Pornification
Is A Disease
And We Have An Advanced Case
By Jason Miller
11 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Programmed
to obediently work, consume, and act on our hedonistic impulses, we
immigrant inhabitants of Turtle Island are probably amongst the most
gullible people in the history of humanity. In the United States, critical
thought and education are considered to be frivolous. Madison Avenue,
Hollywood, Wall Street, and our very own Ministry of Truth in DC pound
home the message that we exist to make and spend money to keep our mighty
Capitalist economy running like a well-oiled machine. Contemplation
and deep analysis are for “fuzzy-brained liberals” living
in their “ivory towers”. Our role as Americans is to “git
‘er done”, go home, drink a beer, and flip on Fox so O’Reilly
can tell us what we think.
America’s corporate
media offer a virtually endless supply of sound and imagery to stimulate
our endorphins while filling our minds with propaganda powerful enough
to make a ruthless empire appear to be a benevolent crusader for humanity.
(Believe it or not, some of us have actually been able to over-ride
the “Americans good, Muslims bad” loop in our program).
Need proof of how deeply
the lies are etched into our mental hard-drives? Recent polls indicate
that at least a third of Americans are still wandering about with their
power to reason disabled to the extent that they voice their support
for the wretched malefactors residing along the Potomac.
America has morphed from
the land of opportunity into the land of the opportunists. Did the architects
of the United States system of government truly intend for our Constitution
to protect the rights of avaricious corporations and wealthy individuals
to exploit the masses? I sincerely doubt it. But their “rights”
are often more protected than those of We the People.
Consider the example of pornography.
What could be more innocuous
than looking at images of naked people, right? Humans (predominately
men) have been doing it since time immemorial. At first blush, it seems
harmless enough that pornography has permeated nearly every facet of
America’s culture of compulsive consumption. Yet a powerful undertow
awaits those who venture too deeply into these seemingly placid waters.
My personal experiences coupled
with the well-researched conclusions of Pamela Paul (a contributor to
Time Magazine) in her recent book entitled Pornified:
How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our
Families have led me to expunge pornography from my life
to the extent that it is humanly possible. And given its ubiquity and
seduction, it has proven to be a Herculean task.
A woman with whom I had a
relationship about twelve years ago was so damaged by pornography that
despite her attractive physical appearance, she saw herself as ugly
and overweight. Her ex-husband had been addicted to pornography. He
was physically abusive, insisted on watching porn movies while they
had sex, and forced her to act out the parts of the women in the movies.
Based on those experiences, she lived in a nightmare world of virtually
endless and hopeless psychological competition with fantasy women. She
was comparing herself to air-brushed, surgically-enhanced women whom
pornographers portrayed as compliant sex partners with endless cravings
for hot jism. Machismo delights such as these do not occur in nature.
What effect did this “mind-fuck”
have on my girl-friend? Multiple suicide attempts and severe bulimia
were the observable fruits of her bitter harvest. Who could truly comprehend
the almost non-stop inner torment she faced? With the help of extensive
therapy and medication, she was on her way to recovery by the time she
and I parted ways. Wherever she it today, I hope she has conquered her
demons.
Despite my strong reservations
about pornography and choice to abstain, I am not suggesting that everyone
choose the path of abstinence. I was once a consumer of pornography
so I am not casting stones at those who buy or view pornography. My
intent is to deliver an informative and cautionary message.
I am calling upon pornography
users to consider the harm it inflicts on them and others, the adverse
impacts of its virus-like infiltration into nearly every vehicle of
our media, and the intellectual and spiritual power they surrender to
pornographers by mindlessly consuming their eye candy.
Reading Pornified (Pamela
Paul's book) would be an excellent starting point. Most of Ms. Paul’s
book is devoted to personal interviews with people whose lives have
been affected by pornography. She provides examples across the spectrum,
ranging from men who are so addicted that they spend hours each day
surfing the Internet and have lost the ability to have sex with human
beings to men like me who shun pornography because it has damaged them
or a loved one. Or from women (like my former companion) whose lives
have been devastated by pornography to women who enjoy the fact that
their lovers are into porn. And Paul includes interviews with many people
who fall somewhere between these extremes.
Paul makes the point that
many Americans fall prey to the false dichotomy that everyone is in
the camp of either zealous pornography advocates like Larry Flynt or
militant feminist oppositionists like Andrea Dworkin. The reality is
that most people fall somewhere in between. And despite the potent aversion
to censorship in the United States, according to Paul’s research,
42% of Americans desire some form of regulation of Internet pornography
to minimize the possibility of children accessing it. (I did say regulation,
not elimination).
Perhaps the most disturbing
element of pornography Paul exposes is how deeply it has woven itself
into the fabric of our society. Movies, advertisers, rock bands, Hip
Hop artists, Websites, magazines, and newspapers hammer us with a steady
barrage of material that fits the definition of pornography. If something
glorifies the objectification of women, lacks artistic value, and is
intended to pump up libido, it is a form of pornography.
Images of alluring women
looking ready to satisfy nearly any man’s carnal desires are powerful
tools to attract customers and create the profits that acquisitive capitalists
crave. Common knowledge for years, no? The problem is that now it is
common practice to market by objectifying women. Even life insurance
companies try to lure customers using women.
And pornographers have utilized
the relatively new medium of the Internet to take their trade to a whole
new level. Significant sections of Paul’s book explore what is
probably the most dangerous aspect of pornography. Users have a strong
tendency to become addicted. As with most addictions, porn users need
more, bigger, better, and faster to achieve their high. Paul interviews
men who relate how they “graduated” from still photos of
naked women to videos of women with one partner to videos portraying
multiple sex partners and so on. Eventually, some of these men found
themselves “getting off” on video scenes involving abuse
and rape of women. Obviously the ultimate threat to society is that
porn addicts will engage in child pornography. And some of Ms. Paul’s
interviewees discussed how their addictions ultimately led them to do
just that.
On the supply side, men like
Larry Flynt (founder of Hustler Magazine, self-anointed guardian of
the First Amendment, and pioneer of “pink shots”) have made
vast fortunes and taken porn to the level of “respectability”.
Flynt once said, “I
believe in the First Amendment (freedom of speech) very strongly ...
and there's no reason to quit now ... All the support has been extremely
amazing.”
I don’t blame him for
his substantial interest in preserving the First Amendment. Under its
application (which has allowed pornographers to produce and sell virtually
anything short of child pornography), he has amassed a fortune in excess
of $400 million. According to a recent report by CBS News, the pornography
industry now generates about $10 billion in annual revenues.
So let’s not kid ourselves
into believing that those who have scrambled to the top of the United
States’ version of the Capitalist pyramid scheme by degrading
those they exploit to make their product, severely damaging women’s
psyches, and feeding pathological male addictions are selfless martyrs
for the cause of our freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and
redress of grievances to our government. The deep resolve of pornographers
to protect the First Amendment begins and ends with their cynical devotion
to making profits through exploiting human beings.
Pornography is detrimental
to the psychological, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the subject,
the consumer, and the family of the consumer. While Paul stays fairly
objective in her book, she provides plenty of anecdotal evidence supported
by data from surveys and polls conducted by entities as diverse as the
Kinsey Institute, Elle Magazine, Zogby, Focus on the Family, and Harris,
to make the case that pornography is a significant detriment to our
society.
I realize this it is anathema
to the true believers in the “free market ideals” of the
United States’ sacred cow of Capitalism, but injecting some “Socialistic”
governmental regulation into our economy in the past has helped protect
many workers and consumers from the likes of the meat-packing, alcohol,
and the tobacco industries. And once again the need has arisen.
Not unlike tobacco and alcohol,
pornography causes grievous harm to human beings. Pornography comes
with its own precipitously high social costs, including severe psychological
damage to women, addiction, covert perpetuation of the subjugation of
women, our children’s premature sexual awareness, and child pornography.
Censorship is not an option
I favor to deal with the problem of pornography. While the US Supreme
Court has ruled that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment,
like beauty, obscenity is often in the eye of the beholder. Besides,
if adults want to engage in self-destructive behaviors or exceed the
limits of moderation, laws are not going to stop them. Prohibition demonstrated
that clearly enough.
However, pornographers are
enjoying a virtual free ride. There are almost no limits on the depraved
garbage they produce and pipe into homes, schools, businesses and libraries
via the Internet. Magazines like Hustler are look like Sesame Street
relative to many Websites. For instance, in her book Paul refers to
a site called “the Home of the Asshole Milkshake” which
“treats” viewers to see how “multiple men can anally
penetrate a woman and then force her to drink the ejaculated semen extracted
from her own anus.”
This is the point where I
can assure you that your moral compass is probably broken beyond repair
if you don’t see the need for some measure of legal restriction
on pornographic activities. Banning child pornography is a nice start.
However, the Internet has made a joke of the Supreme Court’s decision
for each community to determine its own tolerance for obscenity.
Human beings pay a price
for choosing to engage in immoral and self-destructive behaviors. It
is critical that as a society, we protect our children and innocent
by-standers from sharing in that cost to the extent that we are able.
If adults want to make and
drink semen milkshakes, or watch other people do it, more power to them.
But as we do with cigarettes and alcohol, let’s tax the hell out
of pornographers’ products to offset the social costs they create
and make it more difficult to access reprehensible filth (like the milkshake
example) than simply making a few keystrokes on a computer.
I would also encourage each
individual to consider joining me in boycotting pornography to help
weaken a dangerously powerful industry which engages in a highly profitable
form of legal human exploitation.
Jason Miller
is a 39 year old sociopolitical essayist with a degree in liberal arts
and an extensive self-education (derived from an insatiable appetite
for reading). He is a member of Amnesty International and an avid supporter
of Oxfam International and Human Rights Watch. He welcomes responses
at [email protected]
or comments on his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.