately, human bodies are rarely discussed in society. We talk about the actual act of sex but never about its instruments. Hence, watching other people naked can bring about another perspective of the human body––especially ours.

Watching porn helps us feel familiar with our bodies. Not everyone has a fruitful sexual life, therefore not everyone has the chance of discovering what truly lies underneath our clothes. Porn serves as a great door to stepping into the world of nudity.

I highly believe that nudity is art and everybody is a painting that has its own sparkle. Porn is the museum of those paintings. We should be open to seeing other people’s bodies and discover ours in return.

2. Watching what you can’t do.

Porn utterly acts as a gateway of what we are curious about. Also, it is the safest way to explore what we will never be capable to do in real life. Each one of us has fantasies but not everyone is able to fulfill them. Reasons differ for every person but in the end few are the ones who meet with their fantasies face-to-face.

Watching porn gives us the chance to mentally satisfy ourselves with what we wish to do in reality. If we aren’t capable of physically pursuing what we dream of, we can finally watch it. Porn is absolutely a fantastic aid of refraining from giving ourselves a hard time concerning what we can or can’t do.

3. Exploring you sexuality.

Porn brings up what we truly want in bed. It helps us discover new facets in our sexual life that we didn’t know existed before. Through porn we will depict our likes and dislikes in sex. Moreover, we will explore sexuality in a whole new and different way.

I highly think that without porn our sexual life will be somehow limited. We will perform according to what our instincts know. However, watching pornography will open the door to us to acknowledge what we are capable of as human beings.

4. Learning new things.

Porn is a great school for sex. Nowhere else will we see the real act of intercourse other than porn sites. Watching pornography will teach us about the attitude to have in sex. Also, we will learn new positions we might not be familiar with before. Not to mention the benefits of learning new techniques and mastering them.

I consider porn an immense help to enhancing our performance in our sexual life. Especially in a long-term relationship, new positions and new techniques won’t do our partners any harm. Instead couples might learn something pleasurable that will satisfy both of them in the long run.

5. It’s fun.

Come on. Watching porn is fun. It doesn’t always have to lead to masturbation and arousal. We can seriously watch porn out of fun without having any intention of touching ourselves. We can easily find those hilarious clips on porn sites or simply watch something that doesn’t get us off anyways. We could break out the popcorn, search for vintage clips, animation, or any other vid that might tickle our fancies.

Porn in moderation is never wrong. To watch pornography doesn’t mean that romantic intimacy is replaced or that we will get addicted. There is no right or wrong in this world. Religion and society defined for us what will be harmful instead of letting us decide for ourselves. Hence, if you like porn, watch it and don’t be shy to admit it. You are human. Be proud of it and benefit from it.

 Relephant:

What Porn Really Does to a Relationship.

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Author: Elyane Youssef

Editor: Travis May

Photo: John D./Flickr Daniel Jugger Segundos/Flickr