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What is Therapeutic Porn, and How Can It Be Healthy?

7 min read

Pornography is consumed by individuals all over the world and there are various arguments on whether the consumption of such content is creating healthy standards in society or quite the opposite. What are the positives and negatives and can it really be addictive as they say? 

Many consider the vr porn industry to be obscene and otherwise problematic. Opponents of pornography argue it contributes to sexual violence, oppression of women, and relationship problems. Further, because the images and acts displayed in pornography are sometimes unrealistic, viewing them excessively may leave an individual feeling disappointed by actual sexual encounters.

You’re in the right place if you’re curious about therapeutic porn is and we’ll cover everything from positives to negatives of the effects of the porn industry on todays’ society.

Why do people watch Porn?

Research has shown that use of pornography can, in fact, have beneficial effects as therapeutic porn. Porn being so hugely consumed worldwide is no coincidence, let’s explore some reasons together:

  1. Of course, one of the primary reasons people watch porn is for sexual stimulation and pleasure. Porn can provide visual and auditory stimuli that can be sexually arousing and help individuals experience sexual gratification.
     
  2. Porn can be a fantasy and imagination reliever, a safe place where people can explore their deepest fantasies.
     
  3. Some people watch porn to explore different sexual activities, positions and fetishes.
     
  4. Porn is often used as a visual masturbation aid to enhance sexual arousal and pleasure.

With the evolution of technology, viewing porn is becoming even more of a common activity with the implementation of vr technology and, therefore, vr porn. More and more people are turning to watch vr porn and the reasoning is quite obvious: if you could experience your preferred type of porn content as if you were really physically there, as if it was a real life situation, wouldn’t you prefer to rather than just viewing it on your screen? We thought as much.

Sex Education

Can Pornography be used as Sex Education?

Some people, especially young adults, may look at pornography as a way to learn more about sex. The lack of comprehensive sex education in the schools of some countries has now been a concern for a long time, and even when comprehensive sex education is provided, it can be largely heteronormative and may exclude the LGBTQ+ community. 

Some parents who are aware of this lack choose to have frank discussions with their children or provide them with informational resources on the subject. Others may talk to their children about sex but focus solely on reproduction and leave certain details out. Still others may avoid the discussion altogether, due to embarrassment or because they feel the child is not yet ready. As a result, teens and young adults who receive little to no information about sexual behaviors may turn to pornography to learn about sex. 

While it can be empowering for young people to have access to this information at their fingertips, learning about sex from pornography, heterosexual pornography in particular, may lead to unrealistic expectations and problematic standards.

Using pornography as educational pornography is a topic of debate. While some people argue that pornography can offer information and insights into sexual activities, it is essential to approach this topic with caution and critical thinking. 

7 Benefits of Porn on a Therapeutic Way

People watch porn for a variety of reasons, as it can fulfill different needs and desires. Here is a simple list of 7 benefits of porn:

Porn helps normalize diverse sexual interests

If you are never exposed to sexual practices outside of standard heteronormative representations, it is more difficult to understand and to become comfortable with desires that do not fit that narrow box. Just as sex education helps us learn about the mechanics of sex, pornography is how many people figure out how to relate to their sexualities. Porn is obviously not a replacement for actual sexual education, but it’s a great resource for exploring different sexual practices. For those whose sexuality is commonly shamed or marginalized (women, LGBTQ+ folks, folks who engage in kinky sex, etc.), seeing their desires played out in porn, and thereby normalized, can be incredibly empowering.

Porn makes it easier to discover your sexual orientation and interests

Porn is a great way to find out more about yourself and your sexual preferences, desires and what works for you. There is literally a type of porn for every preference and kink you can imagine. Porn is a safe space to learn about your sexuality in a way that has much fewer emotional or health consequences for yourself or others. For people who do not have opportunities for sexual contact with others for a variety of reasons, porn plays a fundamental part as it may be their only source of sexual information or pleasure.

Porn provides healthy sexuality for both single people and couples

Masturbation is key to a healthy solo sex life, whether you are having partnered sex or not. It affirms as a reminder that you own your pleasure, not a partner.

While porn can be a great source of arousal for single people, it can also increase sexual desire and provide more differentiated options and new ideas for couples. Porn can help couples find new ways to be sexual and provides a way for them to introduce kinks to each other. Furthermore, for monogamous couples with different sex drives, porn can even out these differences by providing diversity for the partner with a higher sex drive and increasing arousal for the partner with a lower sex drive.

Porn Benefits

Porn can help sexual assault survivors reclaim their sexuality

A positive pointer you probably din’t expect to be part of this list is that porn can be an empowering tool for survivors of sexual assault. Engaging in pornographic content can help survivors rediscover their sexuality and determine their pleasure on their own terms in a safer, controlled environment. While some porn can be triggering, the right kind can help rebuild sexual confidence after trauma. Porn can be a comfortable way for survivors to experience pleasure independently and explore their desires in a way that is less intense than partnered sex.

Porn can be a self-affirming form of representation

The porn industry is so wide and varied that there is porn content for almost anything, including videos featuring diverse gender identities, races, abilities, and body types. Presenting marginalized bodies as erotic shows that anyone and everyone can both have desires and be desirable. This type of porn allows us to unlearn the dominant narratives we have been trained to believe by society about which types of bodies are to be considered “sexy” and normalizes the healthier narrative that all bodies are different, normal and sexy.

Although porn, like most mainstream media, is often criticized for being quite homogenous in its representation (i.e. white, thin, cis, and able-bodied), as time goes on more diverse perspectives are becoming more and more represented, increasing people’s self-esteem.

Porn provides a space for female sexuality

There is a common misconception that women don’t have much of a sexual desire or need, and this couldn’t be more wrong. Allowing this false narrative means many women all over the world experience negative judgment when showing interest in sex while also being left unsatisfied by sexual encounters. This is where porn plays its part in female sexuality, as a safe space free of judgment and that affirms the existence of female sexual desires providing a much-needed counterbalance to a culture that represses and shames female sexuality.

Porn is a form of stress relief

We know that masturbation is a proven stress-reducer, and porn supports this relaxing ability. Studies prove that looking at sexual images sparks the same happy hormones in your body that come from masturbation, relieving physical tension and allowing you to relax. Porn can also add to your masturbatory pleasure by increasing arousal and helping to focus.

To conclude our thoughts, we have seen that porn can definitely bring positive and healthy patterns to our sex lives in many ways. As with most things, when consumed appropriately and with the correct perspective and information, porn can be therapeutic porn and an asset to elevate our sexual experiences rather than becoming a social problem.