Adult entertainer Brandi Love was rudely booted from a recent Turning Point USA event in Tampa, Fla., in another example of the purity squad’s ongoing war on porn.
Don’t Cancel Porn
According to organizers of the politically conservative gathering, even a clothed porn star’s presence is inappropriate, and do-gooders are bringing up the overplayed refrain: “Think of the children.” Some zealots are even using that old argument to advocate for a ban on free porn websites. But these attacks on porn have very little to do with protecting minors and everything to do with enforcing a particular “moral” ethic on adults. [Insert shocked face here. – Ed.]
It’s already illegal in many municipalities for anyone under the age of 18 to possess porn. It’s primarily up to parents to protect their children from viewing pornography, and that’s as it should be.
But a ban on porn — that’s free or purchased — would allow people with one worldview to impose that view on other adults.
As much as I personally would love to ban purity balls, abstinence teaching and virginity vows because of the sexual and psychological damage they can cause children — girls, in particular — I’d never advocate for legislation to that effect. Parenting simply isn’t the role of the government. Except in cases of abuse, the government must step aside and let parents parent.
Luckily, keeping kids from getting a hold of porn is easier than you might think. Installing the appropriate firewalls is a great place to start. But if you’re still worried, you could always simply deny your child a device that connects to the internet. The point is, we can do this on our own. As someone who was on the receiving end of such parental oversight, I should know. During my teen years, my parents put a firewall so secure on my laptop that I was blocked from looking up former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney for a school project.
Should the government bring back Prohibition just because 16-year-olds sometimes sneak into bars or steal their parents’ alcohol? God forbid. Besides, Prohibition didn’t work. So how would banning porn be any different?
Porn is older than the human species. Our Paleolithic ancestors scrawled pictures of boobs, vulvas and penises on cave walls, and dildos are among our pre-human ancestors’ first inventions. Just as adults prefer to enjoy cocktails free of quinine and other toxic chemicals, adults want safe, consensual porn. Banning porn wouldn’t make it go away. It would still be just as widely available as it is now. But actors would no longer have legal protections.
Don’t our authorities have anything better to do than waste time and resources going after safe, consensual porn? How about focusing on addressing human rights violations and real abuse? Adults are perfectly capable of enjoying porn responsibly. Couples watch porn together to spice up their sex lives. Lonely people watch porn to satisfy their basic human need for sexual pleasure.
Governments ban activities and commodities where the detriments to the functioning of a healthy society outweigh the benefits. Porn is a multi-billion-dollar industry with revenue estimates ranging between $6 billion on the low end to more than $97 billion on the high end. That’s millions of jobs — and even more satisfied customers. Porn doesn’t just make money for itself. It supports cellular companies, hotels and internet providers. Porn makes up 30 percent of all internet usage. Additionally, it’s a driver of innovation with virtual reality porn expected to reach $1 billion in sales by 2025.
There are two other arguments against porn: It leads to an oversexed population, and it leaves people less interested in sex. Which is it? In the end, the arguments against consensual porn for adults remain far-fetched and moralistic.
Yes, people can abuse and misuse porn. But as it stands, porn provides entertainment and gratification for millions of adults every day. Canceling this industry would be tantamount to cock-blocking entire nations.
Emilie Dye is the Australian Lead for Young Voices. Find her on Twitter @Emilie_Dye or on her website emiliedye.com. … For the record, our advice would be NOT to search “porn” using your favorite search engine, should you wish to peruse some more scientific — although still objectively editorial — views on the topic. The cynical among us might feel like people use that word simply to get traffic to their sites to sell more ad space. Of course we do not know any cynical people here. Nope. We’re all just happy optimists that do not understand why people always seem unhappy these days. That’s us in a nutshell. (Emphasis on “nut” by the way.)
