(LifeSiteNews) — A decade ago, there was a fierce public debate about whether or not pornography was a significant contributor to sexual violence. I debated the subject on public radio and gave presentations on campuses on how pornography fueled rape culture. Every time I did, I got plenty of pushback. To claim that porn use was shaping sexual behavior, I was told – including by “porn profs” such as Dr. David Ley, a porn advocate, user, and author – was a paranoid view derived from the fulminations of the 1980s religious right-wing.
The public consensus has now changed. Even leftist politicians rarely debate that ubiquitous digital porn use has burned like acid through our collective sexual economy. The discussion is no longer “Is porn bad for our society?” but “How can we best deal with this problem?” Some, like vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, have floated the idea of banning porn; countries like Nepal have actually done so. Others, like the French attorney general, have suggested prosecuting pornographers. Most politicians seem to think that some form of age verification is the best solution, with both EU countries and American states taking this approach.
Most recently, U.K. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi again called for the government to focus on pornography’s contribution to sexual violence, noting that there is “extensive evidence” that “pornography consumption fuels sexual violence” and warning that pornography distorts the consumer’s view of healthy sexual behavior and “serves to dehumanize and sexually objectify women.” Antoniazzi then called on government ministers to “rein in the lawless activities of pornography sites.” Note well: This is not a conservative politician. This is a Labour MP.
Study after study confirms the link between porn and sexual aggression. A 2019 study from the Archives of Sexual Behavior titled “The Association Between Exposure to Violent Pornography and Teen Dating Violence in Grade 10 High School Students” found that teenage boys exposed to violent pornography – which is the vast majority of them – are two to three times more likely to victimize girls, primarily through some form of sexual assault.
READ: Parents must be warned that pornography is accessible on Wikipedia
A 2008 study in NeuroImage demonstrated that when men are aroused by porn, mirror neurons in the brain fire – meaning that “the brain naturally imagines the porn viewer in the scene. The man is not merely responding to a naked woman. His brain is mirroring the pornographic scene with the viewer as the main character, heightening arousal.”[1]
What we are seeing with the normalization of sexual violence is the culture-wide consequences of men and boys imagining themselves as the aggressor in millions upon millions of porn scenes. Consider the following:
- A British study found that 44 percent of boys between the ages of 11 and 16 who viewed pornography said that porn gave the ideas about sex acts they wanted to try.[2]
- A 2016 study found that 53 percent of 11-16-year-old-boys and 39 percent of 11-16-year-old girls said that they believed pornography was a realistic depiction of sex.[3]
- A 2021 study found that 1 out of every 8 porn videos shown to first-time users on porn home pages feature acts of sexual violence.[4]
- A 2021 study found that 24.5 percent of young adults cited pornography as the most helpful resource for learning how to have sex.[5]
Girls and women are now entering a dating and relationship landscape shaped by pornography. Sexual violence has become normative across the West not just for adults copycatting digital porn and sexual entertainment such as Fifty Shades of Grey, but for minors and children as well. The truth is that most of the sexual violence that occurs in our society is now simply a part of the way men and women and boys and girls treat each other, and that much of this behavior takes place in the ever-growing grey zone between consent, crime, and coercion.
Tonia Antoniazzi is right to sound the alarm. I would take it a step further, and echo those who recognize that drastic action is needed: It is time to ban pornography.
References
↑1 | The Porn Myth, Matt Fradd, p. 194 |
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↑2 | Martellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J.R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M.A.H. (2016). ‘I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it’. A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. London: Middlesex University. NSPCC. Retrieved from https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1187/mdx-nspcc-occ-pornography-report.pdf |
↑3 | Martellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J.R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M.A.H. (2016). ‘I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it’. A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. London: Middlesex University. NSPCC. Retrieved from https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1187/mdx-nspcc-occ-pornography-report.pdf |
↑4 | Vera-Gray, F., McGlynn, C., Kureshi, I., & Butterby, K. (2021). Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography. The British Journal of Criminology, doi:10.1093/bjc/azab035 |
↑5 | Rothman, E. F., Beckmeyer, J. J., Herbenick, D., Fu, T. C., Dodge, B., & Fortenberry, J. D. (2021). The Prevalence of Using Pornography for Information About How to Have Sex: Findings from a Nationally Representative Survey of U.S. Adolescents and Young Adults. Archives of sexual behavior, 50(2), 629–646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01877-7 |