Is Pornography Adultery?

No it's not adultery. It's just a form of entertainment. If you are in a sexually healthy relationship you probably won't even feel the need to watch porn. However, some people enjoy watching porn by themselves or even with their partner.

It can't be adultery even if you wish you were in a relationship with whoever you are watching on screen. It's just wishful thinking. Now you might argue that if one watches porn because they don't like their sex life that probably means something is wrong within the relationship. Anyway I look at it, adultery is far from watching pornography.

to be blunt people watch/look at pornography to get off. they are seeking some for of sexual pleasure/arousal. the idea of it is really no different than fantasizing during masturbation, or even during sex. thoughts of adultery =/= actual adultery. as long as you are not physically having some form of sexual relation with a person other than your spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever, no infidelity is being committed.

whether it's morally and ethically right/wrong, however, is a different matter entirely.

Here's a better question. Are romantic novels adultery?

If you guys care to do some light reading, this may expand the discussion a bit.

Instead of trying to summarize all the different views covered in that article, might be best if you saw it yourselves.

Adultery is also defined as infidelity, so yes, porn could be in this sense adultery. If your spouse says no, and doesn't want you looking at (masturbating/fantasizing over) naked men/women, and you do it anyway, behind their back or not, then yes, I think a strong argument could be made that it is a form of adultery, as you are engaging in sexual behavior in an unapproved form. I don't think it matters the content or the details of the sexual behavior. Whether your screwing your spouses sibling, or a stranger or a prostitute or a blow up or realistic doll, or getting off by looking at other women, it all violates the trust and the rules of the relationship.


Do you have any evidence to back up your claim Daddy? Do women really use romance novels the same as men with porn? I would think women's novel reading has more to do with attraction, feelings which is far different then men looking at porn for "boobs".

is fantasizing a physical sexual behavior? in my opinion infidelity is impossible without physical unfaithfulness; while masturbation is indeed a physical act, i'm not so convinced that when done when watching porn or fantasizing it is "unfaithful". thinking about an unfaithful act and doing an unfaithful act are two different things.

realistically, as far as violation of trust goes... if you think that your spouse looking at porn is a dishonest action then tbh you need to loosen up.

quote silverboner

Adultery is also defined as infidelity, so yes, porn could be in this sense adultery. If your spouse says no, and doesn't want you looking at (masturbating/fantasizing over) naked men/women, and you do it anyway, behind their back or not, then yes, I think a strong argument could be made that it is a form of adultery, as you are engaging in sexual behavior in an unapproved form.

This is an excellent point, in my book. I read the article, and it says that about 1/3 of women in a poll said that they didn't like their husbands using porn. The article then went on to say that the majority of women were OK with it or answered (with true feelings ambiguous) that they thought it was perfectly normal, and that therefore the other 1/3 should "deal with it" (or some other such phrase.) Why should the women have to "deal with" the men violating their wishes for his fidelity and the men not have to "deal with" their women's wishes? On the premise that marriage is the ultimate union and that it implies complete devotion to your spouse, there should at least be a compromise, and ideally, I think the men should act, or not act, according to their women's wishes.