Pornography. It is something everyone knows about and something most Americans have watched.
In fact, Pornhub released its Year in Review for 2017 on Jan. 9, with the revelation that there were 28.5 billion visits to the site that year. For context, there are an estimated 7.6 billion humans on earth. Some quick math shows that there were 3.75 visits to the website for every man, woman and teen on the planet.
With all that porn, one would think it would not be as stigmatized as it is in America. Especially considering that, at least on PornHub.com, the U.S. is responsible for more traffic than any other country by more than double the runner-up, the United Kingdom.
Shortly after the well-covered shoot-down of an assault ban in Florida this week, the Florida State Legislature also decided to vote up a Republican-supported bill to declare porn a public health risk.
Who has been hurt by pornography?
Well, in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Disorders, the manual by which mental health physicians in the U.S. determine what constitutes a mental disorder, says that sexual and pornographic addictions are not real.
In fact, porn might prevent sexual aggression. In Denmark, in 1969, researchers reported a decrease in reported sexual violence after porn was legalized.
However, that does not stop conservatives from railing, forgive the pun, on porn as a social evil. The Republican parties official stance on porn is included in their platform.
“Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions,” the official platform statement reads.
If Republicans dislike porn so much, why do some of the most heavily Republican states watch so much of it? Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia, all states that are traditionally conservative, sit at the very top of the list of states that spend the most time on PornHub per visit.
Imagine, the Republican party says that porn is harming the lives of millions, and then their strongest areas of support in the country are consuming that same porn for the longest lengths of time.
Conservative websites sit atop of any google search for “the dangers of porn,” spouting off claims that porn can make one’s brain smaller, less active, become addictive and change what you find sexually attractive. One site literally compares porn users to rats.
“Just like the rats, many porn users eventually find themselves getting aroused by things that used to disgust them,” reads an article on FightTheNewDrug.org, a website that publishes anti-porn articles.
Porn is not harmful. No medical organization that is accredited in the U.S. claims that porn is harmful, and research shows that porn may serve as a healthy outlet for some of humanity’s more deviant sexual desires. The Republican party would be better off dealing with the issues of gun violence, opioid addiction and voter suppression that America is actually facing rather than these distractions that only seek to enforce a Christian authority in this country.
Photo: Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian
