Americans are generally wary of potential evils which could degrade the behavior, health, and thinking of their fellow citizens. This wariness is evidenced by the visceral responses of Americans to everything from communist infiltrators to narcotics. Yet, one threat has gone largely unaddressed, in spite of its near-universal accessibility, toxicity to the mind, direct ties to human trafficking, and detrimental effects on the family and public understanding of human sexuality. Rather, the evil of pornography has been praised and accepted in the news and by various public figures. However these individuals and organizations wish to frame it, few things are more abnormal, or pose a greater threat to the moral fabric of society, than pornography.
To understand pornography, it is necessary to understand its affects on the brain and body. Like most addictive drugs, pornography hijacks the brain’s reward system. When experiencing seemingly beneficial stimuli, neurotransmitters give feelings of pleasure, incentivizing engagement in the stimuli. Further engagement releases more neurotransmitters, fortifying particular neural pathways. Unfortunately, this reward system cannot distinguish between superficially and truly beneficial stimuli. When exposed to pornographic videos, the brain is tricked into believing that the person is engaging in intercourse, rather than watching videos of others doing the same.
As the brain builds a stimulus tolerance, more stimuli is required to achieve the same amount of pleasure. Pornography provides an infinite amount of novelty as a result of the essentially endless supply of pornographic media available for free at the user’s fingertips. Also, since the novelty of pornography makes it a supernormal stimuli, which is shown to elicit a more intense response in humans and other animals than natural stimuli, pornography presents a more stimulating pleasure experience than real relationships.
As one might expect, this rewiring of the brain has disastrous consequences. Pornography leads to physical changes within the brain, with shrinkage of grey matter that is comparable to, or even greater than that associated with heroin use. On a psychological level, pornography usage produces low self-esteem, loss of energy and mood deterioration, and has been shown to weaken memory. Use of pornography even results in physical changes, such as erectile dysfunction. The rising use of pornography has correlated with a 600 to 3,000 percent increase in erectile dysfunction among young men, a phenomenon that most young men would otherwise not experience for another few decades of their lives. An entire generation of young men who are collectively impotent, placid, and losing grey matter by the day would be a crisis in and of itself. Yet, these immediate effects represent only part of the disastrous consequences associated with pornography.
The craving of novelty inevitably affects true relationships in devastating ways. For those who are in relationships with a pornography-consuming partner, they may see practices viewed by their significant other imposed in the bedroom — practices such as choking and spitting that would otherwise be rightfully considered degrading. Alternatively, the user may become bored and neglect their partner entirely, having built unreasonable expectations of sexual attractiveness and performance around their viewing habits. They then forsake human connection for artificial pleasure. Therefore, it should be no surprise that almost 56 percent of divorces involve pornography consumption, according to the research of therapist Dr. Jill Manning.
While playing an active role in destroying families through divorce, pornography consumption is becoming alarmingly common among children. The average age of first exposure to pornography is eleven, with some being exposed even earlier. For many children, their first glimpse at sexual activity of any kind will be through the highly disordered lens of pornography. While most may be out of the reach of drugs, pornography is within reach of their keyboards, and the search engines are dealing.
The effects on those most intimately involved in the production of pornography — the actors and actresses — are equally grim. Actresses often come from backgrounds of sexual abuse, poor mental health, and financial instability that result in the pornography industry appearing as a glamorous alternative to their present state of affairs. While perhaps gaining some level of significant income initially, actresses are made to perform increasingly extreme material in order to continue receiving the same income. They are coerced into scenes in which they feel uncomfortable, or would otherwise never engage in.
Beyond exploitation, sexual trafficking and rape go hand-in-hand with pornography. One of the most glaring examples is the case of producers Michael Pratt and Matthew Wolfe, whose productions were widely circulated among pornographic websites. They lured unsuspecting women with promises of a modelling shoot, before coercing them into shooting pornographic videos, and sometimes sexually assaulting them. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. According to Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, at least a plurality, if not a majority of the millions of videos on websites such as Pornhub are non-consensual, with videos depicting the confirmed rape of minors being monetized. Such was the extent of this content that the website was forced to remove almost half of its videos pending review. Onlyfans, held up by many as the paragon of individualized control concerning pornographic content, has also been linked by investigators to human trafficking, both as a way for traffickers to lure victims, and to profit from them.
The thoroughly terrible nature of pornography is only exacerbated by the attitudes of its proponents and producers. Al Goldstein, credited with normalizing hardcore pornography, stated that pornography was “a way of defiling Christian culture and, as it penetrates to the very heart of the American mainstream, its subversive character becomes more charged.” One might wonder how an industry with such consequences, wielded with the seeming intent of its producers to destroy the fabric of American culture, has been allowed to continue unhindered. Yet, this has not always been the case.
For decades prior to a number of questionable decisions by a liberalized SCOTUS in the 1960s and 70s, pornography was considered obscenity, subject to regulation and outright bans. Obscenity, which is not protected under the First Amendment, is defined as material that is prurient, devoid of scientific, political, educational, or social value, and violates local community standards. It is clear that pornography is indeed prurient, as it promotes excess sexual interest by rewiring the brain. Further, it would be difficult to assert that it holds any value except appealing to carnal desire, and violates local community standards depicting degrading and deviant sexual activity. Clearly, it is time for the court to reexamine this issue.
Grim as it may be, for those who have been affected in some way or another by pornography, there is hope. Physically and psychologically, it has been shown that the brain will rewire itself normally in the absence of pornographic stimulus. There are a variety of resources available for those struggling with addiction and recovery, including coaching, blockers, and information about quitting that is widely available. For those who struggle, know that you are not alone. Pornography can be fought... and beaten.