Pornography: Pursuit of the Ideal?

Source: Erotic Photo/Shutterstock

It’s hardly any wonder that pornographic pursuits are sometimes described as “seeking behavior.” After all, when individuals are engaged in searching one website after another in the hunt for images or videos that can best turn them on, how could their activity be characterized more accurately?

Although we might see such searches as degrading what might be viewed as aesthetically driven, there’s no question that pornographic searches do represent a quest for what, personally, is experienced as ideal. It’s a perfect representation of what, in the (heated) moment, feels most vital and alive.

Despite the pursuit not being inspired by anything profound in the head or heart, it’s nonetheless driven by a kind of passion. It cannot be denied that it’s an excitement equal to that of a passion less defined by one’s libido.

Over a century ago, Freud controversially indicated that the aesthetic was essentially a sublimation of the erotic. And surely he realized that what is deemed erotic is relative to the particular viewer. So that which is visually compelling to one spectator might leave another cold—maybe even repulsed.

Doubtless, what’s core in all this is that searching among dozens, even hundreds, of pictures to locate those that are especially arousing is not just relative: It’s a cross-cultural phenomenon.

Humans are discriminatory, and their choices far transcend their mating preferences. But whether or not they’re conscious of what’s driving their pursuits—or exactly what they’re in pursuit of—something beyond their minds (and more than a simple quivering in their genitals!) will lead them to focus on pictures that (however silently) “speak” to them. (As in, “I’ll know it when I see it.")

It’s like animal mating behaviors. The female pursued by many males in heat will choose but one. Different females will select different “suitors” for reasons beyond their conceptualization.

As out of date as some of Freud’s theories now seem, his psychological view of the erotic nonetheless seems extraordinarily prescient.

It certainly can help us understand how inevitable it was that the advent of the Internet, enabling unprecedented accessibility to pornographic images and videos, would lead to an explosion of an industry designed to cater to an almost unlimited number of tastes—or sexual appetites.

Given human libido—particularly a male’s—getting turned on is, well, a thrilling experience. So, given their age and sexual energy, pornography will be a constant interest for them.