Interview about pornography
Interviewer: Personally I am a strong proponent of the laissez-faire approach when dealing with matters of what pornography is and isn't; of the attitude of let the buyer beware....and if you were old enough and knowledgeable enough to participate then you were old enough to consent.
Danute: Since I'm a psychotherapist, my approach is less hands-off. My basic question is, "Do you know why you're doing it? Are you interested in finding out what underlies the inclination?"
Interviewer: I think that I might like to say that I would draw the line on imagery which involves pain, degradation and humiliation....but then some people are very much into that? Where do you draw that line?
Danute: I don't draw lines with perversion. I work with sexual offenders to help them, not to condemn them. I don't decide what's right or wrong in perversion. I try to understand the perversion's aim. It's always brilliantly designed to address a psychic wound, no matter how salacious.
Interviewer: And of course I would strictly draw the line at anything which harms or involves children.....
Danute: I draw the line at acting against anyone's will. Children, as well as a surprising number of adults, can't freely protest and therefore have little capacity for authentic consent. You can't be rationally willing to submit yourself to something you don't understand, even if it does attract you. In that case, it's the responsibility of the sexual "initiator" to watch for the interests of his/her sexual object. Here, each tries best to draw his/her own line...and only succeeds according to his/her capacity for empathy and compassion. It's always dicey.
Interviewer: On the other hand, I would consider pornographic, anything which depicts violence or hatred....much of what permeates our media, culture and entertainment abounds in this stuff. Personally I find that more insulting to my senses than seeing nudity or people engaged in sexual activities....
Danute: Pornography has a purpose. If you condemn it, perhaps you don't know what it's aiming at. Most people who haven't thought about it believe that pornography aims at corruption. Actually, it aims at retrieving repressed psychic content for the purpose of bringing healing and integrating through erotic symbolism- of some traumatic experience that was originally split-off from your consciousness.
If your body responds to it, despite your moral or ethical reservations, then pornography can be extremely useful, provided it is used with enough consciousness for it to be more than a senseless addiction, and of course with enough care to not traumatize an innocent bystander.
If it doesn't arouse your body, then you have no wounding in the area being symbolized through that particular erotic theme, therefore you have no use for that particular type of pornography. Your body will be quite indifferent to it, and your mind understandably mildly repulsed. However, the more intent you are on demonizing pornography, then the more likely it is that your sexual repression is on high alert, in which case you have some serious issues that are pressuring for resolution. It takes a lot of courage, and even moral fortitude to investigate the shadow (wounded) side of your personality by opening up fully to whatever erotic inclinations might grab you.