I don't think most people buy into the idea that chastity should be seen as a virtue.
I think that's partially TJ's point.
Well, yes, but he also implies that it should be and I don't understand why that is the case. This is a relatively old thread, so I might be forgetting something, but I don't think anyone has defended that assumption. Claiming that chastity is virtuous is a much stronger statement than merely saying that pornography is immoral.
Of course it is since it covers a wider net of social behaviors than just consumption of pornography. But without considering chastity a virtue of course you aren't going to find pornography to be, in general, immoral. You can make arguments about the subjugation and dehumanizing of women all you want, at the end of the day you have to ask yourself
why pornography is dehumanizing to women. If chastity is not a virtue, there is no inherently moral value in consenting to reveal one's self for the pleasure of others.
Now, why is chastity a virtue? There are a number of anthropological arguments that apply here from familial stability to privacy and the emotional reaction to protect one's self against exposure. The majority of people, whether practicing the virtue of chastity or not, do feel some degree of reluctance toward immediate sexual intimacy upon shaking hands. We don't quite live in a
Brave New World, although we're certainly headed in that direction. Now, of course you can then say the reluctance is just a social construct rather than anything intrinsic to our humanity or dignity, and depending on what your system for determining what a virtue is, you may very well end up with that conclusion logically. In either case, we have to define a basis for what is a virtue.
I know this doesn't address you particularly, Nix, but I do want to address this in the context of Christianity as well since there are a number of Christian posters on here, and by the looks of this poll, many who believe porn is A-OK. A quick reading of the New Testament should show clearly there is some sort of sin connected to the "desires of the flesh" and "lusting in your heart". At risk of doing a jmfcst impression, I'll refrain from reciting them all, but they aren't hard to find and there are a whole lot of them. In the context of Christian history there were numerous saints and Church fathers who wrote extensively on chastity. St. Agnes was martyred, not for refusing to renounce Christianity, but for refusing to have sex. St. Augustine described his struggles with chastity almost continuously. It's nearly impossible to profess Christianity without accepting that there is, at least in some capacity, a virtue of chastity, whatever the specifics of it might mean. I contend that it is also pretty clear using porn for sexual gratification is a violation of this.
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