Should Pornography be More Restricted by USA Laws - Essay Example

Like it or not, however, the 1st Amendment was specifically written and designed to protect the rights of all people, not just one’s own in-group. The porn industry, via the 1st Amendment, has the right to produce their erotic materials so long as they follow the law. As long as no person depicted is an unwilling participant, as long as no one involved was harmed, the pornography itself is not illegal and the industry that produces it is not doing any harm. At the same time, individuals and organizations that are opposed to pornography also have the right to produce materials condemning pornography for whatever reasons.

As long as those individuals and groups do not commit slander or libel in their efforts, they are also not doing anything wrong or causing harm. Neither the porn industry nor the anti-porn industry can take away the rights of the other group to produce their materials or express their preferences or beliefs. The standpoint of anti-porn groups, however, can sometimes come across as somewhat of a mystery. Erotic material has been prevalent throughout human history and is evidenced in a wide variety of ways.

Take, for instance, ancient Venus statues. Many anthropologists theorize that the statues were seen as symbols of fertility in their culture. The statues are renowned for being testaments to the nurturing quality of women, supposedly in appreciation of their contribution to society as mothers and caretakers. A slightly less popular belief is that Venus statues were also used as masturbatory tools. Hunters and warriors who went on lengthy excursions would take the statues with them in order to have something attractive to look at while they took care of their more intimate needs.

Other cultures are also noted for employing pornographic images for a variety of purposes. Bath houses in Pompei, for example, are reported as having grotesquely pornographic images covering the walls. The images are supposed to have been used for directions within the bath houses. Where today we have locker A3, back then cultures relied more on immediately recognizable images. The fact that those images were typically pornographic in nature attests to the general attitude of acceptance of the human form—in all its gore and glory.

In general, psychologists advise people to not fight their nature, but to merely control it when that nature would most likely cause problems within their society, either for themselves or for others. The principle of “nature says ‘go,’ culture says ‘stop’” is one that is widely accepted within the psychological community (Baumeister & Bushman, 2011). The idea, though, is that culture says “stop” when the action about to be taken is most likely going to be destructive to the wider culture in some way.

For instance, when a person walks in on their spouse cheating on them, and their natural inclination is to beat the offenders to a pulp. That’s nature saying “go.” Culture, however, says that if you indulge in your natural inclination to be violent, you will face consequences of fines, community service, or even jail time. That is culture’s way of saying “stop.” With pornography, there is no widespread empirical data suggesting that the existence of pornography is vastly damaging American