Chris Quote by Chris Hedges
““The porn films are not about sex. Sex is airbrushed and digitally washed out of the films. There is no acting because none of the women are permitted to have what amounts to a personality. The one emotion they are allowed to display is an unquenchable desire to satisfy men, especially if that desire involves the women’s physical and emotional degradation. The lightning in the films is harsh and clinical. Pubic hair is shaved off to give the women the look of young girls or rubber dolls. Porn, which advertises itself as sex, is a bizarre, bleached pantomime of sex. The acts onscreen are beyond human endurance. The scenarios are absurd. The manicured and groomed bodies, the huge artificial breasts, the pouting oversized lips, the erections that never go down, and the sculpted bodies are unreal. Makeup and production mask blemishes. There are no beads of sweat, no wrinkle lines, no human imperfections. Sex is reduced to a narrow spectrum of sterilized dimensions. It does not include the dank smell of human bodies, the thump of a pulse, taste, breath—or tenderness. Those in films are puppets, packaged female commodities. They have no honest emotion, are devoid of authentic human beauty, and resemble plastic. Pornography does not promote sex, if one defines sex as a shared act between two partners. It promotes masturbation. It promotes the solitary auto-arousal that precludes intimacy and love. Pornography is about getting yourself off at someone else’s expense.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Pornography Industry” by Chris Hedges, 2018
Pornography presents a sanitized, unrealistic version of sex that strips away humanity, intimacy, and authentic emotion, turning participants into objects for solitary gratification.
In simple terms: Porn shows a fake, sterile version of sex, lacking real feeling and intimacy.
Recognize and seek authentic, consensual intimacy over artificial media.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- personal relationships
- sexual education
- media consumption
- mental health
- relationship counseling
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does media shape our expectations of sex?
- What alternatives foster genuine intimacy?
The critique may overlook consensual adult production and the agency of performers.