Porn has become everyday matter - oversupply numbs senses
Researchers looked into porn in day-to-day life in Finland
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Pornography has become a commonplace, and its oversupply numbs our ability to
construe the meaning of the world communicated to us through images.
This is the message of a new book Jokapäiväinen pornomme -
media, seksuaalisuus ja populaarikulttuuri ("Our daily
porn - media, sexuality, and popular culture") published in Helsinki on Tuesday.
The book is edited by researchers Kaarina Nikunen, Susanna Paasonen, and Laura Saarenmaa, who, together with other writers, analyse the impact of pornography - mostly of the softer, entirely legal kind - on our media culture from the point of view of gender and sexuality.
"Essentially, it was my personal experiences with the changes in the sexual atmosphere that motivated me to tackle the subject", explains
Nikunen.
"My first article on the subject dates back ten years. Since then, there
has been a significant increase in the supply of porn."
Paasonen emphasises that the editors deliberately avoided including foreign articles in their work. "We wanted the book to
deal with the relationship between porn and everyday life in our domestic surroundings."
The writers claim that porn has very much become part of the mainstream culture. "Porn becomes transparent, and we no longer notice that we are
looking at it", the authors point out.
Saarenmaa remarks that the book deals with porn in a wider sense. The authors have included in their study the late-edition tabloids such as
Ilta-Sanomat and Iltalehti, street ads on billboards and lampposts, and other not-so-obvious sources of porn.
"It is not a question of need for control and banning, but rather of the skill to unravel and understand the images and their meanings."
According to Saarenmaa, analysing one's own actions widens the scope of our understanding in general. The researchers call for the ability to
decipher media more critically.
Saarenmaa has included in the book an article that she wrote about tabloid pin-up girls and their "candid confessions". "I am intrigued by
the combination where a woman's job description includes notions of 'the self' and 'the body'."
The interviews, accompanied by "soft porn" style pictures, deal with the girls' boyfriends as well as their studies.
"What kind of a role is it, where a person's job description is to talk about her love life?" ponders Saarenmaa.
Expressing one's sexual needs has become increasingly easy. "It has become an outright civic skill. And sex appeal has become a basic value", the writers assert.
The book also sheds light on theories and criticism of porn, and provides background information for the porn debate.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 14.4.2005 - TODAY |
 Porn has become everyday matter - oversupply numbs senses
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