How Porn Turns Men Into Little Boys

Two hundred years ago in the U.K., if you said you were going to a “gentleman’s club,” it was understood you were going to a private upper-class establishment where you could relax, read, play parlor games, get a meal, and gossip with others of your class.
Today, in the U.S., if you said you were going to a “gentleman’s club,” it is assumed you will be paying to see a striptease in a low-lit bar that smells like urinal cakes and hopelessness.
Is this really what should typify a “gentleman”?
Pornography is often classified, along with other sexually oriented businesses, as “adult” entertainment—something for “mature” audiences. If these descriptions merely meant these kinds of entertainment are “not suitable for children” then few would protest.
That said, it would be foolish to use this as an argument that pornography is actually suitable for adults. Heroin and racism are also “not suitable for children,” but this does not mean, ipso facto, that they are healthy for those over the age of eighteen.
Porn advocates are fond of saying (“fond” is an understatement—they repeat it like a mantra) that pornography is sophisticated, mature entertainment suitable for responsible adults. Porn, they will have you believe, is what true gentlemen appreciate—like a good cigar, scotch, and Picasso (for a reason I cannot fathom).
As the infamous Ron Jeremy is quick to say: “Pornography is consensual sex between consenting adults, to be watched by consenting adults.”
What Do We Mean By Mature?
Which leads us to ask: What exactly constitutes “adult” or “mature” behavior? Is it merely a commentary on the age of the participant? Or is it about something more? Stipulating proper definitions is complicated because today these terms are so often used as synonyms for erotic media—which is the very topic we’re trying to dissect.
One way we use the term “mature” is