Can you provide any evidence at all to this point? I understand that you're just providing a possible potential benefit of porn, but it seems totally unfounded to me.

In truth, no. I've heard this stated by various people, among them Tim Pritlove, who said it in one of his podcasts (I think it was NSFW, but I'm not sure). Nobody I've heard it say has pointed to evidence. It is one of those things that appears plausible to a lot of people from personal experience. This of course means, that it might be wrong.

There seem to be some people trying to collect data about the correlation between availability of pornography and the level of some crimes, but I'm still waiting for something conclusive.

Not that it's easy. Quantitative sociology is, due to the interconnectedness of the system in question, a mess.

> I think nobody doubts that the porn industry is a very exploitative business.

Do you mean that factually, as in "every business is by nature exploitative, thus so is porn industry", or rhetorically, as in "porn industry is more exploitative than most other industries"?

If second, care to elaborate?

The latter. Leaving hunches and feelings aside, I'd point to a piece of anecdotal evidence: There was a This American Life story some time back about the life of some drug dealer/pimp in the 80s (or 70s, can't remember). As an aside, he told the story of the "genesis" of a prostitute. In short, he showed how, by gradual emotional manipulation through her boyfriend, they turned a "normal" girl that hung out with them into a prostitute.

I kind of cling to that one story, because it answers a question that I've had for a long time. Given that you're prostitution is not your dream job and that it is generally shunned by society, how does one become a prostitute?

For simplicity of the argument, I've assumed that the professions of pornographic performer and prostitute are mostly similar.

It does seem to be a wide-spread perception that porn must be exploitative. I suspect (but have done no researched) that the big players are probably exploitative, at least according to the descriptions of ex-pornstars.

But then, there are lots of "indie" pornsites (such as Girls out West and their ilk; NSFW). There are some interesting interviews with the "indie" pornstar named "Furry Girl"; tldr is that she is there by choice.

This example is not to diminish what sounds like widespread exploitation in many other parts of the porn world. Rather it is to say that porn is not synonymous with exploitation.

> However, an easily overlooked aspect of porn is that it canalizes and binds a lot of "useless" energy. A few years ago I heard this tongue-in-cheek hypothesis about male sexuality: Once they manage to reliably eliminate all porn, it will take two days before mobs with clubs and pitchforks roam the streets making political demands.

This implies that men are unable to control their sexual urges or that men are inherently rapists when porn is unavailable, both of those ideas are patently offensive to people in general. Please don't contribute to rape culture stereotypes about men.

No it does not. I'm from Europe and the whole rape culture discussion has not really made it over here.

If you say that I'm completely off the mark, then let me ask you this: Would you not agree that male teenagers are incredibly angsty and hyped about all things "sex"? Don't you also experience a certain period of incredibly relaxing calm after sex?

Male sexuality has a tension-release aspect to it. Nobody is talking about rape here. If you take a bunch of young males, lock them in together and restrict their access to porn, they will become tense to the point of aggressiveness, mostly against each other. One example would be the interpersonal stuff that goes down in the training phase of military service (not talking about instructors).