Responding to the NRO story on pornography, Dr. Helen Smith seems to be missing the point. She quotes a single and truly lame news article claiming that porn isn’t so bad. Funny thing about this “study:” it is a series of subjective interviews with 20 heterosexual males.
“We started our research seeking men in their 20s who had never consumed pornography,” said Professor Simon Louis Lajeunesse. “We couldn’t find any.”
Although hampered in its original aim, the study did examined the habits of those young men who used pornography – which would appear to be all of them.
Prof Lajeunesse interviewed 20 heterosexual male university students who consumed pornography, and found on average, they first watched pornography when they were 10 years old.
Seems like quite a stretch to claim from 20 interviews with college students that a)they couldn’t find any men who had never used pornography, and b) that there are no ill effects from using porn. In fact, it is downright impossible to draw any conclusions about the impact of using porn, if you don’t have a control group of people who don’t use it.
The study found that men watched pornography that matched their own image of sexuality, and quickly discarded material they found offensive or distasteful.
Prof Lajeunesse said pornography did not have a negative effect on men’s sexuality.
“Not one subject had a pathological sexuality,” he said. “In fact, all of their sexual practices were quite conventional.
“Pornography hasn’t changed their perception of women or their relationship, which they all want to be as harmonious and fulfilling as possible,” he added
The Professor is overstating his conclusions. Dr. Helen is usually better than this….