Pornography increases suffering
Pornography influences the kinds of intimate relationships people have. Pornography has deleterious effects not only on the individuals in those relationships but also on the extended family and on later generations. Trauma is not restricted to the generation in which it occurs (Atkinson, 2002).
The making of pornography is itself harmful to those involved in its production: to the women portrayed in porn shoots and the men making those films. While the upshot may not be lung cancer, it does have detrimental effects on health and it is highly likely that the impact of pornography results in the death of some of its players.
Some say that pornography is freedom of expression. Whose expression is free? The women with cum on their faces? The young girls and boys penetrated anally? Get real. This is not about freedom of expression, it is about endorsing men’s violence against the feminised other: women, children and animals as well as men who are poor, gay or from a despised ethnic group.
Pornography is an industry, just like tobacco is an industry. It is intended to make large profits for a small number of individuals and corporations. There is no greater social good to be found in pornography. Instead, it has negative effects on the developing brains of young men exposed to endless streams of porn culture (Doidge, 2009, pp. 102–112). Those young men (from age 11 according to Dines, 2010) are not engaging in instinctual behaviour, but a learned behaviour that requires ever more stimulation. It leads to an escalation of ‘learned need’ on the part of men, and suggests that the more pornography there is, the greater the damage (Doidge, 2009, pp. 104–106). And further, that porn causes erectile dysfunction in men (Murphy, 2010). Rather than enhancing the sexual experience, pornography requires a bigger and bigger fix to the point where only the most gratuitously violent images have any effect.
“Porn is bad for your health” says Linda Thompson (2010). It’s bad for women’s health because of the increase in sexually transmitted diseases and physical injury by those engaged in the production of pornography. Add to that the post-traumatic stress disorders and psychological effects of abuse. These, however, are not restricted to the makers of porn, but also to the watchers of pornography. They lose their capacity to form intimate relationships with others. “The consumers become the consumed” (Murphy, 2010).
Pornography has many defenders including those on the left who want to dismantle capitalism but leave the pornography industry intact. But if we want a society in which justice is at the centre, then we cannot justify supporting pornography. Porn is about injustice and hatred.
Who is porn good for? It’s good for capitalists. It’s good for organised crime. It’s good for the purveyors of violence, such as those in the military who give porn to soldiers in training (Caputi, 1992). It’s good for those engaged in genocide who film the rape and torture of prisoners and then distribute this as porn (Clarke, 2004). It’s good for a handful of corporate exploiters. It’s good for patriarchy.
Strategies to Quit Porn
Identify the reasons why you want to Quit Porn. Reflect on when you first used porn. Your age, the social setting in which it occurred. Think about whether the things that were important to you then are now. Ask yourself whether you were pressured to use porn? What made you continue after the pressure ceased? Do any of those things still matter? Reflect on what you thought was good about porn. Did that good feeling always continue? Did you experience any negative feelings? Try to identify them. How did using porn affect your partner? Did you ask? What affect did porn have on your relationship? Are any of them strong enough reasons to help you Quit Porn?
Reflect on your politics. Are you in favour of social justice? Do you think racism is a bad thing? Do you put ecological issues high on your list of priorities? Do you think women should be treated with respect? Do you think that people in poverty should get more equitable access to resources? Do you think it’s a good thing that slavery is illegal? If you answer yes to any of these and you use porn, how do you justify that to yourself? How do you justify it to others? What do you think of your justifications after pondering these issues?
Create a plan to Quit Porn. It might include changing some social settings that make it hard for you to refuse using porn. Work out how you might change these. It might include changing habits and routines. Try to replace these with something active, something that will give your mind and body energy. It might involve some quite strong emotions. Finding a supportive person or group might be helpful in dealing with your emotions.
In the plan you create to Quit Porn, try to work out whether you feel more comfortable with your politics now? Does that help you to Quit Porn?
Put your plan into action. Just as smokers have relapses, it’s possible that circumstances and a range of other events might create obstacles to giving up porn. It’s worth continuing through these difficult patches. If you need to make several attempts before you Quit Porn, think of your previous attempts as practice runs. Reflect on what helped you to stop and what encouraged you to use again. Think about the things you might do to get you through the next time.
Using porn is learned behaviour. If you learned it, it is possible to unlearn it. While the plasticity of the brain means that using porn affects the brain, it also means that by not using porn, you are creating new ways for the brain to operate. You are changing your behaviour. People have changed their behaviour over millennia. Feminism helped women changed their behaviour, and most reasonable people in this society have worked to stop themselves from expressing racist views. It is possible to change the way you live in the world. It is possible to change how you relate to others.
Reasons to Quit Porn
Why bother to Quit Porn? Just as smoking affects a person’s quality of life, using pornography does too. It reduces social interactions and the quality of that interaction. Relationships become disengaged and people are dehumanised.
Who do you support? The profiteers and purveyors of violence? Or those harmed by pornography?
Porn is bad for you. It’s bad for boys. It’s bad for girls. It’s bad for women. It’s bad for men. It’s bad for our relationships with one another.
It’s time to Quit Porn.
Bibliography
Atkinson, Judy (2002) Trauma Trails, Recreating Song Lines: The Transgenerational Effects of Trauma in Indigenous Australia. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Caputi, Jane (1992) The Age of Sex Crime. The Women’s Press, London.
Clarke, D. A. (2004) ‘Prostitution for everyone: Feminism, globalisation and the “sex” industry’ in Starke, Christine and Rebecca Whisnant (Eds) Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, pp. 149–205.
Dines, Gail (2010) Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality. Beacon Press, Boston; Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Doidge, Norman (2009) The Brain That Changes Itself. Scribe, Melbourne.
Dworkin, Andrea and Catharine A. MacKinnon (1988) Pornography and Civil Rights: A New Day for Women’s Equality. Organizing Against Pornography, Minneapolis.