Scientific discovery: Porn causes masturbation!
November 29, 2004The Religious Rite has started another project to convert God-fearing priggishness into pseudo-science. At a recent hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee, a parade of anti-porn “scientists” were paraded through, converting tight assed religiously-inspired prudishness into full-blown creation sci— er, psychology. As Wired’s Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack? puts it, “Internet pornography is the new crack cocaine, leading to addiction, misogyny, pedophilia, boob jobs and erectile dysfunction, according to clinicians and researchers testifying before a Senate committee Thursday.” A few tidbits:
Mary Anne Layden, co-director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Therapy, called porn the “most concerning thing to psychological health that I know of existing today.” … Pornography addicts have a more difficult time recovering from their addiction than cocaine addicts, since coke users can get the drug out of their system, but pornographic images stay in the brain forever, Layden said. Jeffrey Satinover, a psychiatrist and advisor to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality echoed Layden’s concern about the internet and the somatic effects of pornography. “Pornography really does, unlike other addictions, biologically cause direct release of the most perfect addictive substance,” Satinover said. “That is, it causes masturbation, which causes release of the naturally occurring opioids. It does what heroin can’t do, in effect.”
Wait, that last part — that’s supposed to be bad, right? Yeah, they call them “erototoxins”. Man. I couldn’t make this shit up.
Wired’s Regina Lynn has a sensible and moderate critical commentary on it worth a look (Porn Prohibitionists Miss Point ) — but then, I’m thinking that Wired’s readership is pretty, um, pro-porn. If you know what I mean.
