What girls are saying about the porn culture they are forced to grow up in

April 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Over the past several weeks in the Netherlands, I have been giving a number of lectures on abortion, pornography, and other aspects of the culture wars. At one event, I was detailing how pornography has largely transformed sexuality among young people, especially in regard to the sexually violent behavior that has now been mainstreamed. One middle-aged gentleman strenuously objected, noting that he had two sons, that they probably watched pornography, and that he was sure they would never do anything horrible to a girl. After all, he pointed out, don’t all people have the wherewithal to discern between fantasy and reality?

I responded by pointing out a number of problems with his question. First of all, if pornography has caused enormous numbers of young people to fantasize about sexual violence, isn’t that a problem in and of itself? Isn’t it also true that we have one brain, and that we don’t have a separate brain with which to court fantasy? And finally: Watching violent pornography is participating in sexual violence. In a movie when someone gets beat up or shot, they didn’t actually get beat up or shot. But in a porn flick when a girl gets choked, slapped, and abused, that is a real girl actuallygetting choked, slapped, and abused.

The final point I made was this: The reason pornography has been so particularly poisonous is that it has mainstreamed sexual violence. It has introduced choking, slapping, sadism, and masochism into our sexual culture not as some strange fantasy, but as a normal thing that people can engage in, regardless of who gets hurt. That’s why Fifty Shades of Grey sold 100 million copies while women’s groups protested that these “fantasies” were going to result in more women getting badly hurt. Sexual predators now use these porn storylines as excuses for their behavior.  Continue reading here