ntly designed,

marketed, labeled, and sold. But these are not

the only adverse health consequences of pornography.

C.

Vice Centers

These

Pornography is a medical and public health problem because pornographic retail outlets of the "adults only" variety are the most visible service stations of the vice industry. The peep-show booths, with their locking doors, are the self-service pumps, as evidenced by the body fluids on their floors and walls. The openings in the walls of the booths allow anonymous and casual sexual contact, making it impossible to trace the donors and recipients of sexually transmitted diseases. establishments draw muggers to a pool of victims who are somewhat disinclined to report a robbery to the police. These establishments signal members of the community and visitors that full vice services may be available nearby through prostitutes and drug dealers and, if not so directly available, are a phone call away through the advertisements found in tabloids, periodicals, and sex-for-sale guides. If these were the only adverse health consequences of pornography, the most straightforward remedy would be to prohibit retail sales except through the mail. But these are not the only adverse health consequences of pornography.

Ꭰ. Sexual Disinformation

Pornography is a medical and public health problem because so much of it teaches false, misleading, and even dangerous information about human sexuality. A person who learned about

human sexuality

America would be a

in the "adults only" pornography outlets of person who had never conceived of a man and falling in love before having intercour

woman marrying or even
se, who had never conceived

of two people making love in privacy discovery, who had never conceived of

without guilt or fear of tender foreplay, who had never conceived of vaginal intercourse with ejaculation during intromission, and who had never conceived of procreation as a purpose of sexual union. Instead, such a

person would be one who had learned that sex at home meant sex with one's children, stepchildren, parents, stepparents, siblings, cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, and pets, and with neighbors, milkmen, plumbers, salesmen, burglars, and peepers, who had learned that people take off their clothes and have sex within the first five minutes of meeting one another, who had learned to misjudge the percentage of women who prepare for sex by shaving their pubic hair, having their breasts, buttocks, or legs tattooed, having their nipples or labia pierced, or donning leather, latex, rubber, or child-like costumes, who had learned to misjudge the proportion of men who prepare for sex by having their genitals or nipples pierced, wearing women's clothing, or growing breasts, who had learned about one out of every five sexual encounters involves spanking, whipping, fighting, wrestling, tying, chaining, gagging, or torture, who had learned that more than one in ten

that

sexual acts involves a

that the purpose of

party of more than two, who had learned

ejaculation is that of soiling the mouths,

faces, breasts, abdomens, aimed, who had learned that insertion of foreign objects, a genital to be licked and urine and excrement are erotic materials, who had learned that the instruments of sex are chemicals, handcuffs, gags, hoods, restraints, harnesses, police badges, knives, guns, whips, paddles, toilets, diapers, enema bags, inflatable rubber women, and disembodied vaginas, breasts, and penises, and who had learned that except with the children, where secrecy was required, photographers and cameras were supposed to be present to capture the action so that it could be spread abroad. If these were the only adverse health consequences of pornography, the most straightforward remedy would be to provide factually accurate information on human sexuality to people before they are exposed to pornography, if only we could agree on what that information is, on who should provide it to the many children whose parents are incapable of doing so, and on effective and acceptable means by which to ensure that exposure not precede education. In the absence of such a remedy, the probable health consequences in this area alone are sufficient to support

backs, and food at which it is always body cavities were designed for the who had learned that the anus was penetrated, who had learned that

recommendations that would reduce the dissemination of that pornography which teaches false, misleading, or dangerous information about human sexuality. And these are not the only adverse health consequences of pornography.

E.

Encouraging Social Behavior with Adverse Health Consequences

it

Pornography is a medical and public health problem because encourages patterns of social behavior which have adverse

health

consequences. The person who follows the patterns of social behavior promoted by pornography is a person for whom love, affection, marriage, procreation, and responsibility are absolutely irrelevant to sexual conduct. We do not need research to tell us that such persons on the average contribute more than other persons to rates of illegitimacy, teenage pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted diseases.

If these

were the only adverse health consequences of pornography, the most straightforward remedy would be to more effectively encourage responsible sexual behavior, if only we knew how. In the absence of such a remedy, the probable health consequences in this area alone are sufficient to support recommendations that would reduce the dissemination of pornography. And these are not the only adverse health consequences of pornography.

F.

detrimental to the

Fostering Attitudes with Adverse Health Consequences Pornography is a medical and public health problem because it increases the probability that members of the exposed population will acquire attitudes that are physical and mental health of both those exposed and those around them. The social science evidence adequately demonstrates that even in experimental samples of mentally stable male college students, exposure to violent pornography leads to measurable, negative changes in the content of sexual fantasies, attitudes toward women, attitudes toward rape, and aggressive behavior

within the experimental setting. Analogous results of exposure to nonsexual media violence have been well-documented for even longer. Although too few experiments have clearly tested the effects of degrading pornography, there are suggestions in the few existing studies that exposure to degrading pornography has negative effects in the experimental setting, including eliciting anxiety, depression, and hostility. Biographical accounts of individuals go beyond the experimental evidence in attributing changes in male sexual attitudes and demands to pornography, including nonviolent pornography, and in documenting adverse consequences to women and children of the behavior of these men. Some of these accounts include persuasive examples of direct and immediate imitation and of long-term modeling effects. Moreover, the existing population-based evidence for the United States shows a correlation between circulation rates of magazines containing pornography (primarily of a nonviolent type) and rates of reported rape in the fifty states during the same time period, even after many other factors were controlled. In my opinion, we know enough now in asserting that a population exposed to violent a population that commits more acts of sexual otherwise would and to suggest somewhat less the same is probably true of a population exposed pornography. Even if these were the only adverse health consequences of pornography, there would be no straightforward remedies for these consequences short of reducing

statistically

to be confident

pornography is brutality than it confidently that

to degrading

the exposure