Posted on 07/02/2011 9:39:42 AM PDT by Cardhu
Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain?
It is hard to ignore how many highly visible men in recent years (indeed, months) have behaved in sexually self-destructive ways. Some powerful men have long been sexually voracious; unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks.
Of course, the heightened technological ability nowadays to expose private behavior is part of the reason for this change. But that is precisely the point: so many of the men caught up in sex-tinged scandals of late have exposed themselves - sometimes literally - through their own willing embrace of text messages, Twitter, and other indiscreet media.
What is driving this weirdly disinhibited decision-making? Could the widespread availability and consumption of pornography in recent years actually be rewiring the male brain, affecting men's judgment about sex and causing them to have more difficulty controlling their impulses?
There is an increasing body of scientific evidence to support this idea. Six years ago, I wrote an essay called "The Porn Myth," which pointed out that therapists and sexual counselors were anecdotally connecting the rise in pornography consumption among young men with an increase in impotence and premature ejaculation among the same population. These were healthy young men who had no organic or psychological pathology that would disrupt normal sexual function.
The hypothesis among the experts was that pornography was progressively desensitising these men sexually. Indeed, hardcore pornography's effectiveness in achieving rapid desensitisation in subjects has led to its frequent use in training doctors and military teams to deal with very shocking or sensitive situations.
Given the desensitisation effect on most male subjects, researchers found that they quickly required higher levels of stimulation to achieve the same level of arousal. The experts I interviewed at the time were speculating that porn use was desensitising healthy young men to the erotic appeal of their own partners.
Since then, a great deal of data on the brain's reward system has accumulated to explain this rewiring more concretely. We now know that porn delivers rewards to the male brain in the form of a short-term dopamine boost, which, for an hour or two afterwards, lifts men's mood and makes them feel good in general. The neural circuitry is identical to that for other addictive triggers, such as gambling or cocaine.
The addictive potential is also identical: just as gamblers and cocaine users can become compulsive, needing to gamble or snort more and more to get the same dopamine boost, so can men consuming pornography become hooked. As with these other reward triggers, after the dopamine burst wears off, the consumer feels a letdown - irritable, anxious, and longing for the next fix. (There is some new evidence, uncovered by Jim Pfaus at Concordia University in Canada, that desensitisation may be affecting women consumers of pornography as well.)
This dopamine effect explains why pornography tends to become more and more extreme over time: ordinary sexual images eventually lose their power, leading consumers to need images that break other taboos in other kinds of ways, in order to feel as good. Moreover, some men (and women) have a "dopamine hole" - their brains' reward systems are less efficient - making them more likely to become addicted to more extreme porn more easily.
As with any addiction, it is very difficult, for neurochemical reasons, for an addict to stop doing things - even very self-destructive things - that enable him to get that next hit of dopamine. Could this be why men who in the past could take time-delayed steps to conduct affairs behind closed doors now can't resist the impulse to send a self-incriminating text message? If so, such men might not be demons or moral ciphers, but rather addicts who are no longer entirely in control of themselves.
This is not to say that they are not responsible for their behavior. But I would argue that it is a different kind of responsibility: the responsibility to understand the powerfully addictive potential of pornography use, and to seek counseling and medication if the addiction starts to affect one's spouse, family, professional life, or judgment.
By now, there is an effective and detailed model for weaning porn-addicted men and restoring them to a more balanced mental state, one less at the mercy of their compulsions. Understanding how pornography affects the brain and wreaks havoc on male virility permits people to make better-informed choices - rather than engage in pointless self-loathing or reactive collective judgments - in a world that has become more and more addictively hardcore.
Naomi Wolf is a political activist and social critic whose most recent book is Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries.
It takes an act of will and divine intervention to resist it.
Pornography is one of many spiritual killers. The Bible says to be careful what we allow our EYES to see and hears to HEAR!
Young boys are interested in pornography first and foremost because they do not understand female anatomy. This is preadolescent curiosity.
It is also a warning sign that boys and girls are in need of chaperoned socialization that neither permits them to gender segregate nor is so filled with other distractions that they cannot socialize. There is no such common system in the US, and certainly not in school or in church, because the children are otherwise preoccupied.
Which explains a lot about gender and relationship problems among adults. Cross gender socialization is essential at a young age.
The next time boys are attracted to pornography is when they are in the throes of adolescence, “all hormones and nerve endings”, where pornography enables what could be called “excessive” masturbation.
Finally, when adult men are married, there are times, from days to decades, when they cannot express sexuality with their spouse, either because she isn’t interested or available, or he isn’t.
I dunno. Good question. Pity we can't ask Bin Laden - he had lots - may be that explains his attitude.
I dunno. Good question. Pity we can't ask Bin Laden - he had lots - may be that explains his attitude.
I know of three marriages that were totally ruined, and porn was at the root of it.
Seeing a posting originating from Al Jazeera on FR kinda gives me the creeps —
I actually think it is a lot more tintillating for scanty versus showing all the goods. Jennifer L Hewitt in that movie with Signourney Weaver is a good example.
Too bad the writer doesn’t investigate the amount of ADHD drugs that are plowed into the boys and those effects on the hard wiring and eventual sex performance. Women want boys to be calm in the preteen & teen years and then expect them to be dynamos in bed after they marry them. Ya can’t have it both ways ladies. We not lab rats.
Someday we'll have a monument built in Washington to those noble bureaucrats that gave their sanity to protect us from filth.
“Some powerful men have long been sexually voracious; unlike today, though, they were far more discreet and generally used much better judgment in order to cover their tracks.”
This is just inaccurate in the extreme.
In the past people were far more willing to cover these things up, plus it was much easier to cover things up in the past.
But, even with that said, look at the scandals throughout history. Henry VIII comes to mind, even if he was just in search of a legitimate male heir, he did a great deal of damage. Not just to the several women he had killed, but also to the church in England and think of how many people died as a result of his defiance of the Roman Catholic Church, the church that had awared him “defender of the faith”.
Look at the Kennedys, JFK is one thing, bad enough behaviour there, but look at girl-killing Ted. Does anyone think that any pol would get away with that today?
Clinton got a pass, disgustingly so, but others are having a harder time plying their randy trade today.
On the whole, an improvement.
If you want to be a whore-monger, stay out of elective office, or even appointed office.
Yes, DSK, that means you too.
I don't care for the author, but I think the science will confirm what she is saying eventually.
The biggest of them all is socialism since it endorses all of the others.
I highly doubt that. Men are very simple creatures. I am quite certain I could ascertain a secondary and more "root" cause to the marriage failures in about 5 minutes of counseling.
Never understood the fascination with pornography. Never been interested in it, never been interested in boobie-bars either. I think it mostly comes down to an aversion to fakeness, just not a fan of blatantly artificial situations.
lotta
I stand corrected!
lika the smoka smileyface
feel free to swipe it .. i liberated from somewhere long forgotten, years ago .. would be nice to think the little guy will be carryin’ on after i’m gone .. lol
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