Pornography a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Pornography A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on Pornography The issue of pornography -- usually phrased as the "problem of pornography" is a perennial one, at least in the United States with its conservative Christian heritage and current political and cultural climate. Pornography has both a narrow legal definition -- which is something that has no cultural, social, or artistic merit -- and a broader social definition, which generally means anything with explicit sexual content.

This paper examines the ways in which pornography is typically defined as a problem in American society, including what are generally seen as the causes of pornography and its consequences for both the individual and society at large. The theoretical perspective used for this paper is that of symbolic interactionism, which is one of the major theoretical perspectives used by sociologists. The most important aspect of symbolic interactionism is both a theoretical element and a methodological consideration: Symbolic interactionist theorists focus on micro-scale social interaction.

In key ways, this perspective moves sociologists closer to the ethnographic tradition of anthropology that also focuses on the dynamics of daily life as constituting the fabric of culture and society (Lauer & Lauer, 2007, p. 7). Traditionally sociologists have taken a macro or top-down approach to society, looking primarily at social institutions such as organized religion, the educational establishment, government, and the healthcare system.

Those sociologists who work primarily with a functionalist perspective still use such an approach, arguing that people's behaviors and beliefs are conditioned by the large social institutions in their world and the powerful people who control such institutions. However, those who use a symbolic interactionist approach believe that society is built up from the millions of small interactions among people and that these interactions determine the course and shape of the large social institutions.

Another important aspect of social interactionism, and the reason that it seems particularly appropriate for an analysis of pornography, is that this model posits that people base their actions toward the world around them and all of the objects in it as a result of the personal meanings that those things have for each individual. These meanings arise through the accumulation of social interactions between the individual and the world, including the interactions that the individual has with other people.

These meanings, derived from those accumulated social interactions, are not static but are constantly changed and revised through interpretations on the part of the individual within their social context (Lauer & Lauer, 2007, p. 7). Pornography as a social phenomenon is defined almost entirely through the ways in which individuals react to the images or texts that contain explicit sexual content. To some people, explicit sexuality is not problematic; for them, the concept of pornography is barely relevant since the sine qua non-of pornography is social opprobrium.

However, even for individuals who do not find sexuality problematic, in contemporary American society they will certainly be aware of the fact that many of their neighbors or fellow workers will disapprove of their lack of disapproval of pornography (Lauer & Lauer, 2007, p. 47). Moreover, for nearly all people, there are categories of sexually explicit texts or imagery (including still photographs, drawings, and videos) that are not acceptable and should therefore be categorized as pornographic.

So that an adult who enjoys masturbating while watching a video of two other adults having sex and sees this activity as an acceptable and in fact healthy and joyous celebration of her or his sexuality will in most cases be horrified to see a video in which a child is being forced to have sex or anyone is being raped (Lauer & Lauer, 2007, p. 44).

Because an individual's reactions to pornography are directly and fundamentally related to that person's understanding of the meaning of sexuality, the symbolic interactionist approach seems to be the best fit of all of the major sociological perspectives. One of the additional strengths of this perspective is that it easily accommodates a range of different understanding of any phenomenon.

It can explain why one individual sees pornography as one entirely acceptable aspect of sexuality while it can just as easily explain why others see it either as a sign of perversion (for those who hold conservative attitudes toward sexuality) or exploitative (as many feminists do).

Individuals who see pornography (at least pornography involving consenting adults) do not generally consider it to be a problem to be addressed and so do not see the need for any "solution" to the use of pornography, except that they may see the need for more regulation to protect children or to protect sex workers from contracting STDs. Such individuals see the conditions that produce pornography as simply being the expression of human sexuality and the consequences as either benign or healthy (Lauer & Lauer, 2007, p. 4).

Individuals who see pornography as a perversion of human sexuality are likely to see the causes of pornography as being immorality. This in turn can be linked to a range of other.