Magazines, scrambled cable, free websites, HBO and Cinemax at night—porn is plentiful and accessible to anyone who is curious. In fourth grade, during snack time, some of the boys in my class went to a porn website on the school computers while we surrounded them, giggled, and enjoyed. A six-year-old boy I babysat once turned the TV to the Spice channel, and I had to literally wrestle him to get the remote out of his surprisingly strong hands while bouncing breasts and loud moaning emanated from the TV. Many of us probably remember our first forays into porn, and the feeling of loss when our parents first put website blockers on our computers.

I’m sure that everyone has been exposed to porn at least once, and at the 5Cs, four in five men and two in five women watch porn at least occasionally and say that they like it. It can aid in sexual arousal, help us to relieve stress with a quick masturbation session, teach us moves or tricks, help us explore sex with our partners in different ways, and entertain us. And it can be pretty sexy.

But (not to throw a wrench in your enjoyment) there are a lot of problems with the way porn is made. Much of the porn industry is dominated by misogynistic or semi-violent images, stories, or actions. Regulation of the industry isn’t the best – just recently, a porn actor was found to have HIV after having acted in multiple scenes, and all porn production was shut down while an investigation took place. Many actors don’t use condoms, women have implants, and men take Viagra. Make-up is caked on all parts of the body. Hair removal is meticulous. Women scream with pleasure when men jackhammer them, and men come on women’s faces. The examples that many porn images provide are unsafe and unrealistic. So by watching porn, are we supporting all that is wrong with the industry? Are we harming ourselves?

Luckily, students at the 5Cs are aware of how unrealistic most porn is (95 percent of students agree that it’s unrealistic, and as one student says, “Porn is to sex as WWE is to real wrestling”). They believe that a lot of porn sets a bad example for our beliefs and expectations about sex, especially as it concerns the portrayal and treatment of women (95 percent think that porn is at least sometimes degrading to women, and 60 percent think that it is degrading to men). Here are some examples of what students said:

“Just look at the titles of so many porn videos: Slut Gets Fucked, etc.”

“Guys are just the tools in porn.”

“Porn teaches men to ignore the needs and desires of their partner(s). It presents terrible sexual role models for men.”

“Women’s pleasure is rarely the focal point, and the sex almost always begins and ends with male orgasm.”

“Women rarely have agency or freedom of choice in the scenes. Women are rarely given a choice about the sex moves they perform, instead taking direction from the men throughout the scene. When the scene ends, the men typically cum on the woman’s face, which signifies to me that the woman is subordinate, a toy, a pleasure machine for the men and not an active participant.”

The problem is that people who often watch porn without thinking about its effects may be desensitized to physical sex and more disrespectful to the opposite gender, and they may have unrealistic expectations about sex. These issues are especially important because, as one student said, “the age of porn users continues to lower. People now often see porn before ever being with a romantic partner sexually, thus their expectations are shaped more by porn than by experience.”

While it’s unfortunate that so much porn involves issues like those mentioned above, I still believe that porn has its place. It’s safe to say that non-violent, sex-positive, realistic porn in moderation is perfectly fine, even beneficial, for our sexual health. Again, 5-C students tend to agree. One student said, “Some porn allows women to empower themselves through the showing off of their body.” One woman said she recently discovered “porn that I thought valued women, was made by women, was truly queer, and ‘real.’ I think this type of porn is extremely beneficial: it’s egalitarian, realistic, breaks down harmful power structures, and encourages people to get turned on in a healthy way. Sex and watching sex isn’t bad––it’s when women are told their vaginas are only cum receptacles and their bodies are only for grabbing that is harmful.” One student encouraged people “to support sites that present sex in a healthy way, kinks and all.”

So to all you budding filmmakers who are struggling to find a niche, this might be your chance! We are in need of more porn that portrays sex realistically, without degrading men or women, but that still gets those hearts racing. Amateur porn is incredibly popular: of those who watch porn, 65 percent of men and 35 percent of women at the 5Cs report watching it, making it the most popular porn category for both genders by far, yet the word isn’t quite out yet. Go forth and spread the news. After all, who needs degrading, exaggerated, and harmfully produced images of sex when the real thing—sweat, grunts, condoms and all—is so damn great?