First Things: “The Weight of Smut”

In the June/July issue of First Things, Mary Eberstadt discusses the latest scientific and psychological research on porn addiction and its social costs. While we don’t endorse this magazine’s conservative stance on gender roles and gay issues, we found this article valuable.

The Weight of Smut

As the impressively depressing cover story “America the Obese” in the May issue of The Atlantic serves to remind us all, the weight-gain epidemic in the United States and the rest of the West is indeed widespread, deleterious, and unhealthy–which is why it is so frequently remarked on, and an object of such universal public concern. But while we’re on the subject of bad habits that can turn unwitting kids into unhappy adults, how about that other epidemic out there that is far more likely to make their future lives miserable than carrying those extra pounds ever will? That would be the emerging social phenomenon of what can appropriately be called “sexual obesity”: the widespread gorging on pornographic imagery that is also deleterious and unhealthy, though far less remarked on than that other epidemic–and nowhere near an object of universal public concern. That complacency may now be changing. The term sexual obesity comes from Mary Ann Layden, a psychiatrist who runs the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania. She sees the victims of Internet-pornography consumption in her practice, day in and day out. She also knows what most do not: Quietly, patiently, and irrefutably, an empirical record of the harms of sexual obesity is being assembled piecemeal via the combined efforts of psychologists, sociologists, addiction specialists, psychiatrists, and other authorities.

Young people who have been exposed to pornography are more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, more likely to have had more than one sexual partner in the last three months, more likely to have used alcohol or other substances at their last sexual encounter, and–no surprise here–more likely to have scored higher on a “sexual permissiveness” test. They are also more likely to have tried risky forms of sex. They are also more likely to engage in forced sex and more likely to be sexual offenders…

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See also:

Porn Addiction Grows in the Face of Public Apathy  
‘Sexual addicts develop tolerance and will need more and harder kinds of pornographic material,’ said Layden. ‘They have escalating compulsive sexual behavior becoming more out of control and also experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop the use of the sexual material. This material is potent, addictive and permanently implanted in the brain.’

The Impact of Internet Pornography on Marriage and the Family: A Review of the Research
[In a meta-analysis of 46 studies published in various academic journals,] Oddone-Paolucci, Genuis, and Violato found that exposure to pornographic material puts one at increased risk for developing sexually deviant tendencies [e.g., excessive or ritualistic masturbation], committing sexual offenses, experiencing difficulties in one’s intimate relationships, and accepting rape myths. In terms of the degree of risk, the analysis revealed a 31 percent increase in the risk of sexual deviancy, a 22 percent increase in the risk of sexual perpetration, a 20 percent increase in the risk of experiencing negative intimate relationships, and a 31 percent increase in the risk of believing rape myths…

…By eroticizing behaviors and values that are destabilizing to marriage, family, and the social good (e.g., rape, incest, child abuse, and bestiality), pornography becomes a powerful means through which maladaptive sexual behavior is normalized and learned…

A Review of Pornified: How Pornography is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families
One way porn affects people is to change their definition of normal sexuality. In a landmark 1980 study by University of Alabama communications professor Jennings Bryant and psychology professor Dolf Zillmann, 80 students at a large northeastern college were divided into four test groups with different levels of exposure to sexually explicit films over a six-week period. The porn films were far tamer than today’s average material, only depicting consensual heterosexual acts with no violence; the other films the students watched had no sexual content. The more pornography the subjects had viewed over the six-week period, the more likely they were to greatly overestimate the number of Americans who practiced group sex, sadomasochism and bestiality. (pp.77-78)

Porn Use Correlates with Infidelity, Prostitution, Aggression, Rape-Supportive Beliefs

Porn Confuses Young Men about How to Behave
I travel around the country and speak to college audiences, both male and female, and mixed audiences, and one thing I find over and over again, in frank discussions, is that pornography is extremely influential in the lives of young boys growing up today, and girls, but specifically I speak to guys. This blizzard of images of women in degrading and humiliating positions, guys just come to think of that as normal.

The Science Behind Pornography Addiction  
Dr. Mary Anne Layden gave this testimony at a US Senate Science, Technology, and Space Hearing in 2004. Dr. Layden is Co-Director, Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program, Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania…

Pornography, by its very nature, is an equal opportunity toxin. It damages the viewer, the performer, and the spouses and the children of the viewers and the performers. It is toxic mis-education about sex and relationships. It is more toxic the more you consume, the “harder” the variety you consume and the younger and more vulnerable the consumer...