Is Pornography bad for Its Consumers

Catharine MacKinnon led a movement arguing that a class of sexually oriented material was harmful to women: it led to sexual assaults and sexual discrimination. Wendy Maltz persuasively argues in the Psychotherapy Networker (a respected professional journal) that porn is bad for its consumers as well. Maltz decades ago used to recommend pornography to her clients. She now, together with many other analysts, has concluded that pornography distorts human relationships in very serious ways. It is a major cause of divorce and relationship difficulties. Maltz describes it as a cousin to sexual abuse.

She says: "Added to my pile of concerns about porn, the realization that porn could be used as weapon against vulnerable children and women was the last straw. The clearer I became about conditions necessary for experiencing healthy sexuality—consent, equality, respect, trust, safety—the more doubt I had about advocating pornography as a sexual-enhancement product. How can I support something that portrays sex as a commodity, people as objects, and violence, humiliation, and recklessness as exciting? What am I doing encouraging people to condition their arousal to self-centered, sensually blunted, loveless sex? Do I really want to be advocating a product that's associated with causing sexual harm and relationship problems?

"My primary concern about porn wasn't that it was sexually graphic, explicit, or hot: it was that porn conveyed harmful ideas about sex and could lead to hurtful and ultimately unrewarding sexual behaviors." Porn leads to sexual addiction and unhealthy obsessions. According to Maltz, pornography has grown from a side issue to a central issue in sexual counselling. I suppose this is not surprising. Pornography, according to Malz, is a $13 billion dollar industry in the U.S. and $100 billion worldwide. It accounts for 1/3 of all downloads. It is not surprising that psychotherapists see a rise in sexual disfunction.

cross-posted at religiousleftlaw.com