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FEATURE
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Fifth, pornography is a supranormal stimulus. Nicholas Tin-
bergen, a Nobel Prize winning behavioral biologist coined the
term in the 1970s. He found that when he presented male but-
terflies with a choice between enhanced, but artificial cardboard
females and real female butterflies, the males chose the artificial
females over the real females. Internet pornography is a supra-
normal stimulus as well, and young and old males are increasingly
choosing artificial electronic females over real females for a sub-
stitute, masturbatory, counterfeit form of mating. Virtual reality
pornography with robotic, haptically filmed female performers
using telodildonics is making porn increasingly interactive and
even more supranormal. No wonder girls and women of all ages
are finding it is difficult to compete with porn; as Naomi Wolfe
said, “Today real…women are just bad porn.”
And porn is not just targeting males, as females are increasingly
exposed. Thousands of teenage girls follow male performers such
as James Deen on social media sites, modeling him as the male sex-
ual ideal. When asked about youth viewing his porn movies, he said,
"If there was a 15-year-old … that is viewing a scene that I'm in or
any sort of porn…it's not necessarily a bad thing." Yet many fe-
male performers have accused him of violence on and off set, with
one female performer saying, “James Deen ruthlessly attacked and
degraded me, leaving me with mental wounds that took years to
heal.” Countless youth are thus being programmed with this toxic
“motivational state.” Deen and Margold continue the legacy of the
late Hugh Hefner: when asked about Playboy’s objectification of
women he famously said, “They are objects!” Sadly, some women
actually believe this lie that objectification in a world of toxic mas- those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they
culinity is empowering to them. They exemplify Huxley’s “…pop-
ulation of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love
their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned…”
Some academic apologists seem to have no concern about youth
and emerging adults allowing these teachers of sexual violence
and eroticized rage to infuse our children with toxic sexuality, and
destroying their ability to feel empathy. They voice no concern
about young female performers who are exposed to drug abuse,
sexual disease, and emotional, physical, and sexual violence on set.
One academic paper even suggests that society should encourage
the use of “…[pornography] at younger ages [to] broaden…”
their perspective.
We must not allow pornographers and porn proponents to con-
trol the sexual education of our children, as they are now doing. It
is time for a public health approach. All now seem to agree we must
keep tobacco out of the lungs of our children; we must become as
serious about keeping pornography out of their minds. Let us begin
30 San Antonio Medicine • December 2017
by following Britain’s example in protecting children and youth on-
line by blocking underage access to pornography.
Our marvelous brains are designed to allow sexuality to be an
apex emotional and physical experience. Pornography is not only
hijacking human sexuality, it is destroying our empathetic core, our
very humanity. It was a Roman, Cicero, who said, “Yet more, if
emotion be eliminated, what difference is there, I say not between
a man and a brute, but between a man and a rock, or the trunk of
a tree, or any inanimate object?”
We call upon responsible citizens from all nations and cultures,
from all perspectives, both secular and religious, and upon health
care professionals to defend and protect the physical and emotional
health of our children. We invite them to educate themselves on
the harmful effects of pornography on the young minds of our
children. We call upon lawmakers to refuse to protect the pornog-
raphy industry and to pass laws that will instead protect our children.
We call upon parents to act responsibly in teaching their children
the harmful effects of pornography. Children mirror what they see
and feel. Therefore parents must set an example and be cautious
and thoughtful regarding their own media choices. Children are
our best and brightest hope for the future. They are our only hope.
What kind of world will we leave them with? What will be our cul-
tural and emotional endowment to them? Tolkien made this pro-
found statement, ““It is not our part to master all the tides of the
world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein
we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that
shall have is not ours to rule.” Global culture is presently delivering
toxic sexuality to the fertile soil of the minds of our youth. We
must change that. May we do all we can to give children and emerg-
ing adults clean earth to till, so they can better weather their storms,
and have a chance to experience the full measure of human emotion
and love. Thank you.