Pornography and Extramarital Affairs Simply

Pornography and Extramarital Affairs

SIMPLY CONNECTED

Today's therapists consider pornography the newest kind of mental health problem, which plagues marriages. This aberration is easily satisfied through the convenience of the internet and mobile phone. It threatens marital happiness and discourages future marriages. It has extensive social costs and extensive social damage that the Surgeon General has called it a personal health hazard that must be promptly and adequately dealt with. This new form of sexual addiction is so serious that it may be listed as a psychological disease. This study will endeavor to establish that men who use pornography tend to engage in extramarital affairs as a consequence.

Introduction

The Problem -- A 2004 sociological study revealed that internet users who had extramarital affairs were 3.18 times more likely to indulge in online porn than those who did not have such affairs (Anonymous, 2012). An online statistics company reported that about 40 million regularly indulge in online pornography. This habit has been compared to an addictive drug, which is not smoked, injected or snorted, yet has the neuro-chemical effects of addition. It thus threatens the solidarity of marriages and family and the destruction of long-term marital happiness (Anonymous). It is a growing menace, which ensnares and controls young and old and both sexes, but especially men. Men, who view pornography, are more likely to have extra-marital affairs, than men who do not view pornography.

Relevant Theory -- The Theory of Extramarital Affairs states that married couples who cheat do so out of boredom, indifference, revenge or a loss of feeling from the other spouse (Blessing, 2013). A nationwide survey showed that one out of every 5 married persons cheats his or her spouse. This redounds to 28% of married men and 18% of married women who admitted to extramarital relations. Boredom was reported as the major or most frequent reason for the extramarital relations. Married life has become predictable and boring to them and they look out to new excitements outside. The theory also states that indifference in the other spouse, revenge or a lack or loss of feeling for his or her opens the gates to thrills and attention to and from persons outside marriage. This theory uncovers the basis for the drift of attention and interest in the person, especially the husband, from his wife and their marriage to accessible thrills like pornography. He need not leave the home or be blamed for a direct and actual affair.

Related Research/Literature Review

An anonymous author (2012) called strong attention to the virulence of pornography as similar to that of synthetic drugs. These can influence the three pleasures in the brain, namely arousal, satiation, and fantasy. Renowned clinical psychologist Victor Cline explained that pornography addiction goes through four phases. Repeated exposure is accompanied by masturbation. Pornography becomes preferred to normal intercourse. Then desensitization sets in. What is normal is perceived as repulsive and what used to be repulsive as normal. And lastly, the addict acts out and turns visual fantasy into a reality, that is, an extramarital affair (Anonymous). Besides extramarital affairs, the addiction may show up in other forms of promiscuity. These include voyeurism, exhibitionism, group sex, rape, sadomasochism, or child molestation. It is so serious that pornography addiction may be added this year to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for its social consequences. The plague of pornography must be immediately and adequately addressed.

Social scientific research has found that pornography contributes to sexual aggression in men against women as well as induces extramarital sex (Wright, 2011). The cross-sectional General Social Survey, conducted between 1973 and 2010, showed the influence of pornography towards teenage sex, premarital and extramarital sex. Extramarital sex was also found to have been with more sexual partners, some of them paid. The study also concluded that the number adult American males who indulge in pornography increased only slightly during the period (Wright).

Pornography has become easily accessible through the internet (Matz, 2009). The 2008 Nielsen online survey said that 25% of U.S. employees alone watch porn in the internet at work despite the risks. The American Academy of Matrimonial Laws and the British Nielsen organization pointed to it as a major cause of marital breakups and other relationship problems. Pornography focuses on extramarital sex, multiple partners and impulsive sex with unknown partners as the more thrilling adventure. This preoccupation and easy access to porn caught therapists by surprise and unprepared. They consider this sexual addiction the newest and most challenging mental health problem (Matz)."

Economists from Notre Dame and Brigham Young University conducted a social survey from 200 to 2004 and found that those who used pornography rated higher in divorce and extramarital and lower in marital happiness as well as with life (Weiss, 2012). Inversely, researchers from Wayne State and Eastern Michigan University in 2004 disclosed that those who were happily married were 61% less likely to indulge in internet pornography. Those who habitually watched x-rated films admitted to extramarital affairs at 65.1%. The researchers interpreted the results to mean that pornography is an important risk factor of an unhappy marriage and a deterrence of future marriages. A 2008 study of more than 800 young adults, aged 18-26, showed that a greater acceptance of pornography led permissive sexual attitudes, which discourage future marriage. Daily use led to 5 times more casual sexual partners than non-users (Weiss).

Infidelity can be sexual or emotional (Fife & Weeks, 2007). Either way, it has been facilitated by technological advancements in the recent centuries, prominently pornography. Despite the so-called modernized or sophisticated attitudes towards sex and marriage, infidelity or extramarital relations still constitute a betrayal to marital vows and commitment. Infidelity or unfaithfulness can occur with pornography because it violates the commitment to sexual exclusiveness with the spouse. Pornography can now be conveniently accessed through mobile phones as well. Future extramarital partners are contacted through these gadgets (Fife & Weeks).

The extent of the seriousness of the threat of pornography led the Surgeon General to announce that the use of internet pornography has become a significant social and personal health hazard, which warrants the immediate attention and action from all concerned (Eberstadt & Layden, 2010). Women are specifically harmed by pornography addition and eventual extramarital affair. Wives in North American and Western European culture expect marital relations drawn from mutual respect, honesty, shared power and romantic love. Internet pornography has been establishing the opposite of these. A nationwide representative study in 2004, involving 531 internet users, found that those among them who had extramarital affair were thrice as many as internet user. Those who engaged in internet pornography placed less value on sexual fidelity and more on casual sex. Those who are habitual pornography users also became more aggressive as compared to those who were exposed to non-sexual material (Eberstadt & Layden).

Author Leckie (2003) attempts to decipher the representation of adultery in James Joyce's major work, "Ulysses," in the Eumaeus episode, along with censorship (Leckei, 2003). The divorce-court journalism approach provided Joyce with a framework for his representation of adultery and in a familiar language. This framework presents adultery in a familiar and easily discernible language (Leckie).