In February, the states of Virginia and South Dakota both declared pornography a public health crisis. The Virginia State House passed the resolution with an 82-8 majority vote while South Dakota’s vote was unanimous.
Virginia cited pornography as “perpetuat[ing] a sexually toxic environment” and South Dakota concluded its resolution acknowledging “the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level in order to address the epidemic that is harming the people of [the] state and our county as a whole.”
This step in the right direction recognizes that the issue of pornography goes far beyond political agendas. In an increasingly sexually liberal society, it is easy to access pornographic content without being aware of its effects. The state of ignorance can lead to overwhelming complications.
Research has found that pornography is not only linked to poor mental health and social issues but also to decreased gray matter in the brain and spinal cord, which affects cognitive functions.
Studies have also shown that porn consumers eventually become accustomed to softer pornography, cease to get aroused and consequently seek out harder material. This can, for example, escalate to the point where someone might become aroused by content that they used to find disturbing.
With porn use, the brain will also connect arousal with pornography, making it much more difficult to be excited by a real-life person. For this reason, many are less likely to be satisfied with their partners and more likely to experience erectile dysfunction at an early age.
That’s not all. Former porn stars have spoken up about the drugs, violence and abuse behind the industry. Regan Starr, for example, said in an interview, “I was told before the video — and they said this very proudly, mind you — that in this line most of the girls start crying because they’re hurting so bad . . . I couldn’t breathe. I was being hit and choked. I was really upset, and they didn’t stop. They kept filming. You can hear me say, ‘Turn the … camera off,’ and they kept going.”
On top of the abuse that happens behind the scene, pornography is fuel for prostitution and sex trafficking. In a study of 854 female prostitutes from nine different countries, 49 percent of them reported “that pornography was made of them while they were in prostitution.”
A prominent critique of Virginia and South Dakota’s decision has been that there is no clear definition of “public health crisis,” and the term should not be thrown around for something like porn. I, for one, do not feel shy using the word “crisis.” Pornography degrades and undermines human beings to mere sexual objects. It enslaves and prevents them from seeing and acting on their worth or anyone else’s; it twists the notion of sex and it exploits men and women’s sexuality for money and entertainment. If this does not qualify as a serious crisis, I don’t know what does.
Letizia Mariani can be reached at mari8259@stthomas.edu