Ok, the topic title is a bit open, but I am here to make a serious statement. I am seriously going to try and give up pornography. Yes, the all-american perv from Texas is going to try and give up pornography. I started looking at that stuff, when I was a young kid, out of curiosity. However, at this stage in my life, it's just to fill the sexual void and has become a habit just to get the edge off or what have you. Basically, what I'm saying here is, porn has not made me any happier in my life, nor has it changed anything. It really does nothing for me except get my trouser snake to stand at attention like a soldier in the military. It really has no true value to me it even now it has become uninteresting to the point where I don't care to watch. The only reason I have is because it just became part of my daily routine. So, I'm going to try to give it up to fulfill other desires I have, and maybe something that may make me happier as a person. Instead of wasting 30 minutes plus chokin' chickens, I could be doing something more constructive or more fulfilling. So, yeah. There you have it.

Yeah, good luck with that.

In all seriousness, Syn, good for you. It is a serious plague to nearly all of us men, and takes a lot of heart to so much as see how it doesn't do anything to help you at all, much less overcome the temptation.

I truly believe pornography has its benefits. While it is true that it can become anything from a mere waste of time to a fully destructive addiction, we by nature, especially as men, have a need to feel accessibilty to the female form.

Society has done a horrible disservice to men (and possibly women) by repressing so much of what is natural and beneficial to our mental, physical, and spiritual health.

I always use this example when talking about this subject. Different cultures have different standards. In the US the naked face, arms, and legs are fully accessible and acceptable in the public, as are certain shows of affection between individuals, like kissing, hugging, holding hands, and giving shoulder massages. In certain places in the middle east, much of the women is covered (sometimes even their face) and displays of affection tend to be prohibited, maybe even strictly forbidden. Yet in a place like France, it is not uncommon to encounter toplessness in women, and many places in Europe and South America are very receptive to minimal clothing in the public view.

My belief is that society has turned things like natural and healthy nudity or nakedness INTO pornography. The depravity do to the actual inaccessibility as well as the condescending attitude toward these things have made pornography into a "unnatural" gratification to fulfill or replace what should be there unapologetically from the start for our personal and social well being.

In my opinion, monogamy as well is a type of pornography to our (at least our as men's) natural state, due to its repressiveness of openess (mentally, physically, and spiritually) towards others beside your "significant" other.

For me, pornography has allowed me to escape putting women on pedestals as I used to by seeing them more as human (even as celebrated and appreciated fellow animal) instead of how religion has trained me to see them, as goddesses or angels, which somehow are more worthy than men instead of naturally different but social and spiritually equal.

In the same way pornography is thought to degrade women, it becomes a useful tool to overcome the traditions and norms (like religion and monogamy) that have a history of use to suppress men's healthy natural instincts, ultimately causing these instincts to be tools for both self and social loathing, and in that sense degrading men.

I think pornography helps us embrace and celebrate who we are (both men and women) without all the pretension, fear, and unhealthy loathing that we otherwise let be put on ourselves.

However, if you feel that you either have no use for it or are done with it, I do respect that.

*slaps forehead* He's not asking you to give him every reason to change his mind!

@Draygone

You are correct and I noticed how much I wrote after I sent it but still decided to leave it. I even noticed that after all I said I ended with the statement you separaterly quoted. So I can't argue with that. But I honestly don't know what is appropriate for this forum. Honestly, why do we care that he is giving up chokin' chickens unless he wants to maybe 'Generally discuss' it? And if he can continue to find support for his next step ("It is a serious plague to nearly all of us men") I think it is important that I speak up for nearly all of us men, including him by reassuring him that maybe he need not feel the need to give it up due to guilt. And if it is not guilt than I bring it up to address whatever reason that motivated him to actually go through the effort to create a topic to tell us about it and in that sense, get us involved, interested, and invested, when he could have been doing something "more constructive and more fulfilling." Maybe he wouldn't consided my response necessary to his fulfillment but I do believe it is constructive to the issue at hand.

EDIT: Although I do admit, it might be fair based on his election to consider my arguments to be deconstructive, and in this sense, maybe someone can PM me to let me know whether or not these "General Discussion" topics are exclusively for positive support instead of constructive criticism.

I just assume that he was talking about he, himself, and him, thus he was looking for support or wanted to make it more official to himself by announcing it to everybody. Wasn't anything he said about other guys.

And it's not something I enjoy about myself, either, so right now it's 3-vs-1 in the whole "is it okay" deal. And no, I don't want to discuss it.
Gosh, I miss my innocense.

(Apologies to the topic maker. More power to you.)

As far as wondering why I'm posting this, it's just something I felt like sharing that could be discussed if anyone wanted to. I don't share entirely too much with the forum, but since I felt this was something big for me, I didn't think sharing it would be all too bad. And I'm not giving it up for guilt or for someone else, this is strictly because it's something I want to do for the reasons I have already stated.

@Syn - That works. If it's something you want to do then gl. I personally use porn as a time saver. It's faster to pull up a vid than it is to call up a FwB.

@Bo - But in the same way I'd say porn can actually be very detrimental if you don't go about it with the correct mindset. For pretty much the exact same reasons you posted, porn can make a man feel isolated, alone. It can create a lot of bad emotions aimed at the one watching it.

(It can't. But the person can use it as a reason for those feelings. That's what I'm saying.)

But yeah, if you go about it with the right mindset, porn can be a very good thing.

lol... you don't tell this forum a lot. just the really dramatic bits, right? so usually not what you ate for breakfast. =P

but yeah good on ye, one my friends is trying to give up smoking atm, she practically eats nicotine patches XD ... she's very dramatic too come to think of it. ^^

write a note and put it on your wall.... write... 'don't tug your todger'