I’m not sure an individual can be corrupted. What does that mean, anyway? One either acts morally (though I prefer the more agnostic “ethically”) correct or morally incorrect. It does not make me “good” if I behave well, nor does it make me “bad” if I behave badly. It simply means that in a given situation I acted well or I acted badly. I think the religious concepts of eternal judgement after death effects the way people discuss morality. For example, good people go to heaven, and bad people go to the fun place…. I mean hell.

I agree that there is much mental homework to be done on the question: “How does the image effect us?” and on its logical extension: “How does media effect us?”

Thankfully, we now have the Internet and we can escape the mainstream moral posturing of the network media and can find countless forums, like this one, to express the true voice of our individual morality rather than having to sit silently by and listen to a watered down expression of what it means to be human.

As for the question of pornography and other sexualised images as an influence,I can only go by my own experiences.Do I believe that watching a particular sex act will make me want to try it?…Well,yes and no….I have watched fisting scenes and enjoyed a couple of them,but no,it has not made me want to go out and use a guy as a glove-puppet.I’ve watched bondage scenes,but I have no wish to tie anyone up or use whips,straps etc.I’ve watched leather and rubber scenes,but that dress code leaves me cold.

On the other hand,I have a sadistic and masochistic side to my personality that occasionaly rears up it’s head and i’ve watched scenes that have given me *ideas* that I have later played out,so obviously they *have* influenced me.

The key word is ‘responsibility’.I’m lucky enough to have ‘buddy’ who fulfills my masochistic side,and another for my sadistic side.I respect and love them both as my friends and it makes all the difference…whatever we get up to sexually,it always ends up with a kiss and a cuddle on the couch and that’s an important part of the play-acting.

i would like more of the porn studios to take a bit more responsibility.There are a couple of sites,Bound Gods for instance,that interview the models before and after the scene,and that’s something I really enjoy.Seeing the models relaxed and talking about ‘safe words’ and ‘controlled environments’ is important if you’re a ‘novice’,especially in the BDSM scene…

As you stated,porn models can become cultural icons,and for that reason,instead of the usual short ‘the following scenes are for fantasy purposes’ and ‘use a condom’ screen shots at the start of a porn movie,it would be good if the studios would use one of the models to give a short announcement at the start of the movie….it might make a difference.

So,I think the key words are responsibility and respect….if you have these,you won’t go far wrong…