Elizabeth Smart appears in anti-porn ad, says porn made her attacker more violent

[Cleopatra7]

Does anyone know if there has been secular, peer-reviewed research about the effects of pornography, if any? I don't know enough about pornography either way to state what it may or may not do to people, but it seems like there should be some research by sociologists, psychologists, and doctors about this.

[faraway]

I really don't see it as ES voicing her opinion but not really shaming anyone and not having an impact. While the general population doesn't care and keeps watching their porn, it will impact the Mormon community. She and her story are very well known and the church continues to keep people giving a hard time about watching porn, being gay, drinking (warm) caffeine, etc.

The porn industry needs more laws and regulations and there really is room for well-known people to advocate for that. This would have been a great opportunity for a campaign, to make porn less violent. There is a need for more rules and regulations in this field, but that of course would approve normal, non-violent porn, which of course is a no-no.

I read about this girl, whose boyfriend got her really drunk, raped her and spread that video online. She tried to have it removed but couldn't, because she didn't own the rights to it!!!!! A lot of sites don't check their content and have all kinds of terrible s*** on there, there need to be harder sanctions. 

 

[Rachel333]

I really respect Elizabeth Smart for speaking out about her experience. I was very frustrated reading the comments on this article because there were so many people totally disregarding her experience and even saying that they think she has lied about her whole story. I think there is room to disagree with ES about porn and yet respect the fact that she is sharing her own experience and that as a result of her experience she has a very negative opinion of porn. She's not even saying that porn made her captor kidnap and rape her in the first place, just that it "made her living hell worse."

And personally, sometimes I think liberals (a group in which I certainly place myself) can be too permissive of porn. It comes in a lot of forms and, again, I think you can disagree with the right-wing view of porn and hold the opinion that some porn is acceptable while still acknowledging the real problems with a lot of pornography.

[ADoyle90815]

On 8/20/2016 at 3:57 AM, faraway said:

Exactly. This is a very similar discussion to the one about violent video games after mass shootings happened. 

Elizabeth went through hell and I understand her point, but I'm afraid she is just advocating the Mormon agenda, which is very anti-porn. They also like to generalize, a.i. watching porn is an addiction. I really don't like that they are using her and her story for this matter.

The porn industry itself isn't without problems, but I don't think "making it go away" is the solution. 

If people really wanted to do something, they would help those who want to leave the porn industry, and in general, work to put a stop to sex trafficking and other forms of exploitation. To me, it seems like Elizabeth probably didn't get more than church therapy, which is why she's parroting their views about porn. If anything, her perpetrator was a sick individual who twisted historical, fundamentalist Mormon beliefs in order to rape her repeatedly over several months. I'd say he had more in common with Warren Jeffs and Joseph Smith than someone who watches a little bit of porn.

Utah has often been shown to be #1 in porn viewership according to studies, so by implying that someone who watches porn is going to become a rapist and pedophile, the suggestion is that citizens of Utah are all potential rapists, but  "some of them, are good people..."

[Rachel333]

3 hours ago, ADoyle90815 said:

To me, it seems like Elizabeth probably didn't get more than church therapy, which is why she's parroting their views about porn. 

I've seen this sentiment a lot, and I don't think it's fair to Elizabeth. She has spoken out against abstinence-only education and talked about how harmful her church's focus on purity was, so she is certainly willing to speak out about things that contradict church views. I don't think it's fair to dismiss her experience by saying her opinions aren't really her own.

[Quivering Uterus]

I know for example those who watch porn watch it with their partners, not just anybody. To think that jerk subjected her to it and then subjected her his crusty self is a whole ' nother story.  I can see why she feels this way.