The Naked Truth
The Naked Truth
The Naked Truth
J
ust a brief glance at Dr. Judith Reisman’s curriculum vitae is rape, incest, pedophilia, and other forms of sexual assault. Is it
enough to make you wonder what you’ve been doing your any wonder that Playboy magazine accused her of “propagating a
whole life. The author of four books (her fifth is on its way), new witch-hunt mentality”?
a guest lecturer at more colleges and universities than most And that’s the problem. Pornography generates $12 billion
of us can even name, and the source of testimony before so a year and is indispensable both to the field of sexology (any
many governmental hearings, committees, commissions, and Dr. Ruth fans out there?) and to the profits of pharmaceutical
task forces that you’d swear she was the last expert witness— companies, billion-dollar industries in their own right. To attack
of any kind—on the planet, Reisman also publishes regularly porn is thus to attack a whole sex-industrial complex, the nearly
in the journals of at least seven different academic disciplines infinite power and resources of which can make bad buzz dis-
and has been cited in over 25 scholarly and popular books. Oh, appear in a hurry, not to mention the brave souls who generate
and did I mention?—she was also once a writer for the Captain it. Of course, none of this changes the truth of Reisman’s claims,
Kangaroo television show. nor has it prevented that truth from being heard repeatedly by
So how come you’ve never heard of her? Well, it just so our legislators (now if only they would actually listen to it). But
happens that Reisman is the foremost authority on the nega- what the porn industry has managed to do is keep Reisman out
tive effects of pornography, and this is something that the porn of the public imagination, obscuring her findings with the same
industry would rather you knew nothing about. Indeed, for relentless PR machine that transformed pornography into a
some thirty years now, she has devoted her life to demonstrat- mainstream amusement.
ing—through irrefutable scientific evidence—that pornographic With that in mind, we asked Dr. Reisman to give us the
images actually alter the chemical structure of the human brain, naked truth about pornography—to explain in plain language
and not in a good way. Moreover, she has proven beyond ques- what porn does to us, and why, consequently, it should not be
tion (and to anyone who cares in the least) that pornography protected under the First Amendment.
can be as addictive as crack cocaine and is a key contributor to
28 salvo issue 2
How do pornographic images affect us?
salvo spring 07 29
males or they would be destroyed; they would be attacked. Pornography thus causes our inhibitory transmitters to shut
So this whole solicitation process calls upon the female— down, allowing the right brain, which is responsible for our
upon all females—an overwhelming throng of angry and emotional reflexes (lust, fear, shame, etc.), to override the logical
hostile men. left-brain activities that maintain control—homeostasis—in the
body. This disrupts the entire process of human cognition and
So what does this mean in terms of how health. In fact, what we are looking at are erototoxins restruc-
the brain works? turing the human brain. The brain actually changes to accommo-
date the stimuli it experiences.
Well, according to the field of neuropsychology, the brain has This brings us to the fourth scientific discipline involved in
both excitatory and inhibitory transmitters, located in the right the study of pornography’s effects: psychopharmacology. Eroto-
and left hemispheres of the brain, respectively, and the porno- toxic materials trigger testosterone and endorphins. We actually
graphic image triggers the former at the expense of the latter. get a high from sexual arousal. The big problem with this is that
Indeed, we now know that sexual imagery is more powerful and things that are vile and associated with sex become, over time,
more indelible to the brain than even fear-inducing imagery. more arousing than things that are loving.
Proxemics
According to proxemics, the way we use space is critical to our
survival. The reason why humans do not routinely expose them-
selves to strangers is that such private-space behavior results
in a vulnerability that invites attack. Thus, a pornographic image
such as a centerfold, by obliterating the usual spatial relation-
ships between individuals, feigns an openness to aggression to
which the user not only becomes accustomed, but upon which
he may eventually act in the public sphere.
Ethology
Ethology is the study of animal behavior, and pornography es-
sentially reduces the nude female to the status of an animal by
presenting her in poses that mimic estrus (or “heat”). It does so
to elicit the mating instincts of males but without the possibility
of sexual intercourse. Consequently, the user experiences an
anger and frustration that can become habitual, manifesting itself
in his interpersonal relationships later on down the road.
Psychopharmacology
Neuropsychology Pornography causes the user to experience a broad spectrum of
The human brain has both excitatory and inhibitory transmit- drugs that the human body automatically produces on its own
ters, located in the right and left hemispheres of the brain, re- (testosterone, endorphins, etc.), and it triggers them all in one
spectively. Pornography causes the latter to shut down, allowing shot. Such endogenous chemicals produce a high as addictive as
the right brain, which is responsible for our emotional reflexes that generated by such exogenous drugs as cocaine or heroin. In
(lust, fear, shame, etc.), to override the logical left-brain activities order to replicate the intensity of the high with each subsequent
that maintain control—homeostasis—in the body. This disrupts use, the porn addict must seek out progressively more graphic
the entire process of human cognition and health. material.
30 salvo issue 2
How so?
salvo spring 07 31
by which books are printed.” Now since these two critical rather than through emotion. I really think some research could
words—as they were defined in 1789, the year Congress pro- be done to support this position.
posed the first twelve amendments—do not include “images” in But even if images are protected by the First Amendment, it
their definitions, it could be argued that the First Amendment’s doesn’t change the fact that anything so super-normally arous-
authors chose not to include pictures in the protection of ex- ing to the brain-mind-body—to the organism—will by its very
pression. Having already used images themselves to arouse the nature undermine that organism’s ability to think and process
people to revolution—think of Ben Franklin’s “join or die” snake cognitively—to be free in thought and speech. Pornography
woodcut—they may have wanted to limit pictorial expression violates the First Amendment because it inhibits the left-brain
in public discourse so that matters could be decided cognitively activity that is crucial to thinking and acting freely.
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32 salvo issue 2
You’ve described pornography as being part of a Can you give us another example?
larger sex-industrial complex. What do you mean
by this? Sure; just look at child vaccines. The more pornography and sex-
ology increase juvenile sexual activity, the more big pharma can
The sex-industrial complex is comprised of sexology (the step in with an Hepatitis B vaccine for infants. HepB is a sexually
so-called “systematic study of sexual behavior” that is forever transmitted disease, and there is no reason to give the vaccine
pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a “normal” sex to babies. But big pharma has been making a fortune on it ever
act), pornography, and the pharmaceutical industry. Big sexology since states have begun mandating that all of our little darlings,
has always been a part of big pornog-
raphy. From Kinsey on, in both the
courtroom and the court of public
opinion, it took sexology to change
Considering that Playboy premiered in the early fifties,
the laws to say that pornography is
not harmful. the fact that it has taken us this long to become as
As men increasingly use por- depraved as we are tells me that we have a lot of
nography, in keeping with its legiti-
mization, they become increasingly
potential for doing right.
impotent.You see, that’s part of the
pornographic experience; you
become impotent in the sense that
you cannot function without having images and stimuli outside with their wee tiny hearts and lungs and no immune system
of your marital—your loving—relationship. “Impotent” means functioning, be shot up with it (and recently small girls with Hu-
without power, and the male is indeed without his own power man Papilloma Virus, HPV vaccines) all in the name of protecting
after becoming addicted to pornography; he has to rely on the them. What we don’t want to do is turn off the pornography
power that’s given to him by one of these pictures or films. The flood (no administration has chosen to do that) because it fuels
addicted male develops impotence because he also entertains so many other things. And in the wings are vaccines for syphilis
this bizarre notion that the female with whom he is copulating and gonorrhea and a whole host of other sexually transmitted
should really look like one of his stapled centerfolds. He feels diseases.
that his lover is supposed to be under 24; she’s supposed to
have blond hair; her skin is supposed to be flawless; she’s sup- You have consulted with four different US De-
posed to have an 18-inch waist and a 40-inch bust. All of these partment of Justice administrations, the US De-
impossible images come to dominate his brain-body—his organ- partment of Education, and the US Department
ism. of Health and Human Services. What has resulted
At this point, big pharma steps in and helps the man to from all of your work? Has anything changed?
function, despite the “shortcomings” of his partner. And the
more pornography he consumes, the more big pharma can step To be honest, I don’t think anyone has really listened to me.
in with the palliatives that will help this guy think he’s still a man. Under Reagan, I did have a crack at changing things. I did a huge
This is but one example of the sex-industrial complex: research project in this area under Reagan, but it was attacked
sexologists legitimizing pornography, pornography producing im- from every angle and from every person who could possibly do
potence, and pharmaceutical companies treating the impotence so. I think Reagan was rendered impotent in that regard.
caused by pornography. These businesses are all interconnected Since then? No. Let’s put it this way; I’m very unimpressed
and dependent on one another for combined profits in the with what our administrations have done since Reagan. There’s a
billions. lot of rhetoric but no real action. Our politicians know full well
that you will never shut down sex trafficking or child pornogra-
phy unless you shut down adult pornography as well. That’s not a
02 secret.
Fact Finds
Is there any hope?
Tom Reichert of the University of Alabama evalu-
ated 2,863 full-page ads in six consumer magazines Well, yes. Considering that Playboy premiered in the early fifties,
published in both 1992 and 1998. He found that ads the fact that it has taken us this long to become as depraved as
geared to young adults in their twenties, relative to we are tells me that we have a lot of potential for doing right.
ads geared to older adults, were 1.65 times more I’m very serious about this. That the nation is only as trauma-
likely to feature models dressed sexually and 2.28 tized as it is tells me that we are a powerful people. It also tells
times more likely to feature models engaged in sexual me that the moral imperative that lies latent in each of us can
behavior. be awakened if we could just get past the mass media control to
the minds and hearts of the American people.
salvo spring 07 33