Porn losses
From Debra Lake Sir: Congratulations to Tania Kindersley on an excellent article and for daring to air the ills of pornography (The degradation of the species', 8 December). Like her, it leaves me feeling sad. I realise that the pornography genie is out of the bottle but I would like to be able to choose not to watch it — a freedom that is becoming harder to find. I cannot help wondering why pornography has gone from being unacceptable to necessary to many, or, to put it another way, from covert to overt.
In our society, debased by the loss of social values, beliefs and lasting relationships, perhaps pornography, rather than stimulating the watcher, actually numbs the senses, taking the mind away from reality. In pornography, sex is seen in isolation away from caring relationships, love, conversation, responsibility, laughter and childbirth. It's only a fantasy' is often declared in its defence. However, when it creates such dissatisfaction that both men and women seek to alter their bodies through the use of hormones, steroids and surgery, where is the fantasy?
Our bodies are no longer used for the purposes for which they are intended. The incidence of breast cancer in women is now at its highest. Yet it is unusual for women to use their breasts to feed their babies. Instead our children are fed on cows' milk, leaving their immune systems vulnerable to infection.
Our surgeons routinely perform silicon breast implants, disfiguring women's bodies and risking their lives for profit and the illusion of fantasy and satisfaction. The numbers of men with prostate disease are increasing without clear reasons. While the use of pornography increases, our birth rate continues to fall along with male sperm counts. Infertility clinics are full and few people ask why.
I believe that the old saying 'There is no such thing as a free lunch applies here. Pornography and permissiveness will have a price. We need to know what the price is before we buy into it too deeply.
Debra Lake
Weybridge, Surrey
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