Porn Addiction and Me...

Earlier this year, I got into an email-based debate with a dude regarding a pro-pornography column I’d written.

His goal was to point out the detriment of pornography from a social standpoint. One of his arguments was that I was “addicted” to it, and - like all addictions – I had a personal obligation to try to nip it in the bud.

I think this cat was one of many with a tendency to misdiagnose addiction.

This CNN article examines the idea of sexual addiction, which obviously includes pornography. One graf reads: “Experts acknowledge that people who have affairs or use pornography are not necessarily sex addicts. Such pastimes form an addiction when they generate negative consequences for a person's relationships, take over free time and become impossible to quit.”

Now, I’ve been looking at porn for a good, long time; harkening back to my single-digit-age days when my erstwhile stepbrother and I would break into my dad’s chest full of Playboys, Penthouses, Hustlers and Players magazines. In high school, finding ever-so-inventive ways to rent movies and record them (over my parents’ VHS tapes) was my hidden little hobby. Now, with Netflix-esque DVD rental programs and computer burners, it’s easier than ever to stock a collection.

But never, in any point during my pre-sex teenage years or my adult years, did smut ever throw a wet blanket over my daily goings-on. Never, ever was porn any kind of substitute for substantive human contact, and – sweet fucking Jesus – NEVER have I thought to substitute porn for sex. Perish the thought into the cold, wet sand.

Dude also “diagnosed” my addiction by pointing out the fact that I have gotten increasingly bored with porn - a characteristic of any addict who is always looking for the next big "high." Though I enjoy wide assortments, and though the same fake-titted, bleached-blonde-who-can-fit-a-Cabernet-bottle-in-her-asspipe aesthetic has worn a bit thin, I don’t have a true compulsion toward it; which is to say that it doesn’t govern my existence, I don’t NEED it…I enjoy porn as I enjoy mainstream movies, good music and feeding that $30-a-week comic book habit I have.

As for internet porn - which is widely castigated as the bastion of porn addicts everywhere - not only am I not addicted to it, but I look at the shit as work: I have access to enough pay sites to fill up terabytes of hard drive space and every bit of free time that I could possibly muster, but I care little more about it than the precious few bucks I earn from reviewing them.

I’m a non-smoker, I don’t do drugs and I drink in moderation. I have no addictions or compulsions. I often joke and say that porn is my only vice, but of course I don’t truly believe it to be a vice.

Now comics, on the other hand...