[cinahuhy]

Ok, this is an old thread, but I wanted to throw in my 2 cents.
I would agree in part with those that said it depends on the individual.
It's my own opinion that it goes a little further than that.

I feel sexuality is part nature, part nurture.
For instance, in my own case, my parents showed simple affection in front of others.... light closed mouth pecks, holding hands, a hug. That was it.
However, I know from items my siblings and I ran across in late teens/early twenties that my father at least was at least into bondage.
I also know from open talks with said siblings, that all of us are, at the very least, into bondage in some form or another. Two of us are also bi-sexual.
This was certainly never taught to us, so our desires must be nature, not nurture.

I also feel, most humans like to watch. Even if they never admit it to themselves. Hence some of the popularity of "porn". IMHO.

I like other women. I like "porn". I like to "watch", and it also heightens my imagination for things I'd like to try myself. It has not changed my opinion of women, but it has broadened my fantasies of what I would like to happen with another woman. Or with a man, or a few of each, what the hell.

Now.... my husband.
He was basically raised the same way I was, as far as displays of affection.
However, I think from talking with him and members of his family, he has always felt a little insecure and had a somewhat skewed opinion of women in general. (doesn't make him a bad person, or a bad husband, just annoying sometimes.)
Also, he spent his late teens/early twenties, impressionable years, in the military overseas. Nothing wrong with that, but a LOT of the women he had contact with were either for hire and rather 2D so to speak, or desperately seeking an American husband so they could come here and hence, also rather 2D.
He also views "porn".
The main difference in our types of porn?
He likes the 2D still pictures. I prefer the 3D movies. If you see my point there. You see interaction in a movie, hear words and sounds, expressions, etc. You don't get that in a still image.
The movies he does watch, he expects the same out of me.

I'm sorry, I can't be still and let someone whale on my ass without moving and complaining rather loudly. It hurts. I do enjoy some light pain now and again, but I'm not a paid actress who's been doing it forever. Neither am I a "pain slut" who would look forward to it.
This last..... simple sexual differences easily worked out through communication. What I can't overcome with communication, so far, is his ingrained expectation. That I, like "every woman", is one of those 2D ladies he's dealt with or a paid actress who's dollar amount depends on how still she is and how well she "takes it".

Did he get this way from porn?
I don't think so.... I think we're back to nature/nurture. Nature for his desire to inflict pain (born sadist) and nurture for his impressionable years spent with the types of women he came across who had an agenda in pleasing who they had sex with.
I mean, I also have an agenda in pleasing him, I love him. But the agenda does not stem from my lively hood or a country I desire to move to.
I DO think, he has made, to some extent, his opinion about women worse. That is has the potential to make how he treats them worse.
That he may continue to expect what he views in 2D images and paid actresses, and well..... good luck with that.

My father also viewed porn, and I've never seen him treat any woman differently, or heard him speak to them differently. Same with my siblings.

Is it "bad" for our society? Yes, for children. They shouldn't be exposed to it until their brains are developed enough to separate it from reality.
Yes, for some adults who already have "something inside them" that will react to it negatively. Back to my husband, I think it affected his relationships with women to some extent, but not anything that can't be worked on. There are individuals out there who will act badly no matter what kind of images or movies they view, and porn could make it worse.
But, so could all the violent movies and games out these days.

I think those protesting against porn so loudly are worried how it will affect themselves and others' opinions of them more so than how it would affect those around them.

Just my opinion.
Feel free to disagree.