from www.winnipegsun.com- With cyber porn available 24/7, the multi-billion dollar industry is changing our social landscape in ways some believe we’re only beginning to understand.
Edmonton-based psychologist Doris Vincent [pictured] calls the Internet-based entertainment the “crack cocaine of porn.”
Almost her entire practice consists of men seeking help for sexual addiction –many of them well educated, successful white-collared business men.
“How many times can you try crack cocaine on an occasional basis?” Vincent asks. “Porn is designed to offer you something once, and the next time, it isn’t so exciting so we try something a little further on the edge.”
Vincent’s position might sound stringent, but she offers a fairly compelling reason for reining in the desire for new highs.
Her clients are on the brink of losing their partners and, often, their families.
“He wants to be alone with the computer and close the doors. It’s not safe to dabble with this. It’s a slippery slope toward addiction.”
Part of the problem is the growing accessibility of X-rated material, which once required some effort, like going to an adult store to buy a video.
The material itself is also changing. Magazines such as Playboy and Hustler now seem quite innocent in comparison to what else is available.
Larry Flynt, the famous founder of the Hustler empire, says in the ’90s alone his circulation of three million dropped to about 500,000. Flynt attributes the shrinking numbers directly to the Internet.
The subject of porn isn’t one that 58-year-old documentarian Robin Benger is very comfortable with. When the CBC asked him to work on a film about the business, he initially recoiled.
Benger ultimately accepted the assignment and the result is Porndemic (airing tonight on the CBC’s Doc Zone at 9 p.m.).
It’s an exploration of the those who’ve joined the fastest growing branch of any addiction movement, Sex Addicts Anonymous.
Benger brought his misconceptions with him to an annual Vegas porn convention — where he learned an eyeful.
“I assumed that porn was oppressive to women, and that they would all be skeletal, plasticized bimbos, but they weren’t.
“It’s a very obvious thing that people assume, that the women are there against their will and that the men are all gung ho, — but I’d have to say that 80% of the people I met were in porn willingly.”
He also learned that his 14-year-old son had already seen X-rated clips on a computer.
One Alberta-based study found that 70% of boys had their first experience with sex through online porn.
“The Internet makes everything too light, too easy,” says Benger.
But, the aftermath can be all too real for some.
“We’re creating a new expectation of highs. It’s not about connecting with a partner, it’s about novelty and extremes. It does not build intimacy between a couple, and that kind of intimacy and closeness is what’s going to last in the long run.”