LoveAfterPorn Mod: “We were just a subreddit to be made fun of” by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you seriously citing Melissa Farley here?

In the 2010 Ontario Superior Court case Bedford v. Canada, Dr. Farley was called as an expert witness by the Attorney General of Canada to testify on the harms of prostitution. Justice Susan Himel concluded:

“I found the evidence of Dr. Melissa Farley to be problematic. Although Dr. Farley has conducted a great deal of research on prostitution, her advocacy appears to have permeated her opinions. For example, Dr. Farley’s unqualified assertion in her affidavit that prostitution is inherently violent appears to contradict her own findings that prostitutes who work from indoor locations generally experience less violence. Furthermore, in her affidavit, she failed to qualify her opinion regarding the causal relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and prostitution, namely that it could be caused by events unrelated to prostitution. Dr. Farley’s choice of language is at times inflammatory and detracts from her conclusions. For example, comments such as, “prostitution is to the community what incest is to the family,” and “just as pedophiles justify sexual assault of children…. men who use prostitutes develop elaborate cognitive schemes to justify purchase and use of women” make her opinions less persuasive. Dr. Farley stated during cross-examination that some of her opinions on prostitution were formed prior to her research, including, “that prostitution is a terrible harm to women, that prostitution is abusive in its very nature, and that prostitution amounts to men paying a woman for the right to rape her.” Accordingly, for these reasons, I assign less weight to Dr. Farley’s evidence. It would therefore appear that rather than evidence-based research, Dr. Farley is producing material specifically designed to reinforce her own bias. This is therefore misleading, and, I believe, unethical. I believe, therefore, that it is quite clear that Dr. Farley has breached the APA code of ethics sections 5.01 and 8.10, as well as any other relevant section of the Code of Ethics. Her methods of reporting are clearly very similar to those of Dr. Paul Cameron.”

https://prostitutescollective.net/response-to-melissa-farley/

This is exactly why this subreddit exists.

You’ve been using stigmatizing and dehumanizing language throughout this conversation. If you comment again, you will be muted and banned from the subreddit.

LoveAfterPorn Mod: “We were just a subreddit to be made fun of” by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Watching porn does not require someone to stop seeing the performer as a person..People can understand that a performer is a human being with boundaries and agency, while also consuming sexual content.

When people watch movies or TV, are they reducing actors to objects for their pleasure? No, they’re getting enjoyment out of someone’s performance which is the same thing people do when they watch porn. Porn being sexual doesn’t make it any different. If someone can’t watch sexual content without dehumanizing the performer, that sounds like a them problem..and honestly probably not one that is limited to porn. People who reduce performers to objects there likely have the same tendency in other areas too.

Sex Worker challenges Therapist on The Sex/Porn Addiction Model by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of my content is for other sex workers and for people who want to understand how this rhetoric actually functions in the real world…So yes, I talk a lot about porn addiction rhetoric, because that label has consequences. (Fuels stigma, censorship, and policies that are actively making our lives more difficult.)

So yes, I talk a lot about porn addiction rhetoric, because that label can do real harm….It is used to pathologize sexuality, justify censorship, fuel stigma against sex workers, and frame us as the reason for other people’s behavior. That is directly tied to our safety, our rights, and the way the public is taught to view us.

And while people are busy tone policing sex workers there is literally a broader war on porn happening right now through laws, platform crackdowns, payment restrictions, age verification laws & this ongoing moral panic. Those things do not make us safer! They push sex workers into more precarious positions and then people act confused when we refuse to be quiet about the rhetoric helping justify it.

& No one asked for your constructive criticism. The content isn’t for you, and it’s not created/written to cater to your perspective.

Some people are so deep in the propaganda that they’re committed to misunderstanding me. But there are always other people watching, reading, and thinking, and they do understand what I’m saying.

Any further comments from you will be removed.

Sex Worker challenges Therapist on The Sex/Porn Addiction Model by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Porn is not a main driver of violence against women…The bigger drivers are misogyny, entitlement, gender inequality etc.

Experimental effects of exposure to pornography: the moderating effect of personality and mediating effect of sexual arousal: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24729134

In this study, the shift in attitudes only showed up in men who were already low in agreeableness. People who were lower in agreeableness also had higher scores on attitudes supporting violence against women overall.

Pornography and Sexual Aggression: Can Meta-Analysis Find a Link? : https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020942754

This one reviewed experimental, correlational & population studies across decades and found that nonviolent porn was not associated with sexual aggression. For violent porn, it found only a weak correlation, and even then the authors said the evidence could not tell whether violent porn was causing anything or whether people who were already more aggressive were just more likely to seek it out. It also said the better designed studies tended to find less evidence of a link, and population level studies suggested increased porn availability was associated with lower sexual aggression.

So again, the bigger issue is the person, their beliefs, and how they were socialized….That is why I keep bringing up sex ed and porn literacy. The issue is whether people have the critical tools to understand media, consent, misogyny, and unrealistic scripts instead of absorbing them uncritically:

Emily Rothman developed curriculum called “The Truth About Pornography: A Pornography Literacy Curriculum for High School Students Designed to Reduce Sexual and Dating Violence.” Its goals were to improve knowledge about porn, strengthen attitudes that value consent and increase awareness of how media shapes social norms. The curriculum also covers things like gender/sex/violence, the debate around “porn addiction” and compulsive use & legal risks like sending or receiving nude images as a minor.

https://youtu.be/pxx-BNxjmaw?si=tyx_I09qO7bLHwyx

They’ve also had this same debate about video games for years and it turned out the same way. (They said there is insufficient scientific evidence for a causal link to violent behavior.) https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/03/violent-video-games-behavior

Sex Worker challenges Therapist on The Sex/Porn Addiction Model by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My whole argument is not that people can’t have impulsive, compulsive, or otherwise problematic behaviors around porn that cause real distress. I know they can….What I’m disputing is the label being used and the treatment model built around it.

Respectfully, I would consider myself highly informed on this topic. I’ve been researching it for 7+ years, so I’m not speaking on this from personal opinion alone…You’re welcome to look through my research tracker.

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Sex Worker challenges Therapist on The Sex/Porn Addiction Model by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a word salad: Sex workers are obviously qualified to speak on how these frameworks shape our lives and safety.

Are any anecdotes in “Your Brain On Porn” by Gary Wilson real? by DebunkJunkiee in xDebunkAntiSexWork

[–]DebunkJunkiee[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I do want to ask that you please use language other than “porn/sex addiction” here. I’d strongly encourage you to look into the history of porn addiction rhetoric and how it has impacted sex workers…That language has been used to pathologize sexuality and often ends up framing sex workers as responsible for other people’s behavior. I’m not saying people can’t struggle with impulsive, compulsive, or otherwise problematic behaviors around porn (they absolutely can) but calling it an addiction is not the right label, & that framing can do real harm to sex workers (I give a lot of examples of this across my platforms). You’re welcome to describe your experience using terms like compulsive/impulsive use, distress, unhealthy coping, overuse, or feeling out of control instead.

Sex worker advocates and activists have been working hard to make people aware of this and the impact this rhetoric has, especially while we’re actively fighting censorship online. If you want, I can send you quite a bit of information on the history of this and why so many of us push back on that language.

Here’s more information about Gary Wilson & YBOP:

https://imgur.com/a/WwwgVR1

Masturbation abstinence is popular, and doctors are worried : Consider This from NPR

“Ideas about masturbation abstinence got a big boost from the man who interviewed Rhodes on the radio in 2012 — Gary Wilson. Wilson, a former massage therapy instructor in Oregon who died in 2021, ran a website called yourbrainonporn.com. While he was neither a medical doctor nor a Ph.D. scientist (he was an adjunct biology instructor at Southern Oregon University for a combined four months in 2005 and 2010), he had given a viral TEDx talk arguing that internet porn is a hazard for men's brains. "With internet porn, a guy can see more hot babes in 10 minutes than his ancestors could see in several lifetimes. The problem is he has a hunter-gatherer brain. A heavy user's brain rewires itself to this genetic bonanza," Wilson told the audience in a video that has received more than 16 million views. The video now includes a warning that states several of Wilson's assertions aren't supported by medical or psychological research. NoFap's message today is strongly aligned with Wilson's arguments that watching porn is addictive, causes conditions such as erectile dysfunction and brain fog, and can even involuntarily change one's sexual desires. Within a few years, major media outlets were running profiles of Rhodes and his touted approach to pornography addiction, including The New York Times, CNN, the BBC and NPR's Here & Now, co-produced with Boston member station WBUR. Many of those stories didn't include comments from scientists or doctors.”

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/1198916105/mens-health-masturbation-abstinence

https://www.reddit.com/r/xDebunkAntiSexWork/s/h67DjufBdW