Transcription
P*rn addiction is apparently one of the biggest problems of the internet age. I don’t think so... Or at least, I think we’re missing the point. If you look at the most popular search terms on "The Hub”, H*ntai has been dominating for almost 10 years now. Which, okay, weird, but probably doesn’t mean anything... until we break down the elements of H*ntai: Hyper exaggerated body parts, fantastical creatures, humans with animal parts, *futurama*, and of course – in***t. This is just ancient mythology on steroids!
And it’s not just H*ntai; it’s good old regular p*rn too. Maybe I’ve been reading too much mythological interpretation – or watching too much p*rn – but the similarities between the two are staggering, and trust me, once you see it – you will not be able to unsee it anymore. It was only when I saw adult content from this peculiar angle that I understood what’s really happening behind the scenes of this "addiction."
I’m here to say that mythology is alive and influences us more than we think. And to make it even harder for myself, I won’t even talk about H*ntai – too easy – rather, I will tackle the most infamous, oldest, vanilla adult content trope and its 3000-year-old mythological origin... and what it all says about the addictive “ritual” you do when watching.
Before we begin, as you can imagine, I will have to do my best to navigate around the terms associated with this whole topic to not get censored by YouTube, so bear with me when I formulate things in PG, baby-talk terms.
Most of you are familiar with the infamous sub-genre of the stepmother. Though I hope we all understand “step” is only there for legality. For our purposes, we can also include the figures of stepsister and *M.|.L.F* in general. This setup is obviously an Oedipal mommy issue galore, right? No.
If you are unfamiliar, the Oedipus story goes that he was born to a king and queen but was carried away at birth. However, he survived, and when returning to his kingdom, he unknowingly killed his father (the king) and upon return married his mother (the queen). However, when he realized what he’d done, he blinded himself. All normal things you do in life.
As far as I’m concerned, the Freudian literal reading of the Oedipus myth is nonsense that misses the point of a much wiser mythological meaning. Herein lies the essence – mythology is trans-personal. In other words, it doesn’t focus on any specific object or person but rather shapes and forms as such.
Since mythology is obviously pre-scientific, it is narrative-driven (because how else will you efficiently share it back then?) and super abstract (because it attempts the monumental task of depicting Being itself), which makes it hard for us moderns to comprehend it. Yet, it would be wrong to assume that thousands of years of human wisdom condensed into narrative wouldn’t have anything useful to say.
So, when Oedipus "unknowingly” “murders” his “father” and “marries” his “mother”, then “blinds” himself, you can observe how almost every word in that summary is not literal. Rather, between quotation marks are symbols that represent what it means to develop as a conscious human being. Now I’m not saying adult content is that profound. But it quite brilliantly plays into these trans-personal symbols, which is why so many young men are inescapably attracted to it.
We have our roadmap with this summary, and by decoding the words in quotations, we will unravel the actual meaning of this genre. We’ll start with the “mother” and “father.” To unlock the meaning of this pair, we must look at it psychologically.
See, our psyche is not only consciousness (that part which plans, wants, and does). Consciousness is enveloped like a nucleus in the unconscious (so everything beyond our awareness). Symbolically, consciousness rises like an island from the ocean of unconsciousness. Also, note the power dynamic in this metaphor.
Just like our bodies, consciousness develops and matures over time. Nobody will deny that what any adult is conscious of is no match for any 3-year-old. Our consciousness is like a tree that grows upwards despite gravity; one could even say in opposition. That is because these two forces are naturally in constant tension. Just like electricity needs voltage (potential difference), the same goes for the human psyche. You could say in this view, this “me” is the electric charge between conscious and unconscious; just like to be born one needs a male and a female. Obviously, right?
So, getting back to Oedipus, the symbol of the mother represents the unconscious (naturally; where do we “rise” from?) and the father represents consciousness (who “separates” us from dependence to the mother?). So, when the “hero” of the explicit video is engaging with the “stepmother,” it is actually a consciousness facing the unconscious.
Usually, the fantasies portrayed involve being seduced by a feminine figure, which is represented in mythology for ages as the ultimate failure of the hero. In adult content, it’s when the stepmother for one ridiculous reason or another “takes care” of the stepson. In normal stories like Finding Nemo, it is being swallowed by a whale. This intuitively makes sense to us (even though it’s a drawing of a fish with a face inside a whale) because our monumental human drive is to increase and expand our conscious powers (think science); in Jung’s words – be the light in the dark.
When Oedipus “unknowingly” does what he does, that means his consciousness was still too weak; he wasn’t ready to become a hero, to become mature. It’s why usually the stepson is quite childish. The problem is that becoming mature (developing a consciousness that can withstand unconscious forces) is THE PROBLEM. Yet, it is perfectly natural because the unconscious is status quo; it is gravity itself. Defying it, flying a rocket to the moon is what’s truly extraordinary.
So, an adolescent person is faced with many challenges along their way from being one with “the mother” to becoming one with “the father,” which is THE narrative motive of any major religion. That is why Oedipus is a failed hero, because by “murdering” his father, he "kills" his consciousness, and by “marrying” his mother, he fails the challenge of maturation, gives into infantile, unconscious dependency (people or substances). The stepmother genre of adult content plays exactly into this symbolical universal temptation of adolescence.
Yet, we still have “the blinding” that Oedipus does once he becomes conscious of his failure. This blinding is in the same narrative lane as castration, which the Freudians were obsessed with and took literally; which is wrong. To be passively castrated from without means symbolically to lose your consciousness and be swallowed up by either nature or culture. Here, feminine castration differs from masculine.
Feminine castration is usually orgiastic; one loses their individuality to death or chaos. The equivalent “group” genre of adult content is obvious. Masculine castration usually manifests through ascetism or impotence; one becomes detached from body and nature. Naturally, this type is rarely found in pornography except for the “c-hold” trope. The failed hero of that type of video is the one being “held” in submission (impotence) by a dominant masculine figure. As Oedipus shows, the hero of the story does not necessarily have to be successful.
Anyway, the crucial detail in the Oedipus story is that he does it to himself. Which most of you probably feel is the most tragic and disturbing part of it; and not without reason. You see, we actually have the story backwards! The real tragedy of the story is only the very end. That is because to develop as a person, you must “murder” your father and “marry” your mother.
I know how backwards that sounds, which is why I said understanding mythology is so complicated. But what if we forget the father and put it like this: to marry the mother symbols that the hero’s task is to enter a creative union with their given destiny (or with the random chaos of existence) and master it? It sounds quite different. While we’re at it, to defeat the father symbols to not become a slave to conformity and the mass but become a true individual. This is what is being portrayed when the stepson “takes” the stepmother from the father. The key is that Oedipus was active in doing so. The interpretation we had before would be right only if he was passive. So, murdered by and married by.
Oedipus failed as a hero because he “unknowingly” did the journey (which is funnily represented in adult content when the women “switch” during it unbeknown to the guy). Once Oedipus realized what he’d done, he was so shocked that he willingly sacrificed his consciousness (his eyes) and regressed to infantility. This is the symbolical meaning behind the infamous warning to not touch yourself or you will go blind. It warns us to not fall prey to unconscious desires, though of course, taken literally loses all meaning. The connection is there because the body is naturally associated with the unconscious; it is out of our conscious control. Especially before medicine and science, the body was just this weird thing that gave out randomly.
Anyway, pornography is much more obsessed with the passive regression into oblivion of individuality, hence the inescapable objectification of the actors. Again, since adult content is so close to mythology – just like with its characters, the actors are also playing a trans-personal role. They’re not there to be human, relatable characters of a novel but rather the vessels (bodies) that hold these archetypal ideas just like dragons, whales, or giants. They are there to embody categories. Needless to say, this can get out of hand just as the rituals of ancient tribes did, which today we find so impersonal and atrociously grotesque. with our increasing individuality.
Now that we get the story of Oedipus and have a framework for mythological symbols, it might seem that indeed adult content is pretty grim and infantile-obsessed, which a lot of it is, but we know already that a lot depends on whether the hero in the video is passive or active. By understanding this dynamic, we will now fully unravel the meaning of what you do while watching it.
I think pornography’s forefront symbol should be the ouroboros. It is a serpent eating its own tail; life and death at once. It stands for the ultimate unconscious; for what can never be known. Ouroboros is a paradisal unconscious state of non-differentiation, so infancy, death, sleep, etc. Now we know that one should emancipate from the ouroboros and eventually “slay the dragon” to become mature. But remember, the unconscious is like gravity, so it is natural to long and fall for that paradisal feeling of non-conscious existence. Adult content hits the nail exactly on this fantasy and serves as a (hopefully) temporary relief from developing as an individual. Especially in the “group” genre, the ouroboros manifests most prominently, because each person participating loses themselves and becomes one (though only in body) with everyone else. Ouroboros is individual-less. Very similar group ecstasies happened openly throughout ancient tribal rituals until they became increasingly taboo and eventually only done behind closed doors. Yet, the ouroboros is a paradoxical symbol because it comes from an undifferentiated psychology, so it is not only death but also life at the same time. Thus, this symbol also represents creativity, the self-generative nature of humans.
Fascinatingly, this self-generation is associated symbolically with creative masturbation! It expresses the autonomy of an individual who “gives birth to themselves.” See, the development of autonomy is just as crucial for a person as adaptation, and in that sense Uroboros becomes a symbol of individuality. Again, it is dualistic in nature. So, on one hand, detachment from it, entry into the world and encounter with the opposites are essential tasks of development. But on the other hand, an equally legitimate development is self-related, to become the center of your life. In this sense, when you're doing what you’re doing while watching adult content – you are engaging in a symbolic ritual of differentiation. In other words, by ritual sacrifice (what happens at the end of your activity) you are trying to manifest strength towards self-realization and autonomy.
The more one is “addicted” to this behavior, the more one wants and needs this independence, yet is unable to achieve it. It is not without reason that consuming adult content is closely correlated with adolescence. So, if you are doing your ritual all day long uncontrollably – it is not that you need to go cold turkey as with some physical addiction. Rather, you need to step out into the world and face the opposites. I’ll bet you that the ritual will slowly lose its grip.
But remember I mentioned that whether the hero in the videos is passive or active means a lot. If the hero is active, the content then usually shows a portrayal of over-coming the unconscious (usually by using the female actress as a symbol of it). This usually means that your unconscious is trying to manifest what it lacks, and you should just follow its hints. However, the tricky part is that emancipation begins with a negative act of destruction. To discriminate, distinguish, and isolate oneself from the surrounding context are all marks of consciousness. That is why experimentation is THE scientific principle; with it, a natural connection is broken and analyzed in isolation. So, the symbolic fight with the dragon ouroboros is when the person adopts its destructive attitude and directs that against it and not themselves (which Oedipus failed to do).
Unfortunately, the deflation of the unconscious is connected with the depreciation of the female; which is obvious in many religions. But the same goes for adult content. When it gets out of hand with this symbolic obsession of defeating the unconscious – the content gets strong fast. So, it is one thing if the content portrays someone actively “winning” the opposite sex (I use that word since it's a fantasy; you don’t win someone in real life), but it is completely another thing if it depicts a ridiculous domination of the opposite.
On the other hand, if the narratives you are attracted to are passive (so, where the guy “gets lucky” without doing anything), then most likely your consciousness desires to give in to regression and become overpowered by the unconscious. This can become a problem, and eventually one can end up a coomer. Horrible joke, sorry, my main point with this video is that in those rarer cases when the content depicts the successful overcoming of the fear of feminine (which is one of the main tasks of adolescence) - it is simply doing the job of mythology which we have brushed under the carpet. So, yes, pornography can be a problem, but the bigger issue is that we are getting disorientated by our lack of a cultural compass, and this is what allows such places as “The Hub” to get so many young men “addicted”. Young men just need some mythology, that's all:)