Misunderstanding Sensual Images

If someone caught another person looking at images of the opposite gender partially clothed or naked on the internet, it would not be abnormal for the former person to assume that the latter individual would only look at such images for sexual reasons.  There are many levels of the social conditioning that shapes this assumption, all of them being irrational.  There are reasons why someone might search for such images that have nothing to do with expressing sexuality.

A woman who looks up images of shirtless men for sensual pleasure and a man who looks up images of women in bikinis may not be motivated by sexual interest: they very well may be interested in merely gazing at attractive bodies without any desire or pull to sexually perceive the models or masturbate to them.  Online images of the human body in scant clothing or in a state of nudity are not sexual.  It is the perception of them and the intention behind them that can be sexual, yet this does not mean they cannot be sought out for the Biblically legitimate act of self-pleasuring to pictures.

However, even people who are well aware of the fact that they are not asexual can have the desire to find online images of beautiful bodies for aesthetic reasons alone.  The idea that people only look up images of the opposite gender's bodies in private for sexual reasons is popular due to confusion over the distinction between sexual enjoyment and the basic nonsexuality of the body.  However, a rational analysis proves that the two are separate and so not overlap for everyone in the same ways.

The internet is the ultimate resource for sexual material and for nonsexual images of the opposite gender that can be used for sexual purposes (the two are not the same) [1], but it can also be used to find images for the platonic admiration of the perceived beauty of bodies belonging to the opposite gender.  Not everyone who searches for sensual images online has nonsexual intentions, of course.  It is just that the obvious possibility of online images of the human body being sought for platonic purposes cannot be rationally dismissed as so many implicitly do.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-erotic-potential-of-technology.html