7 days in the life of a porn addict – Daily Intel
2009 April 2
The banality and self-loathing of living with a porn habit is highlighted in this Daily Intel feature.
A middle-aged musician from New York diaries his porn-addled urges for a week. It provides a glimpse of the ongoing objectification, confusion, issue-dodging and bouts of self-loathing that accompany his habit. For many readers, this might feel very familiar.
Here’s a telling entry from the end of day 7:
2:45 p.m.: I’m getting sick of this log. While I’m generally able to talk/think/write about sex indefinitely, the awareness of the degree to which I watch porn and masturbate is bumming me out.
10 p.m. Jerk off anyway.
2 Responses
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Define “objectification”.
Who is getting “objectified”?
Is it not simply a money making exercise based in prostitution, with the ultimate victim being the addicted user.
“Objectification” is a relic of the old gynocentric anti-porn era. E.g. if you are opposed to porn, all of your arguments against must relate to how women are victims.
I think we are beginning to move into a more androcentric anti-porn; where the damages on the masses of porn-addicted men is the central concern.
I think it’s best to drop the terminology invented by the gynocentric 1970s’ anti-porn debate, e.g. “objectification”.
I don’t refer to ‘objectification’ in an anti-porn or feminist theory context. I use the term to describe an outlook or state of mind commonly experienced by men struggling with a compulsive porn obsession.
But I do take your point. Generally speaking, the damages on the masses of porn-addicted men is indeed the central concern here.