Yeah to be honest I go back and forth on the topic. It's probably a bit of both. The grooming thing is a good point, but it's not like no one in the world had ever considered oral or anal before they saw it in porn. Men enjoying putting their penises in warm, tight holes is a pretty universal thing -- can't imagine it's only been around for the last 50, or even 100 years. And I'd bet that finishing in different spots started around the same time as the pull out method was discovered. I would agree that porn has made these things more known and accepted by people who otherwise might not have thought of them, but saying it's the sole cause seems like an impossible thing to prove.
I agree with this completely. I worked for a guy whose wife was a surgical nurse. She said that the amount of women, who were usually 20-25 years old, that came in for labiaplasty rose dramatically with the advent of internet porn. According to her, it took doctors a little while to figure out what was driving this. Eventually, it was attributed to the porn industry and women felt the need to look like what they thought men considered desirable. This was not the case prior to the wide dissemination of porn.
At least those women had a say in it. How many millions of American men were circumcised for aesthetic reasons over the generations? I am glad the shaved look is fashionable. When I first was introduced to porn it was through old issues of Gallery and Hustler in the days when the style was for a woman to look like she'd smeared her crotch with Elmer's and did the splits on a barbershop floor in Compton. I saw one girl in a skin mag who had a hardwood floor and knew that was for me. As luck would have it, not a decade later it was the norm.
Something to tie into the discussion. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_facto..._campaign_to_fight_porn_and_promote_real.html
...just...wow. My brain is going in, like, five different directions. Part of me thinks, "Jesus, do women go around LOOKING for things to be self-conscious about?" And then some of the pictures make me think, "Ugh...maybe they have a point." I didn't know people put so much...thought...into that area of their anatomy.
Wait wait wait wait. Women being self-conscious about their vaginas is a new idea for you? Most women can't even say the word "vagina" because it's so ingrained in their minds that vaginas are gross and shameful and weird. Many women are afraid to even look at their vaginas or touch them. A lot of women refuse to let their partners give them oral sex because they're so self-conscious about their vaginas. I regularly talk to girls who are convinced that their labia have to be a sign of an STD or cancer or something because they can't believe that their vagina is just a normal vagina. I don't really blame them. Although, I feel like this has been happening long before porn became so readily available. It was probably just driven by other things rather than comparison.
I read a lot of women's magazines and blogs, and my job is to talk to women from around the country/world about their sex issues.
This. I suppose I can believe that the handful of girls who have really weird anatomy are self-conscious, but I would think women on the whole don't (and shouldn't) spend too much time thinking about it. Is my logic flawed here? The only time anyone ever sees it (apart from a doctor), is if you're about to have sex. At that point, the hay is in the barn...the other person is already down with fucking you, and probably isn't judging anything about you too harshly.
This might give you sort of a biased sampling, if people contact you specifically to talk about issues they are having.
You're right, and you don't have flawed logic. Women shouldn't feel self-conscious about the vaginas (unless they have some super freaky vagina), but it's really common for women to feel self-conscious anyway. I think there's a lot of reasons why that aren't them just deciding to come up with other reasons to feel self-conscious, but I don't think it has a whole lot to do with porn so I won't go into it. I mean, a 130lbs woman shouldn't feel self-conscious about being fat, but she probably will - at some point, if not always. And if not, she's self-conscious about something besides being fat. Basically, what I'm saying is, if the question is "Are there a lot of women who are self-conscious about _________" The answer is yes. It's like the Rule 34 of women.
Dibs on the band name. This. And, a lot of times they aren't, until they hear about someone else who is. Random participation in a conversation . . . Girl: "So, the he says, 'Girl, your toes are messed up!' Ugh, I hate my feet." . . . Later on that night: Girl I'm with: "Do I have good feet?" Me: "Oh, yeah, baby. Your feet are awesome." GiW: "I think my toes are messed up." Me: "But, why? Your feet are fine. Has anybody ever mentioned your feet before?" GiW: "Well, no - but . . . you said they were awesome, and now you say they're fine." Me: "I give up. Yes, you should definitely go see a plastic surgeon tomorrow about getting toe implants and foot reassignment surgery." Women are self-conscious. It's one of the things they do, and I don't think porn has influenced that any more than having conversations with other girls in highschool locker rooms. (While reading this, at least 24% of the girls have looked down at their feet . . .)