The hammer.

At the 2014 Exodus Cry Abolition Summit, Benjamin Nolot shared with us the benefits of using media to fight slavery. He brought us through history, describing how creative media was used in the abolition of slavery time and time again. He talked about how evoking the public’s empathy and favor always turned the tide. As a graphic designer and appreciator of the power of art, it made me really excited. At the end of his update, he gave the following quote by Bertolt Brecht:
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”

What a wonderful quote, my head said! I wrote it down...but the moment my pen punctuated the sentence, I had another thought that turned the warmth that it had left in my heart to icy cold: Pornography is legal because it is considered to be art (freedom of speech).

Pornography is legal because it is considered to be art.

So take this beautiful, thought-provoking quote and put the “art” form in place:
“Pornography is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”

Let that sink into your mind for a moments. It turns this lovely quote into a terrifying caution to us, explanation of the effects of our actions, and the disgusting reality of what is happening in our world.

There are 68 million searches a day for porn online. The top producers of porn (the US and Germany) each produce over 400 porn films for DVDs per WEEK. 88.2% of top-rated porn scenes contain aggressive acts; 94% of these times the aggression is directed at women. [1]

Most children encounter porn by age 10-11; many children look to pornography thinking it will give them the information they need to know about sex and relationship; and those engulfed in this destructive habit are reordering their minds to believe what they see is normal and desirable. [2, 5]

This is not a slow moving hammer, it is a jackhammer, reshaping the brains of its users and turning them into distorted men. Studies show that after viewing porn, men are less likely to show empathy to rape victims, believe women deserve to be raped based on how they’re dressed, are angry if women won’t sleep with them, are unable to sustain real relationships with real women, and are ok with coercing partners into unwanted sex acts. [3, 4]

“The Pornification of our culture at large has turned women into ‘things’; has given men (and women) the belief that women are to be bought, sold, used, abused, beaten, raped, tortured... and they like it (or are supposed to).” - L Mickelwait M.P.D.
Through the “hammer” of pornography, society is being shaped into a world where women and children are simply objects; void of emotion, dignity and personhood.

Let that sink in for a moment. Is this what you desire for the women and girls in your life (your mother, your sister, your wife, your daughter, your friend)? Is this what you desire for the men and boys in your life (your father, your brother, your husband, your son, your friend)? Both females AND males should be infuriated by this.


Sources:
1) Bridges, A. J., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C., & Liberman, R. (2010). Aggression and sexual behavior in best-selling pornography videos: A content analysis update. Violence Against Women, 16(10), 1065-1085.
2) http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/get-the-facts#porn-changes-the-brain
3) Bridges, A., & Wosnitzer, R. (2007). Aggression and sexual behavior in best-selling pornography: A content analysis update. International Communication Association.
4) Gahyun, Y., & Yang, D. (2012). Effects of exposure to pornography on male aggressive behavioral tendencies. The Open Psychology Journal, (5), 1-10.
5) Burton et al., 2010; Cowan & Campbell, 1995; Cowell & Smith, 2009