“Let us ban porn because it is against Indian Sanskriti(values)”. The irony is, it is against the ‘Sanskriti’ of a country where the ‘Kamasutra‘ was originated. Temples, which are supposed recreational spots for Indians, which are put on the highest pedestal have depicted erotic content. One of the most visited tourist spots is the Khajurao temple in Madhya Pradesh, which is famous for its erotic depictions.
The erotic depictions in Khajurao and other temples are ‘taboo’ according to modern Indian ‘Sanskriti‘.
Not only this temple but certain other temples have normalized sexual practice through their vivid portrayal of erotism and still, we would ban porn because it is not in Indian culture and it puts our “Sanskriti” in a bad light.
Instead of focusing on how sex education is important amongst teenagers, we are focusing on issues like porn and its impact on our culture. In the race of proving Indian ‘Sanskriti‘ to be pure and void of such ideas, we are losing onto the main issue of how porn impacts teenagers. Porn and sex ed have an inverse relationship. Most teenagers learn about sexual practice through observational learning. The more teenagers will observe acts in porn, the more they will learn acts that could prove harmful to people involved in the act.
Have we ever wondered or even remotely thought about how porn has negatively impacted the young generation? Porn lays the foundation of unhealthy ideas in teenagers, what they see in porn is what they learn. No teenager after watching porn will try to find out its back story, how was it made or what precautions were taken while filming.
All they will take out of it is unrealistic expectations and will probably try to replicate such actions. Having no proper guidance or someone to confide in they will behave recklessly and would end up hurting themselves or their partners. It will not only lead to a physical danger but also psychological issues. These problems could last for a lifetime.
Why can’t we have proper sex education classes for students where they learn the difference between what is healthy sexual practice and what is not? When our ancestors were not afraid of depicting erotism in temples then why are we not able to teach teenagers what healthy touch is? If we go look at the sculptures, they have represented images where more than two people are engaged in one sexual practice which these days is considered “taboo”.
All we need is someone to give teenagers basic knowledge so that when they engage in sexual practice, they don’t harm themselves or their partners. Instead of deriving knowledge from porn, they deserve to know the difference between unrealistic or realistic acts.
Should banning porn be our main issue or educating teenagers about healthy sexual practices? The first step towards this could be not treating the sexual activity as a taboo. Educating teenagers about healthy practices could be one of the steps toward complete psychological development.