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04 The Impact of Porn

The Impact of Porn

04

While its social and economic significance are undeniable, pornography has thus far failed to attract a proportionate level of attention from scholars. For one thing, there is a general reluctance among funders to underwrite sexual research, but also logistical and ethical challenges in dealing with pornographic material and participants in the industry. Another challenge is finding control groups—especially males—who have not previously engaged with porn.

Much of the existing research is conflicting and inconclusive when it comes to understanding the impact of pornography on individual mental and sexual health, interpersonal relationships and deviant behaviors. No clear consensus has yet emerged on a number of key issues.

Most studies of pornography go no further than establishing correlations between how much people say they watch and their other characteristics. Various researchers have found that reported porn use is higher among those with relationship difficulties, erectile dysfunction and many other social and medical problems. Heavy users are more likely to have become sexually active early, to regard sex as a mere physiological function, like eating or drinking, and to have tried to coerce others into sex. But no one knows which came first: the porn or the problem.

We don’t yet know the full impact of pornography on our lives.44 Yet there does exist a body of research claiming that pornography has a significantly negative impact on society, relationships and individuals.


Q

One of the meta-themes of self-fulfillment is the separation of sex from love: Sex is an expected feature of dating, not a union that expresses lasting love. At the same time, the influence of porn is increasing men’s objectification of women. What will these two trends produce? How will they affect women? How will they affect men? What, if anything, can the Church do to help?


 

Let’s take a brief tour of this research, alongside Barna’s recent surveys of U.S. teens and adults. How do Americans’ perceptions of porn’s impact stack up against what science has to say?

Societal Impact

What kind of impact do you think widespread pornography use has on our society? Among U.S. adults 18 and older, 68 percent believe it has a negative impact on society and 10 percent believe its impact is positive. The rest are neutral on porn’s societal impact (22%).

As we might expect, given their higher rates of porn use, Millennials are twice as likely as the norm to say porn has a positive impact on society (19%) and more likely to say it has neither a positive nor negative impact (31%). At the same time, as we will explore in a later section, Millennials are also more likely to express feelings of guilt about their porn use. This could indicate an internal conflict between their desire for and belief in sexual freedom and the negative effects of porn use they are beginning to see as they emerge into adulthood. (As we saw in a similar question, older Millennials are more likely than young adults 18 to 24 to say porn is very or somewhat bad for society.)


Gender Inequality and Misogyny

As we might expect, more women than men have negative views about porn’s impact on society. Of course, far fewer women than men use porn, but it’s unlikely this is the only factor in women’s assessment of porn’s effects. Many women are aware that porn is becoming ever more degrading and violent, and likely worry this trend will have negative consequences for their lives and relationships.

Pornography, particularly in its more hardcore iterations, objectifies and demeans women. “By presenting women in terms of their sexuality, pornography of its very nature promotes a woman’s physical form above all other characteristics as their defining feature.” Anti-pornography feminists such as Catherine MacKinnon and Robert Jensen have argued that, through pornography, women as a group are reduced to the status of mere tools for men’s purposes—sexual objects available for their consumption. This is, by definition, objectification.

This is by no means a problem isolated to porn: 83 percent of U.S. women and 80 percent of men agree with the statement “our culture objectifies women’s bodies.” But porn participates in and even exacerbates the cultural crisis.

Common tropes in pornography are sex-stereotyped, wherein men are portrayed as violent, dominant, high-status professionals, while women are often low-status housewives who are nonviolent and submissive. In a 2014 study, consuming porn with these stereotypes was found to affect real-life attitudes. College-age men who consumed sexually explicit media with themes of male dominance expressed less progressive attitudes toward women.47 Further, a UCLA study demonstrated that exposure to violent pornography hardens misogynistic attitudes.

But much of porn today goes beyond “mere” objectification and misogyny. In a study of the top-50 rented porn films, physical aggression occurred in 88 percent of scenes, while verbal aggression was portrayed in 48 percent of scenes. It’s even worse in an amateur, hardcore style of pornography called “gonzo porn,” in which violence and degradation are commonplace.

The story gonzo porn tells about women, according to Gail Dines, author of Pornland, is consistent: “Women are always ready for sex, and are enthusiastic to do whatever men want, irrespective of how painful, humiliating, or harmful.”50 Dines argues that sex in porn is designed to deliver the maximum amount of degradation, validating male dominance and female submission.

One study found that violent pornography increases the acceptance of rape myths.51 Rape myths are erroneous ideas about rape; for example, victims of rape are partially to blame for the crime, rape is not a serious crime and rapists should not get tough sentences. Another study showed that heavy exposure to nonviolent pornography correlates with trivializing rape as a criminal offense.52

Exploitation

Although most adult film studios have improved their practices in terms of contracts, pay and working conditions, including the recent Los Angeles County measure that requires condom use in adult films, many actors—particularly those in gonzo and other amateur porn—tell stories of abuse and exploitation, particularly sexual and psychological abuse.


Q

Human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children are part of the porn world, and seem like natural places for Christians to push back pornography’s reach. Who can your local congregation partner with to fight these tragedies in your community?


 

There are also claims of a link between pornography and sex trafficking. According to Shared Hope International’s report on the demand for sex trafficking, use of pornography is the primary gateway to the purchase of humans for sex.54 The Freedom Youth Project reports that thousands of trafficked children and young adults have been forced to make pornographic films.55 In their book Renting Lacy, the authors claim that many women and children who are sexually exploited and trafficked are also used for the production of pornography. Acts of prostitution are filmed and distributed without consent of the victims.56

Another devastating reality of the industry is child pornography. Over five million reports related to child sexual exploitation have been made to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline since it was created. In 2013 the organization reviewed 22 million images of suspected child sexual abuse in its victim identification program—a 5,000-percent increase from 2007. One in five identified offenders had images of children younger than three years old, two in five younger than six years old, and eight in 10 younger than 12 years old.57 And the use of child pornography continues to grow.

This may be due in part to a relaxation of moral standards that correlates to more frequent porn use. Teens and adults who seek out porn daily and weekly are less likely than others to categorize more extreme forms of pornography as wrong.

Racism

According to Gail Dines, “Blatant examples of racism that were
once commonplace in mainstream media have become less acceptable. But this is not so for the porn industry, which gets away with a level of racism that is breathtaking in its contempt and For example, there are overtly racist titles that feature black men and an entire porn genre called “interracial.” Roles and scenarios often rely on offensive racial stereotypes, such as black men cast as drug dealers or criminals. White women often refuse to do scenes with black men, or ask for extra money to do so.59

Women of color are generally relegated to gonzo films, where past and present racial stereotypes (of Asians and Latinas as well as African Americans) are side-by-side with demeaning gender tropes. This represents, Dines argues, a “dual subordination,” debasing a performer as both a woman and as a person of color.60 Adding injury to insult, black female actors also earn half to three-quarters what white women earn for the same work.61

Personal Impact

Of the teens and adults who report seeking porn at least occasionally (51%), only 5 percent say porn has negatively affected their sex life or has hurt their relationships. On the other hand, 28 percent say porn has positively affected their sex life.

Millennials are somewhat more likely than other age groups to say they feel a sense of guilt related to their porn use (22% compared to 17% among Gen-Xers and Boomers). They are also more likely to use porn and to use porn more often—so a greater proportion who reports feelings of guilt makes sense in that regard.

Among adults 25 and older, married (16%) and single (14%) adults are about equally likely to feel guilty about their porn use. Marrieds (31%), however, are more likely than singles (23%) to say porn has positively affected their sex life. It is conceivable that married adults who watch porn in isolation perceive a negative effect on their relationships while those who watch porn with their spouse view the effects as positive. This is supported by the fact that marrieds are less likely than singles to use porn for the purpose of personal arousal (see chapter 2).

Addiction and Neurological Conditioning

While pathological gambling and compulsive eating have received greater attention in functional and behavioral studies, evidence increasingly supports the description of compulsive sexual behaviors as addictions.62 Studies have consistently found striking similarities between porn use and drug use when it comes to brain activity. A Cambridge University study found neural reactivity to sexually explicit cues were similar to the reactivity identified in drug studies. Porn addicts in the Cambridge study fit the addiction model of “wanting it more” but not “liking it more.”63

A German study found that longer durations of porn consumption correlate with less reward circuit activation while viewing sexual photos, which suggests eventual desensitization.64 Psychiatrist Norman Doidge, in his book The Brain That Changes Itself, presents evidence that the content viewers find exciting changes as websites introduce themes and scripts that alter viewers’ brains without their awareness. Because neural plasticity is competitive, the brain maps for new, exciting images at the expense of what a person had previously found attractive.65

As with drug addiction, the urge to escalate is a real possibility. As some users become desensitized to “regular” porn through consistent consumption, they experience an increased appetite for more deviant and cruel images and scenarios.

The greatest concern about neurological effects center on teenagers, who are now likely to see a vast amount of pornography long before they become sexually active—and before their brains are finished developing.

In 2013 the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in England assessed the effects of porn and concluded that pornography appeared to have a negative impact on young people, in particular by creating unrealistic beliefs about sex. Meg Kaplan, a psychologist at Columbia University who treats those convicted of sex offenses, believes some sexual tastes are formed around the time of puberty, suggesting that ill-timed exposure to fetishistic or violent material could cause a lifelong predilection for that kind of sex.66

Erectile Dysfunction

A popular argument online and in the media claims that pornography use, particularly in excess, leads to erectile dysfunction (ED) even in young men. Various studies have reported up to 60 percent of subjects had difficulty achieving erections / arousal with real partners, yet could achieve erections using porn.67 Further, a recent study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that an increase in erectile dysfunction in younger men may be related to porn use.68 However, there are two other recent studies that show no link between porn and ED—so the jury is still out on this claim.69

Relational Impact

What is the purpose of sex? The traditional Christian view is that sex unites a woman and a man in marriage. This view is not generally accepted by the broader culture, however. The greatest cultural consensus has coalesced around “to express intimacy between two people who love each other,” but even this understanding of sex is less common among younger generations. Conversely, the idea that sex is for self-expression and personal fulfillment is more popular among young adults than older Americans.

These trends may or may not be caused by porn use, but certainly porn’s ubiquity among younger Americans is in the mix of factors that inform their views. It’s not hard to see how the morality of self-fulfillment—expressed here in the view that sex is for self-expression and personal fulfillment—can justify not only porn use but also other sexual activities divorced from relational intimacy and commitment.

Changing perceptions about the purpose of sex likely influence the amount of porn people consume. But just as likely is that the increasing amount of porn people consume contributes to a more carnal, less relational, view of sex. These factors may form an iterative cycle.

Unfortunately, porn’s relational impact likely goes beyond shaping people’s perceptions of sex. One study looked at the effect on male and female participants of consuming nonviolent pornographic material and found that participants reported less satisfaction with their intimate partner, specifically with their partner’s affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity and sexual performance.70

In his essay “Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children,” Dr. Victor Cline argues that adults who regularly masturbate to pornography risk disturbing the bonded relationship with their spouse or partner. Doing so, he writes,

dramatically reduces their capacity to love (e.g., it results in a marked dissociation of sex from friendship, affection, caring, and other normal healthy emotions and traits which help marital relationships). In time, the “high” obtained from masturbating to pornography becomes more important than real life relationships.71

Similarly, Pamela Paul, author of Pornified, found that some casual users of pornography have trouble achieving orgasm with their partner unless they are actively thinking about pornography.72

Another study found consumption of Internet porn was positively associated with having multiple sexual partners and engaging in both paid sex and extramarital sex.73 In another, researchers Zillman and Bryant claim that pornography use creates doubts about the value of marriage, decreases the desire to have children and causes users to view non-monogamous relationships as normal and natural.74 Another study suggests that Internet porn use can undermine marital exclusivity and fidelity. “Partners feel betrayed when they discover that their partner has been viewing pornography, which is perceived as infidelity.”75 Women reported a decrease in sexual intimacy and closeness due to their partner’s porn use and “described their partner’s sexual advances as conveying a message of objectification as opposed to meaningful interaction.”76 There are also claims that pornography has contributed to an increase in sexless marriages.77


Q

According to Cindy Gallop, men watch porn and then think about what they’ve watched when they interact sexually with their wives. One partner comes to sex looking for self-fulfillment while the other hopes for intimate connection. It’s hard to see how a marriage can survive under these circumstances, even if the husband is no longer actively using porn. How can we help couples heal as individuals and heal their relationship? Is it even possible?


Pornified Sex

Cindy Gallop, creator of MakeLoveNotPorn.com remarked in her TED Talk—which, to date, has been viewed nearly 5 million times on YouTube—”Guys watch porn and when they go to bed with a real woman, all they think about is recreating that scenario.”78 Empirical and anecdotal evidence seem to agree with her. Researchers at London University published a study examining whether porn played a part in young people’s decisions to engage in anal sex. “Many of the young men described pressing girlfriends to consent; young women said they continued to be asked, sometimes forcefully, even after repeated refusals.”79 GQ published an op-ed from a sexually active young woman protesting the increasing numbers of men who expect pornified sex and seem to believe all women enjoy demeaning “dirty talk.”80

And these effects may be trickling down. Psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair interviewed 1,000 children ages 4 to 18 across the United States for her book The Big Disconnect. She found a marked tendency among even young boys to approach girls they like in a sexually aggressive manner.81

Sexual Violence

As we’ve noted, pornography has become increasingly violent in recent decades. But is there a relationship between violent porn and actual sexual violence? Again, the research shows mixed results.

In one study, men with higher past exposure to violent pornography were six times more likely to report having raped someone compared to those who reported low exposure.82 Another showed correlations between use of all types of pornography (softcore, hardcore, violent and rape) and the likelihood of sexual coercion.83

Mary Anne Layden, PhD, is a psychotherapist and Director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Therapy. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. In a 2011 briefing for the Kansas legislature on the connection of pornography to crime, she reported that she had been doing work for more than 10 years before realizing she had not treated a single case of sexual violence that did not include pornography. Dr. Layden found that the earlier young males are exposed to pornography, the more likely they are to engage in non-consensual sex, and that the more pornography females use, the more likely they are to be victims of non-consensual sex. “Pornography,” she says, “is an equal opportunity toxin for both males and females.”

In her book Dangerous Relationships: Pornography, Misogyny and Rape, Diana Russell offers evidence that pornography is a causal factor for rape because it has been shown to predispose some men to desire rape or intensify this desire, to undermine some men’s internal or social inhibitions against acting out rape desires, and to weaken some potential victims’ ability to avoid or resist rape.84

On the other hand, another study assessed the impact of antipornography statutes in four U.S. states on sex crimes. The number of arrests for rape, prostitution and other sex offenses reflected no significant change before and after the statutes went into effect.85 If porn inevitably leads to sexual violence, one might expect the number of arrests to fall if access to porn is limited.

One researcher reviewed a number of studies on the links between exposure to sexually explicit material and sexual violence and found conflicting results. These correlative inconsistencies might be chalked up to different methodologies, measures and genres of porn included in the studies—it’s all but impossible to say for sure.86

According to journalist and anti-porn activist Robert Jensen, if the question is whether pornography causes rape, the answer is almost always going to be no. He argues, “Since some men who use pornography don’t rape, and some men who rape don’t use pornography, pornography is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for rape.”87 But if we go beyond a simple cause-and-effect model, Jensen continues, the better question would be, Is pornography ever a factor that contributes to rape? Few critics of porn contend that it is ever the sole, direct cause of sexual violence, but Jensen believes the discussion ought to center around whether porn is implicated in sexual violence.88

Church Impact

Large majorities of practicing Christians (75%), senior pastors (92%) and youth pastors (94%) believe that porn is a bigger problem for the Church now than it was 20 years ago.

When pastors consider their own congregations, however, just two out of five say porn use is a major (3%) or significant (35%) problem. Half say it is only a minor problem (50%), and the remaining pastors believe it’s not really an issue for their church. Interestingly, in a study among church leaders on discipleship, the vast majority of pastors said the Church as a whole is doing a poor job of discipleship—but their own congregation is pretty effective.89 There could be a tendency among pastors to be pessimistic about the broader Church and optimistic about their local community of faith.

According to these same leaders, married men are the group most likely to ask the pastor for help dealing with their porn use. As the following comparison chart shows, among practicing Christians single men and teenage boys seek out porn more often than married men—but they may not experience the negative relational effects that could prompt married men to ask for help.

Compared to the proportion of practicing Christian women and teen girls who seek porn at least occasionally, few ask for help from their pastor for dealing with their porn use. This reticence may be due in part to the social stigma associated with female porn use or to the fact that most pastors are men, which adds a layer of social and sexual complexity to the pastor-parishioner relationship.

Whether porn is a bigger problem for the Church now than in the past, it’s clear that a practicing Christian faith has a profound influence on a person’s porn habits. Among every age group and gender, practicing Christians seek porn less often than those who do not practice Christianity. (To see side-by-side comparisons, check out the infographic “Who Looks and How Often?” on page 32.)

This is good news. Porn is a problem for the Church—a problem that must not be ignored—but practicing Christians are a floodbank against the cascading impacts of porn on people, relationships and society.

THE NATIONAL CENTER ON SEXUAL EXPLOITATION

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation

NCOSE is the leading national organization addressing the public health crisis of pornography and exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation. NCOSE embraces a mission to defend human dignity and to advocate for the universal right to sexual justice, which is freedom from sexual exploitation, objectification and violence. To this end, NCOSE operates on the cutting edge of policy activism to combat corporate and government policies that foster sexual exploitation, to advance public education and empowerment, and foster united action through the international Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation.

Special Report: Covenant Eyes

Internet filtering with accountability is more effective than filtering alone.

Covenant Eyes, a service that offers “Internet accountability,” partnered with Josh McDowell Ministry to sponsor The Porn Phenomenon research. Covenant Eyes offers content blocking and filtering, like many similar services, but also integrates accountability into its service. The software monitors Internet devices for websites visited, search terms used and videos watched, and collects all the data in a report that is shared with a person or people designated by the Covenant Eyes user—people who can then hold the user accountable for his or her Internet habits.

As one aspect of The Porn Phenomenon study, Barna researchers surveyed Covenant Eyes members to identify how their perceptions and habits differ, if at all, from the general U.S. population.

First, Barna found that Covenant Eyes members are much more likely than their age counterparts in the general population to view porn negatively. For example, teens and young adults who use Covenant Eyes are about four times more likely than other Americans 24 and younger to say porn is very bad for society (85% vs. ~20%). Likewise, Covenant Eyes teens and young adults are far more likely to say that, if and when they talk with their friends about porn, the tone of the conversation is negative: 73 percent say the way they talk about it is “disagreeable,” compared to only 11 percent of other teens and 5 percent of other young adults. Also similarly, greater majorities of Covenant Eyes users say porn that features children under the age of 12, non-consensual sex acts, sex that is forced or painful, demeaning depictions of people, teens, sex between two people of the same gender and sex between more than two people at once are “always wrong.”

Second, because there is some skepticism among ministry leaders about the effectiveness of Internet filtering software as a tool for avoiding porn use—just 30 percent of senior pastors and 25 percent of youth pastors say it is very effective—researchers compared frequency of use between Covenant Eyes users and those in the general population who have installed porn-blocking Internet filters. The data shows that Internet filtering with accountability— the service offered by Covenant Eyes—is more effective at curbing porn use than porn-blocking filters alone.

This finding is not surprising when we consider how highly accountability groups are rated by ministry leaders as effective solutions for people who want to stop using porn. (Fifty-two percent of senior pastors and 72 percent of youth pastors have recommended accountability to those who have sought their help.)

It is difficult to say why no respondents who have installed blocking filters have been able to stop searching for porn. In some cases those who install content-blocking filters alone may actually be more tempted to view porn than they would be without filters, because getting around the filter is an attractive challenge. Regardless, it’s clear that an accountability relationship is far more effective for those who want to limit or stop their searches for porn.

Q&A with Robert Jensen

Professor of journalism and outspoken critic of pornography

Robert is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and a board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center in Austin. He is the author of Plain Radical: Living, Loving, and Learning to Leave the Planet Gracefully. Jensen’s other books include Arguing for Our Lives: A User’s Guide to Constructive Dialogue; All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice; Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity; The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege; Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity; and Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream.

www.RobertWJensen.org
@jensenrobertw


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