Is pornography bad? That question is not rhetorical.

A recent LTE got the gears turning on this subject. I don't really even remember the writer's main point (something about the evil of pornography) but two words did stick. The writer of the letter said pornography "dehumanized" and "objectified" people.

Dehumanizing... Really? In what way? If there's one thing people love to do, it's get their rocks off. Wouldn't denying them that pleasure be more dehumanizing than encouraging it?

Objectifying... hmm. Yes, I suppose you are looking at people as sexual objects when enjoying pornography, but are those people not willing participants? (If not, it's not pornography; it's some kind of horrible rape-slavery combination.) I mean, if a bunch of willing adults get together and say, "Hey, let's fuck on camera for money," that's a very proactive, subjective set of actions, is it not?

Theoretically, I had to say no to my non-rhetorical query about the moral rightness of pornography. In the interest of science, though, I performed some research on the Internet.

After an extensive survey, my findings indicate that, certainly, a lot of pornography is distasteful to a lot of people, even to me. But if we define pornography as the big-dick, big-tittie, amazing feats of sexual acrobatics and stamina stuff that is produced in the U.S., I have to say it doesn't seem so bad. It's a business. All participants are paid well and, from what I understand, screened for STDs. What's the problem? If you don't like it, you don't have to watch it. To me, it's offensive to watch Rambo kill people so I simply don't watch Rambo. It's not like nobody should make movies like that. What's the big deal if some people want to get down on camera?

Back to my research: Yes, there is a lot of pornography out there that should absolutely be banned. Anything involving minors needs to go, obviously, but a lot of stuff that comes from overseas kind of makes you wonder if the adults involved don't have guns to their heads just off camera. I didn't watch much of that stuff because there's no way of knowing whether my suspicions were grounded in fact or if they arose out of cultural bias.

Either way, for pornography to be good, it has to involve consensual adults. In the best stuff out there, the participants really do seem to enjoy their jobs. One clip that I found particularly -- ahem -- informative started out with the young woman being interviewed about her career. She was clear-eyed, well spoken, smiling genuinely (and if it wasn't a genuine smile, she deserves an Oscar)... After the interview, you got to watch her fuck like a banshee. It was hard to have a problem with it, really. If I weren't such an asexual science nerd, I might have actually found it a bit appealing.

So I'm going to say no, pornography in and of itself is not bad. In fact, it can be quite good. No denying that it takes a special kind of talent to do that.