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Comment by reader5000 | Hacker News Reader

Please give an example of "society" shaming porn.

It's a pervasive cultural meme. How many times have you heard people talk or joke about "getting caught" or "walking in on someone" viewing porn? Have you ever been working on a friend's computer and joked about accidentally stumbling onto something embarrassing? Have you seen any of a myriad of comedy films which feature porn-related mishaps involving embarrassment? And then of course there's religion: as far as I know, all the major world religions condemn pornography.

It's also considered embarrassing to be walked in on taking a shit. To me, that doesn't imply that mainstream society holds shitting as shameful or immoral, in fact just the opposite.

I would assume most religions do condemn porn but mainstream US society is not religious.

Mainstream US society is fairly accepting of porn. The fact that it's joked about is basically evidence of this. Nobody jokes about e.g. getting caught fucking children, which IS condemned by mainstream US society.

The point is anytime somebody talks about having a problem with porn, there is some kneejerk reaction about how he is just confused by an unenlightened puritanical society, as if he is incapable of deciding for himself whether or not porn is negatively affecting his own life.

> It's also considered embarrassing to be walked in on taking a shit.

Yes, as would getting walked in on having sex with a partner. But in which of those three cases would the joke be on the person getting caught?

> mainstream US society is not religious.

You might be filter bubbled. Most polls I have seen show at least 70% of Americans consider themselves religious.

> Nobody jokes about e.g. getting caught fucking children

Except for lots of comedians, and in fact, the humor comes directly from the fact that society shames the practice (rightfully so).

>mainstream US society is not religious.

Only 17% of Americans are non-religious.

And only 19% of Americans say religion is not very important to them (including the 17% who are non-religious).

A majority, 55%, of Americans say religion can solve "all or most of today's problems."

Perhaps more pertinent, a minority of Americans consider pornography "morally acceptable." Even among Americans ages 18-34.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

http://www.gallup.com/poll/162881/older-americans-moral-atti...

I don't believe, nor anyone else I hope, that the prevalence of jokes are a statistical tell about the true societal gauge of what is moral and immoral. Jokes are made about pedophilia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KyMhpzNNlM), jokes are made about bacon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaK9bjLy3v4), let me know if I'm wrong, but those seem separate from each other on the spectrum of "no-no's." Citing how comedians feel about something is not great in the way of proving a point about how the majority see that thing.

There is a bench on our main road that says 'Watching porn will lose you your JOB FAMILY FRIENDS AND KIDS. PORN WILL DESTROY YOUR LIFE.'

Caps are not my emphasis. Glorious Waco, TX. Two miles away was a billboard of a mother discarding a baby into a garbage can for some anti-abortion campaign.

Once I read the first line I immediatelly remembered that sign on Valley Mills and thought: "could this be a fellow sufferer from Waco?" :-D This reminds me how much I look forward to moving out of Waco this summer.

The one on Valley Mills is much easier on the pornographic indulging soul.

The one I mentioned was near 18th and I35 on the way towards the Planned Parenthood clinic. Haha.

Ah, I didn't notice that one :)

There is a similar anti-porn billboard on I45 just south of Dallas.

Sorry but a bench on the main road in Waco, Texas in no way constitutes mainstream US opinion on porn.

I wonder if it's possible to be addicted to passing judgment and feeling morally superior. There are some, especially in the religious right, that seem to commit a lot of mental energy to things they purport to hate, like sexual deviance and infanticide. From a distance, at least, there seems to be a compulsive quality to it. Why decorate a roadway with messages about awkward or obscene subjects, grabbing your attention and forcing them into your conscious awareness, unless there was some kind of reward? Indulgence in covert fantasies? Or something like schadenfreude?

Go watch some porn in public.

It's not so much watching porn in public... I wouldn't want to see to people having sex in public, but how even talking about it is a verboten subject. Of course, talking about your sex life is probably also problematic, so I don't know. Does society shame porn?

Society (at least in the US) shames the use of porn if you're male (loser, pervert, can't get laid) an praises the use of porn by women (independent, empowered, sexy).

As for the concept of porn itself, it's relegated to other bedroom topics and just doesn't come up in "polite" conversation.

> praises the use of porn by women (independent, empowered, sexy).

I haven't personally observed this, but our society certainly shames the women who perform in pornography.

"""an praises the use of porn by women (independent, empowered, sexy)."""

Only in liberal, upper middle class, circles. Which of course includes most of the wannabe upper-middle-class talking heads and journalists.

Middle class society don't share the "empowered, sexy" view for porn on women at all.

There was an incident with Jannet Jackson showing some tit on the 2004 superbowl concert, and everybody was faux-shocked. Much more for porn.

It's a society of hypocrites and puritans.

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