Anti-Pornography Coalition Says Porn ‘Terrorizes Women,’ Poses Serious ‘Public Health Crisis’

On May 16 and 17, a “Coalition to End Sexual
Exploitation” gathered just outside of Washington, D.C., to
discuss the serious “public health concerns” posed
by…pornography.  

Is it 1978?

Seems like it might as well be with this crowd. The
conference—touted as the first national anti-pornography conference
in 27 years—drew a mix of “family values” conservative types and
anti-choice feminists, for a resulting flurry of fear-mongering and
hyperbole.

Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media—a group
that’s been quixotically crusading against pornography since
1962—told
reporters:

“There’s an untreated pandemic of harm from pornography. We know
now that almost every family in America has been touched by the
harm of pornography.”

University of Pennsylvania professor Mary Anne Layden said
pornography has played a role in every single
case of sexual violence she has treated as a
psychotherapist. Via
Agence France-Presse:  

“The earlier males are exposed to pornography, the more likely
they are to engage in non-consensual sex—and for females, the more
pornography they use, the more likely they are to be victims of
non-consensual sex.” 

Gail Dines, a sociology and women’s studies professor at
Wheelock College, author of Pornland: How Porn Has
Hijacked Our Sexuality, and president of the group Stop Porn
Culture, said: 

“These degrading misogynist images… are robbing young people
of an authentic healthy sexuality that is a basic right of ever
human being.”

According to Dines, taking down the pornography industry will
require taking a page from anti-tobacco playbooks. “Tie them down,
piece by piece, with legislation,” she
said.

Dines also referred to pornography as a form of “terrorism
against women” and stressed menacingly that “the idea of it
being a public health issue is that you have to come together
collectively as a group.” 

“Youth are developing sexual problems because of their exposure
to adult pornography,” pediatrician and conference speaker Sharon
Cooper told The
Christian Post. “It’s a very severe issue in our
country.”

Other conference presenters included a pastor leading a
“million men” against pornography crusade; the Dublin Rape Crisis
Centre’s Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, who
believes “increasingly extreme” porn sites are driving surges
in sexual violence; a
neuroscientist who says he has “proof” of porn addiction; and
anti-porn group “Fight the New Drug.”