Today, there are a lot more people out there speaking out against pornography on the grounds that it really isn’t a very healthy industry. The more they read the stories of the women and men in pornography, the conditions of their work, the use of drugs, the physical pain, the instances of shady behavior among porn producers, the manipulation, the sexual abuse (both on and off camera), and the spread of STDs, the more people are saying, “If porn is this abusive, I don’t want to endorse it.”
Even when women consent to this lifestyle of abuse, people are still saying, “Look, I don’t care if she’s consenting to being abused. A woman who has forgotten her own dignity does not give me a green light to treat her as an object.”
For more, see Is Porn Bad?: 10 Things To Consider Before Watching.
Introducing Hentai
For many people, this is one of the reasons they enjoy other kinds of pornography that don’t involve live action filming. One genre of porn really corners the market on this, and it’s called hentai.
Hentai is the western label given to anime pornography and is derived from the Japanese word for “perverted.” Over the last generation, hentai has become some of the most popular pornography in the world. In fact, cartoon porn is currently among the most searched for niches of porn on certain Internet devices.
What do we say to this? Is cartoon pornography a more ethical option for porn consumers because it doesn’t involve live action actors?
Less Bad ≠ Good
First, if we find a form of media where women are not physically harmed or degraded in the making of a specific kind of media, this is a good thing. However, it’s also important to note that just because something is better than something else in one respect does not mean it is therefore “good.” Smoking a carton of cigarettes every day might be better than smoking 10 cartons, but smoking one carton should also not be labeled as “healthy.”
3 Reasons Cartoon Porn Is Still Bad
First, anime porn is infused with the same messages and values as live action porn.
It’s all about the degradation and objectification of women for the masturbatory pleasure of men. The female figure portrayed is nothing more than an object for male pleasure. Women are still portrayed as powerless—either powerless over male advances or powerless over her own sexual euphoria that compels her to be used. Anime porn is marketed and sold with messaging as its live action counterpart.
Second, anime porn is just as addictive as live action porn.
Addiction to porn—any kind of porn—is known by the American Society of Addiction Medicine as a “behavioral” addiction, where someone is pathologically pursuing neurological rewards their brain gives them when they engage in certain pleasurable behaviors. All kinds of porn addiction, regardless of whether the actors on the screen are filmed or drawn, are harmful to us because they warp our normal sex drive into something unhealthy and compulsive. Porn might feel pleasurable, but it’s ultimately the enemy of real satisfaction.
Third, anime porn is in some sense worse in its messaging that live action porn because the characters are completely malleable.
Artists can make make the characters look exactly the way they want. Every fetish can be fulfilled, no matter how unreal or bizarre. Artists and consumers can pleasure themselves any kind of abuse and dull their consciences doing it. They can just tell themselves “No one is really getting hurt.” Because the films are animated, this has a disarming effect on the viewer. The consumer needs not practice any compassion for the character because she isn’t real. She’s just a lifeless scribbling of ink.
Hentai pornography is known showing the gross mistreatment of women through horrific acts of bestiality and even images of children having sex. Can we commend the makers and consumers of this material because they aren’t using real people—“I don’t like it when real children are abused, but I really like to get off to images of cartoon children getting abused.” Is this virtuous or healthy to shape our libidos around this kind of material?
Don’t be fooled. When people justify this kind of material, they’re often asking the wrong question. They’re often saying, “Who isn’t abused in the making of this pornography?” The real question they should be asking is, “Who is abused in the making of this?” The answer is: the viewer himself.
Bruh too much of anything is bad we all know that. Don’t go blaming hentai/porn for you not knowing how to watch in moderation. Religion also isn’t fact. It is something that you personally believe in. Therefore, that makes this a biased article, not something based on proven fact.
This says porn degrades women, but half of the time there aren’t any women in the hentai I watch
Everyone here blaming hentai for their poor self control, instability, and general cruelty.
I’m sure god is proud of *all* of you
I really don’t appreciate the usage of male pronouns in this article. Wether purposefully or not your implying only men watch porn, and only women can be damaged by sexual abuse or misconceptions. That’s defenitley not the case. Do a little research and you’ll quickly discover that quite a few women also watch porn, and that’s just the ones that will admit it. With a little extra research you’ll discover that quite a few men suffer from sexual abuse during they’re lifetime as well. The porn industry doesn’t just damage women, it damages everyone. On top of this not all porn is bad, porn is actually occasionally used in sex therapy to help people. The porn industry doesn’t need to be dissolved it just needs to be cleaned up.
Thanks so much for your comment. We know that women struggle too and have published many articles about that. https://www.covenanteyes.com/2012/01/11/women-struggle-with-porn-too/
I would just like to say that all hentai is not conflict on women. There is a lot of hentai where women aren’t even evolved. Also, unless you’re looking for hentai with pedophilia you most likely won’t come across it. I’ve been watching hentai for a few years but it is not an addiction. I pace myself and watch it only a few times a month. It only becomes an addiction if you make it a religion. Thank -Alyssa and yes I’m a girl
Ive watch hentai allof the time. Som ed of th times I doit in a elivator, at that market. And when i do i like to masterbate undermy skirt. Catch it on cam when no one is around. I like to go to Gabby Market in San Francisco
Well, honestly, this post is stupid, we all have our needs, some people have stronger libido so they have to discharge it somehow, and in the first place, watching hentai or porno does not mean you encourage of treating womens as things, you simply looking for something to cause you arousal, there is a lot porno for females too, where guys are the fapping material, so your argument is not very valid, and on top of that, it is proven than masturbating and having sex helps to deal with stress, so it’s healthy if not abused, and if person is a degrade who gets of of watching a child raped or abused or from beastiality or whatever, it simply the person fault not hentai or porno, he didn’t become like this for watching it, he watched that because he was like that, and on top of that there is a lot of famous movies who sends similar message to porno, but people are alright with that, there is bunch of movies who shows how is normal to drink or use drugs to get high, how is normal to be irresponsible, so it’s better to discharge all that to fantasy instead of building it inside, and if you don’t need porno then that’s good for you, but don’t start blaming people for watching it, it is not these people who made the industry like that, but people in the industry, you can create vanilla porno too, with women treated with care. And about hentai, because there is no actors, only fantasy, then what’s wrong with it, if there a person who for some reason feel attracted to animals or children, isn’t it better for him to direct that weird attraction to fantasy instead of building stress and then snapping and raping a child, we are animals with instincts, so we have to live with them, and there is a lot of psychological disease, which might be the cause of our fetishes, so it’s like not giving medication to people who needs it, because you yourself don’t need it. and again I am repeating myself, but if person constantly watch porno/hentai and cause problems for others because of that or treats womens as things, or creates porno of himself raping a woman and so on and on, it is not porno/hentai fault but that person, is like blaming a knife for killing someone and saying that killer isn’t in the wrong, but the knife fault for being pointy and sharp
Hello,
I’m a woman who was addicted to yaoi, a type of gay kind of hentai. Not because I’m into gay stuff, no, actually it’s because there aren’t any type of “male” hentai out there for female viewers and consumers.
I was angry for a while a few years ago about men objectifying women all the time after researching some feminist topics… so for some reason I decided to draw and watch anything that objectified men… even searching it up….. just out of pure curiosity and irritation; I just felt it was so unfair that anime and media objectifies women much more than men and there are hardly any male fanservice, I figured why not have both equal or not at all… and wondered why it isn’t equal, as women can be dirty minded too…..so I did that…… and what disturbs me is that you’re right… it does screw you up mentally. I also thought it would relieve stress better.
I worked in a nursing home and started having more dirty thoughts, I tried to push them away, but I couldn’t look at an attractive man without my mind going to the gutter…. it’s like I was a slave to pervertedness…. I missed the life I had when I was free of that… when I could see men as people, not sex objects.
I hadn’t even had sex before and that arousing feeling is addicting even if it’s embarrassing afterwards.
I’m cringeing just typing this out. I used to love drawing other things and doing other things… but the aroused feeling stuck with me and I kept wanting more and more yaoi. The objectification of muscular men made me want more.
Even when I’ve been off it for a few months the thoughts are still there, not as bad, but sometimes the images I used to look up would flash in my mind and I’d try to fight it off.
The thing is…. porn takes away productive time and it takes away the ability to have a normal relationship with people including the opposite sex…. it opens the door for adultery, and addiction to the point of losing your job, quitting school, or divorcing… or losing interest in hobbies.
It legit happened to me….. if you don’t wanna do your hobbies, or get married and have kids….. go ahead, and do your addiction…. but if you marry a good person or date them and have kids while you’re still into your perverted addiction, you are a scum bag.
it might be intrusive of me, but isn’t your obsession with yaoi started just because you weren’t content with your life(you weren’t happy enough to get enough endorphins to not get overshadowed by endorphins gotten from sexual arousal) that’s why you now obsessed with it because you don’t have anything in life which would make you more happy then fantasizing about hot guys, in your case I would try doing something new, like playing different types of computer games, reading, taking martial arts or dance classes, of course, if you content with yaoi, you can keep that hobby instead as there is no harm to others
Just saying:-
1st – There are gender reversals in hentai. Women are S and men are M in some of them, so it can’t be completely regarded as the objectification of women. You are free to choose anything.
2nd – I won’t say anything about 2nd because it seems to be true. And worse, as mentioned in one of the comments, you may lose interest in the 3D women.
3rd – There is a genre called ‘Vanilla’ in hentai. There are many others, but you have that option too. This genre has a very mixed repo in the community, but it is much gentler than the normal 3D porn that you would find on the internet.
I would like to say that Hentai is the same as ‘freedom’. Freedom to see the type of thing you want to see, ranging from ‘Vanilla’ to ‘Bondage’ to ‘Yaoi’ to ‘Yuri’ to ‘Futanari’ to ‘Kemonomimi’ to what not. Freedom from gender roles, freedom from anything that may bind you. It just is what you desire it to be.
Obviously, you are even free to not watch it. :)
I’m a teen, I’ve been looking at porn for a few years now and recently got into hentai. I see no problem with either, it doesn’t affect how I see or treat real women since I know everything in porn and hentai is fabricated and fake.
As for the abuse and bestiality stuff, that’s messed up. People only find that because they’re interested and looking for it to begin with, such taboo kinks aren’t thrown in people’s faces, you actually have to go looking for it.
I’ll be honest and say that I’m quite into hentai now, but it hasn’t affected how attracted I am to real women, it’s just fun to mix up what I look at every now and then, and I know my limits I’m not addicted.
Those who lose attraction to real women and get into the messed up stuff have underlying mental problems that they might not know about, and rather than shame them for that I think we should help them.
I feel that you took it a bit far to say that watching hentai and porn is bad for the viewer. That all depends on the viewer and how they choose to act about what they’re doing. Watching porn and hentai and masturbating is natural, we all have hormones and we need to act on them, we’re all people and masturbating isn’t something we should shame people for doing.
However I do agree that we need to control our intake and make sure that we don’t become addicted as addiction if any kind isn’t good for people.
In short, I like porn and hentai, I’m not addicted, I’m still attracted to real women, and porn hasn’t changed how I treat and value women.
Not to disrespect
As a young teenager with high libido I find myself watching pornos offen and I used to feel guilt to the point of crying.
But in reality it’s really just a part of life, having a sex drive is human. Watching hentai and jacking off isn’t bad in anyway unless it’s underaged characters, animals or other things of the sort.
The disrespecting woman thing is weird to me as a girl. I don’t feel like the men are using the women in the ones I watch.
If I don’t watch and jack off I feel really great pain and it’s really terrible but I’m not addicted, just a normal teen thing you know?
Anyways watch what you want, jack off to what you want and have a great day
– love Lanolin
What kind of pain ?
Oh I’m so upset now. My 2 girls watch anime and I had no idea it was porn. They have always told me that some of the anime is questionable but they didn’t watch that. Is all anime bad? How can I know the good from the bad? Now I am beyond upset and not sure what to do. Please help.
Thank you and God bless
No, not all anime is porn, like like not all movies are porn. Just check in with your kids’ viewing habits on a regular basis just like with any other media.