Nope, its still NOT Adultery

This is a response to a post promoting the idea that pornography is adultery.

In this post, the author states that "Pornography is known to cause divorces among many married couples". Although I agree that sometimes pornography is used as a means of divorce, it does not necessarily mean that the divorce is because of pornography usage. Often pornography is included in addition to the main reason for the divorce to make the now ex-husband appear more disgusting to a jury or judge.

The problem is, a man's "lust for another female" is not a cut and simple concept. A man may think of a woman lustfully in many situations caused by many reasons. What makes the "lust for another female" adulterous in nature is simply the difference between claiming something and doing something. Thinking about a person in a sexual manner is not adulterous, acting on it by doing such things as getting a lap dance or something in a closer relationship is. In a simple imaginative relationship, pornography is not adulterous.

Pornography is NOT adultery

Let's face it, we know pornography is out there and that people watch/use it. If it were not so, then this would not be over a 2.6 billion dollar industry (Forbes). I concede that watching porn may not be morally just, however I disagree with the belief that pornography can be a form of adultery.

Adultery as defined by Merriam-Webster can be strictly defined as "voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband." Of course, this definition is extremely rigid in form and excludes many things consistent with society's definition. For example, a married man paying a stripper to give him a lap dance would be considered adulterous in nature. Adultery is after all a word that branches from moral beliefs and therefor must be defined from it. Porn, in being indeterminate, not targeted for one person but for mass consumption is not adulterous. The difference in a stripper giving a lap dance and a person sitting at a table in a strip bar is simply that in one situation an actual two way relationship or action is formed, while simple lust is simply a form of hormonal attraction. In addition, the article that prompted this post, The Atlantic, made an excellent point. Porn, unlike adulterous scenarios, can be considered a form of fiction. It is a form of imagination or fantastical adventure/escapade.