Wiring Sexual Tastes to Hairless Genitals...Oops!

[redqueen]

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cupids-poisoned-arrow/201201/wiring-sexual-tastes-hairless-genitalsoops

At present, our culture both underestimates the power of erotic cues and misinterprets their significance. That is, sexual cues are presumed harmless because sexual tastes are thought to be hardwired whatever one views. Two circular assumptions follow from this faulty premise: First, we assume that what one climaxes to reveals one's unalterable nature; and second, we assume that if one begins climaxing to something incongruous one is merely discovering one's "true" nature. Such flawed reasoning arose in part due to medical politics which gave rise to a staunch refusal to investigate the plastic effects of sexual behaviors on the brain's delicate reward circuitry.

Actual experience, however, suggests that intense stimulation can alter sexual tastes in some brains. Indeed, some of today's Internet porn users are undergoing unnerving changes in their brains and arousal patterns—a possibility now well explained by many experiments revealing the plasticity of the brain . These changes are difficult to reverse while porn use continues. In short, sexual cues that start out as insubstantial and meaningless as cobwebs can become cables, that is, can lay down brain pathways that are given high priority because they are associated with the intense reward of orgasm.

In past articles we've pointed out that these changes can be very disturbing if they are mistaken for changes in fundamental sexual orientation. But they can also be less dramatic. Consider this guy's experience:

Justin: I used to have a big thing for enlarged breasts. Yesterday there was a clip on the news about girls with silicone implants and their health hazards. They showed a lot of these girls on the beach etc., which would once have got me drooling and set me off on a porn frenzy. But after a month without porn, they actually looked weird. The unnatural, augmented breasts put me off. I was thinking, "Why would they do this to themselves? What's the big deal about big breasts?" And this is from a guy who spent a lot of his life worshiping them.

More at link.

[CrispyQ]

1. Excellent article.

Result? Not just wax treatments, but also labia surgery to eradicate signs of sexual maturity are increasingly common. Using shaving and surgery, women are deliberately neotenizing their genitals, that is, intentionally making them look immature, juvenile.

Are we whittling away our aversion for sex with children?

Is this change in conditioned visual tastes removing an evolved barrier that once discouraged adult sex with children? If this is a possibility, how can we, as a society, hope to have an open discussion about it? Or even do reliable research? Given the willingness of today's authorities to assume any sexual response to images of minors proves someone is a pedophile, who would dare to discuss such feelings except on an anonymous Internet forum...maybe?

Wasn't there recently a horror story about a man raping a baby?

I am so glad I am not any younger to see how much worse this culture is going to get.

[seabeyond]

3. 1 month old. i think as a society we are feeding a perversion. and like with rape

Last edited Wed Jan 11, 2012, 11:35 AM - Edit history (1)

i think we are feeding that. blurring the lines. i dont hold the position as so many that only a demented psychotic rapes. i think people can tell themselves all kinds of things to validate a behavior and if there are no strict code of behavior, acceptance it is much easier for some to walk over the line that they may not otherwise do with societal absolutes.

the reason this is so hard is because there are people that use this argument in areas we would abhor hearing and we fight against. i am not smart enough to figure out how to address it. i just know in my heart, it is.

the upside crispy, is already a new generation is coming. i have said since the mid to late 90's this has been a boiling vat of experiment with our kids. the older kids walked into this with no perception of what was happening. the younger kids have watched. a lot of them are not accepting or liking what they are seeing. they are making different choices and drawing lines.

sexting was at 30% in middle school 4? yrs ago. there has been a big push to educate the kids. i recently saw it is 10% now.

[redqueen]

5. I like to hope it will get better over time.

Like seabeyond said, we're already seeing the younger generation drawing back.

[iverglas]

2. truly excellent article

And I took it personally.

Women's own sexual cues, conditioned by constant exposure to male-oriented sexual stimuli. It disturbs me tremendously that some such stimuli are cues for me, and that certain other stimuli aren't.

Is there deprogramming available?

I can't think of anything else I might have been programmed to do or think or feel that involved much effort to cast off -- religion, for instance. This is whole different ball of, er, wax, isn't it? How do you even begin to stop exposing yourself to a stream of male-oriented sexual stimuli? Turn the TV off permanently to start with ...

I wonder whether pointing out that all these liberated porn users are really just Pavlov's dogs (and that they actually do have choice in the matter and it ain't biology at all) would give them pause. Not likely.

[redqueen]

6. I don't know about deprogramming, I think the only solution provided

so far is to simply stop reinforcing those cues. You just re-train your brain.

And no, I agree that pointing out anything at all would make any difference. If these things aren't recognized as a problem by the person experiencing the problem, then nothing anyone can say would matter.

[BlueIris]

4. Interesting.

Really, really interesting.

[redqueen]

7. It really is.

I hope more scientists study these issues. But then porn is an immensely lucrative industry, so...

[snagglepuss]

8. Excellent article.

[PassingFair]

9. Not so "Hairy" Potter:

Love this guy:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/daniel-radcliffe-told-not-to-trim-his-pubic-hair-for-allen-ginsberg-role-in-kill-your-darlings-by-director-john-krokidas/story-e6frewyr-1226258763144

snip>"It seems natural body hair is important for Radcliffe as he also revealed he doesn't like girls who have 'Brazilians'.

"This is way too much information, but I don't like girls with nothing down there either. It freaks me out. You have to have something, otherwise it's f***ing creepy," the actor told Heat magazine."

[One_Life_To_Give]

10. That is a stretch

That is a stretch to link child rape to hairlessness in pornography, IMO. The mechanism of rewiring the brain is going to require a certain frequency of masturbation not mentioned here. And if I am to believe the last paragraph quoted in the OP, very weak to dissipate in only 30 days. Of the negatives I can think of regarding porn, this isn't one.

IMO we should be more concerned about the actions and intent of groups like NAMGLA and NAMBLA.