In my last blog, I gavesome straight talk to men about abusing women, and some honest talk about whether or not they can blame their genes and hormones for their behaviour. (They can’t.) One of things I did say was that men are particularly visually driven, and this makes them ‘sitting ducks’ when it comes to pornography
Those who sell pornography exploit one of the most powerful drives that exists in humankind: the sex drive. It is a cheap shot. Curiosity, sexual excitement, loneliness, and a frustrated sex drive lead many into the pornography trap.
Pornography is not bad because Christians don’t consider the human body to be beautiful (as claimed by some in the pornography industry). It is bad for five reasons.
First: It is predatory on one of the most powerful drives known to humankind. One of the things that makes it particularly predatory is that pornography has to become progressively more explicit and degrading in order to maintain the same level of sexual excitement. In this way, it is addictive, can be ruinously expensive, and take control of your life. Pornography is a predator that loves to attack the weak.
Second: It is a lie. Pornography pretends an intimacy and sexual fulfilment that does not exist in reality. Those caught up in pornography have a distorted view of real life that often results in them being unable to have healthy relationships with real women.
Third: It spoils lovemaking with your partner. People caught by pornography are unable to divorce pornographic fantasy from the reality of lovemaking with their partner. Those immersed in pornography can also dissipate their sex urge, so that they have little to offer their spouse in the way of sexual fulfilment. Sometimes, they even need to employ pornography in their lovemaking, so that their spouse is left unsure about who their partner is really making love to.
Fourth: The life of someone caught in pornography can be secretive, solitary, and unhealthy, as they can spend many hours looking at pornographic websites. This can lead to guilt and shame.
Fifth. It degrades women by portraying them as sex objects.
Since the advent of the Internet, porn use has skyrocketed to dizzying heights. Pornhub, the world’s largest free porn site, received over 33 billion site visits during 2018 alone.
SOME BIOLOGY
Through evolutionary design, the brain is wired to respond to sexual stimulation with surges of dopamine (by activating the brain’s ventral striatum). This is associated with the limbic system at the core of our brain.
Continual porn stimulation damages the dopamine reward system and leaves it unresponsive to natural sources of pleasure. This is why users begin to experience difficulty in achieving arousal with a physical partner. And if that wasn’t concerning enough, porn addicts show reduced cellular activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (just above the eye sockets). This area of the brain is responsible for making strategic, rather than impulsive, decisions. The American researcher, Fowler et al. writes: “Patients with traumatic injuries to this area of the brain display problems – aggressiveness, poor judgment of future consequences, inability to inhibit inappropriate responses that are similar to those observed in substance abusers.”[1]
A CALL TO OUR POLITICIANS
With the fading of the Christian church from society (because of it’s inability to speak with one voice on moral issues, and because it has lost credibility with the abuses that have occurred within its institutions), politicians have to step up and become, to some degree, society’s moral guardians. This will require more than sticking your fingers in the air to gauge the direction of popular opinion––or more accurately, the loudest and most strident political lobbying, which is not always the most moral or helpful for society––for example: the gun lobby in America.
It seems absurd that society can applaud the banning of some books by the children’s writer, Dr Seuss, (of “The Cat in the Hat,” fame) and yet allow our children unfettered access to porn sites that train our adolescent men to see woman as sexual objects that can be pursued without love, responsibility or commitment. To politicians, can I say: It is no use throwing up your hands like scandalized virgins at what is happing in Parliament house (and in wider society) if you then sit on your hands, and give no leadership on the issue of pornography.
Leadership requires bravery. The Republican governor of Utah has banned porn from cell-phones and tablets (March, 2021). Civil libertarians are already crying foul saying it is an infringement on civil liberty. Not allowing twelve-year-olds to drive cars is also an infringement on civil liberty––but we insist on it nonetheless for the safety of society.
Australia passed the Interactive Gambling Act in 2001, which included a long list of requirements a gambling operator had to fulfil in this country. This act made it illegal for local and offshore online operators to offer most forms of gambling to Australians. The biggest exception was sports and race betting (whose adverts now plague our TV watching.) Here’s the thing: If you can regulate gambling, you can regulate pornography. Please do so for the sake of our women, our adolescent kids and for the betterment of society.
To do this, you will need courage. It is something you could do that is really good for society, something that would win you credibility. You have the power. Australia desperately needs leadership in this area.
When ancient Rome modelled its religion on Greek culture, it imported its sexually libertine culture. The Greek philosopher, Demosthenes, said: “We have courtesans for the sake of pleasure; we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation; we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately and of having a faithful guardian for all our household affairs.”
When Rome took on this culture, it became ruinous for families. The British classical scholar, A.W. Verral said that the chief disease from which the Roman civilisation died was its low view of women. Things got so bad that emperor Augustus had to pass Lex Papia Poppaea (the ‘bachelor tax’) in 9 AD to encourage marriage!
Please be brave (and good) and take action. Curb the scourge and give our women hope.
[1] Fowler JL, Volkow ND, Kassed CA. Imaging the addicted human brain. Sci Pract Perspect. 2007; 3:4–16.
