Donald Trump and Our Pornified Society

Last updated on: October 24, 2016 at 3:14 pm by Timothy Willard

Donald Trump and Our Pornified Society 2016-10-24T15:14:25-04:00 Timothy Willard

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What could be duller sounding than the word temperance? So out-of-date. So repressive. So passionless. And exactly the word our country needs.

If the political race has done anything good—and that is hard to imagine—it has held up a mirror to our culture and revealed our soulless skeleton. After Donald Trump’s “hot-mic” incident both parties hurled their moralizing grenades, blasting the internet with their hypocrisy.

What the parties, and apparently all of us, have forgotten is that the corresponding virtue to immorality is temperance. Temperance deals with the lusts that war against the soul. When unbridled, desire can control us. So lust is born, and it drives us towards pleasures that cannot satisfy. Our culture drips with lust, evidenced by its pornification.

In 2011 I wrote an article that highlighted a new study published in Sexuality and Culture. I’m revisiting that piece to show how our hyper-sexualized culture continues to castrate our souls.

The study, conducted by University of Buffalo researchers, compiled more than 1,000 images from forty years of Rolling Stone magazine, comparing male and female poses, wardrobe and language used in the articles. The study showed that women have been vastly more sexualized than men. The 2000s showed a marked increase in hyper-sexualization of women in the magazine, which is regarded as a pop culture barometer.

“Hyper-sexualization” refers to images that communicate to the reader that the person in the image desires sex. Sociologist Erin Haden said: “It is problematic when nearly all images of women depict them not simply as ‘sexy women’ but as passive objects for someone else’s sexual pleasure.” In her TEDx talk, Dr. Gail Dines says young girls are trained by pop-culture to be “porn-ready.” They realize they have two options: “f—ability or invisibility . . . the adolescent wants to be seen. Invisibility is not an option.” So young girls mimic the ads they see, which endorse the idea of sexual availability.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Previous Post

October 16, 2016

Why Politics of Despair Require Unfashionable Faith

Next Post

November 4, 2016 Christians Should Consider a Political Posture of Silence

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Beauty Uncategorized World Religions

Select a Month March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 April 2021 March 2021 August 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

To whom did Jesus say, "Today you will be with me in paradise"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pilate Nicodemus Peter The repentant thief