Citizens gave testimony about their encounters with porn and those who consume porn to the Minneapolis Government Operations Committee on December 12, 1983. This account appears in In Harm’s Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearings (p.110-114). Portions of it have appeared in earlier posts. Testimony of R. M. M. At that time [age 21], I […]
Continue reading Testimony in Minneapolis: Porn and the Death Spiral of a Marriage
Following up on recent arrest of Edgar Selavka, a preschool teacher, and the indictment of Ronald Garney, an Amherst high school science teacher, for possession of child pornography, today’s Gazette consults experts on the relationship between porn and pedophilia. Fabian M. Saleh directs research for the National Institute for the Study, Prevention and Treatment of […]
Continue reading Gazette: “Links between porn, pedophilia explained”
The website Family Facts has gathered citations of numerous studies that find that porn consumption correlates with increased rates of infidelity, use of prostitutes, aggression and rape-supportive beliefs. We highlight a few of these studies here: In 1992, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence reported that “Childhood exposure to pornography is significantly related to rape fantasies […]
New York Magazine considers the impact of I-porn in “Not Tonight, Honey. I’m Logging On”. [T]he mass consumption of cyberporn has slyly moved from the pathetic stereotypes (fugitive perverts, frustrated husbands) into the potent mainstream (young professionals, perhaps your boyfriend). Thanks to the advent of cable modems and DSL connections, it’s now easier than ever […]
Harry Brod explores what porn does to the male viewer in “Eros Thanatized: Pornography and Male Sexuality”. This essay appears in Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.190-206). The proper framework for discussion about the manufacture and distribution of pornography is neither sexual ethics nor civil liberties, but business ethics. Anti-pornography campaigns should be conceptualized not as […]
Defenders of porn often argue that it serves a cathartic function, that porn satisfies its viewers’ desires so they feel no need to act them out in real life. Diana Russell and Natalie Purcell provide a strong rebuttal to this argument: According to the catharsis theory, the repeated exposure of males to pornography “leads to […]
Like an abusive relationship, porn is a closed system. A great deal is left out. Knowledge is repressed. Break out of this mental prison, writes David Mura, there are better ways to seek fulfillment. From “A Male Grief: Notes on Pornography and Addiction”, from Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.131-141)… In imposing abuse, the abuser attempts […]
Porn likes to present itself as the embodiment of fun and freedom. For many, the reality is the opposite. David Mura writes in “A Male Grief: Notes on Pornography and Addiction”, from Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.125-126)… The addiction to pornography is not fun. Underneath all the assertions of liberty and “healthy fun” lie the […]
Continue reading Porn Addiction Not Fun; Porn’s Repressive Vision
An account from Men on Rape (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), reprinted in Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.43-49)… Regularly beaten by his stepmother and stepbrothers from the age of five, at thirteen [“Chuck”] ran away from home and began a life of drug addictions and crime. At twenty, after two painful years of marriage, […]
Continue reading Porn: One Rapist’s Story (explicit language)
Robert Jensen interviewed 13 convicted sex offenders in Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (1998, p.119-134), to investigate how porn influenced their thinking. All of them had viewed “hard-core pornography”–sex presented in graphic detail. The average age of first viewing was 12, with a range from 8 to 19. From about age 21 on, […]
Continue reading Robert Jensen: Influence of Pornography on Sex Offenders (explicit language)