Arizona Seeks to Call Porn a "Public Health Crisis"

Arizona, the state known for its wacky roadside attractions like a replica Flintstones village, soaring summer temperatures, and some of the nation’s toughest immigration policies, is seeking yet another way to make the rest of the country roll our collective eyes. Republican state representative, Michelle Udall, has introduced legislation that seeks to declare pornagraphic material a “public health crisis.”

According to her resolution, "pornography is a crisis leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts” and it “perpetuates a sexually toxic environment that damages all areas of our society."  According to the Arizona Republic, Udall gave a speech to Arizona lawmakers urging them to pass the resolution, saying "Like the tobacco industry, the pornography industry has created a public health crisis," and "Pornography is used pervasively, even by minors."

The resolution was introduced on February 7th and passed through the committee on a narrow, party-line vote. The legislation will now go up for a vote in the full Arizona House, where the GOP holds a slim majority.  State democrats agree that there is a threat to the sexual health of many Arizonans, but disagree that porn is the culprit. "It's embarrassing that we are one of the states that does not have medically accurate sex education. In testimony, they were trying to blame everything on pornography. That is a stretch," said Democrat Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, who is sponsoring a bill to improve Arizona sex ed.

It would be nice to think that this issue is limited to Arizona, however The Republican Party voted to add an amendment labeling pornography a "public health crisis" to their 2016 platform.  That same year, Utah became the first state to pass a resolution, much like the one Arizona is currently considering. Since then, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia have all followed suit in declaring pornography a public health crisis.  This issue isn’t even confined to the United States, with anti-porn legislators in Canada, The UK and Australia all seeking to label porn a public health crisis.

One potential problem, that sadly has not stopped lawmakers in the past, is that there is no evidence to support the claim that pornography has any damaging effects on society whatsoever. There isn’t a single global health agency supporting these claims, despite the fact that identifying such crises is their literal job.  The CDC issued a statement saying that they have no findings to support the claim that pornography is a threat to public health, and as such have no official position on porn. Anti-porn legislators instead rely on anecdotal evidence by partisan psychologists and religious leaders who claim to treat so called “porn addictions” or by people who feel they’ve been hurt by pornography.

One problem is that these “addicts” may themselves be misidentifying the source of conflict in their lives. In fact, according to David J. Ley in his research project, “The Pseudoscience Behind Public Health Legislation,” many self diagnosed “porn addicts” actually view less pornography than the average person, they just feel worse about it.  In other words, porn isn’t the problem, societal shaming by Representative Udall and her ilk are the problem.    

There is a reason that the plural of anecdote is not is not data. For every person that feels they may have been hurt by their porn habit, there are hundreds peacefully enjoy their porn without regrets. Sex researcher Dr. Louanne Cole claims that those who claim that porn is “addictive” are typically not well informed in the areas of mental health or sexuality.  She likens the fear mongering about “porn addiction” to those claiming that marijuana is a “gateway drug” - both are largely debunked by scientific evidence. There are plenty of studies to back up the idea that porn is a normal, healthy aspect of human sexuality.  In 2008, Danish researchers Gert Hald and Neil Malamuth concluded that there was a positive correlation between the subjects’ porn viewing and sexual satisfaction and even had other self-reported benefits. Countless studies, including surveys by famous researcher Alfred Kinsey, found that masterbation, with or without porn, leads to a healthier sex life.  A study by Carnegie Mellon University found that it helps reduce stress.  Viewing pornographic images cut participants cortisol levels, an chemical indicator of stress, in half.  And, as we previously reported, studies show that viewing porn with a partner could even foster greater intimacy in a relationship.  When taken all together, these studies firmly indicate that the benefits of watching porn outweigh the negative.  

So why do conservative legislators ignore the evidence in their push back against porn? Valerie Webber and Rebecca Sullivan attempt to address this in their scholarly article, “Constructing a Crisis: Porn panics and Public Health.” They open the article by asking some very astute questions. “Who has the luxury to worry about porn’s impact on health? And who has the power to define what is ‘healthy sexuality’?”  They claim that legislators hell bent on declaring porn a public health crisis are commiting “a gross misallocation of priorities” and are suspicious that these aims aren’t really motivated by a genuine concern for the public. Instead, they believe resolutions like this one are part of a “well-devised strategy to impose sexually conservative moral imperatives.” They contend that the conservative anti-porn agenda is just another way to guilt people into compliance with their worldview - that sex should be between a monogamous husband and wife and all other sexual behavior is aberrant.  They this way of thinking, which is happy to treat women and children as subservient property, is far more harmful to society than porn ever could be.

It appears likely that Arizona will become the next state to waste valuable (publicly funded) time declaring porn a public health crisis.  Fortunately, the resolution has no teeth. If it passes, it will be a symbolic victory for all the porn-haters of Arizona, with absolutely zero legal effect.  However, the push back against the sexual revolution is gaining steam in some places, and that represents a genuine public health threat. I would urge people, especially porn loving republicans, to let their representatives know that these resolutions are a waste of time and public resources. Go back to sucking the NRA’s dick (and film it!), but leave our porn alone.