The debate surrounding pornography in the state of Utah is at an all-time high as legislators of the state have declared pornography a public health crisis.
This decision came in April 2016, when Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a resolution to work towards making Utah an anti-pornography state. This means that the state government views pornography on the same level as, or even worse than, the negative health effects of poor air quality or drug abuse.
Jeffrey Holland, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stated pornography was a disease like the flu and cholera, and also stated that it was, “antithetical to the human soul, to a health psyche, and a healthy relationship with a person they come to love.”
As these comments and beliefs fuel the debate on pornography in Utah, it appears that most of these individuals choose to ignore or cherry pick the research on the effects of pornography (either positive or negative). In fact, most research connects the effects of pornography to the couple/relationship, more than the individual.
The most prevalent negative effect of pornography use – across many studies – is the decrease in marital satisfaction and/or relationship happiness. Yet, the research on pornography often dances with the “chicken and egg” metaphor. In other words, does the use of pornography lead to decreased marital satisfaction, or does poor marital satisfaction lead to pornography?
Researchers are finding that how someone perceives or chooses to think about pornography will determine if they view it as harmful or not. Some individuals, such as women and religious individuals, will tend to see pornography as more harmful, as these individuals do not typically view pornography. Religious individuals feel more unhappiness or depressive symptoms when viewing, or after viewing, pornography. As a result, religious communities believe that pornography is an addiction because, “the guilt and shame accompanying sexual expression that goes against moral approval potentially leads religious individuals to interpret a nonpathological behavior as pathological.”
Moreover, if religious individuals see pornography as an addiction, then religious individuals who view pornography feel less social support. Particularly because these religious viewers know that their religious community (which believes in sexual purity) does not approve of such behavior, which then reinforces feelings of depression, shame and guilt.
After researching the history of the “porn crisis” in Utah and exploring research within the field of porn studies, we decided to attend Utah’s Coalition Against Pornography Conference this past March to get a better understanding of how pornography has become such a wide-spread topic in the state. It was our understanding that this conference would have a huge religious component, which it did, but we also found that it spewed incorrect information about pornography and used it as a scare tactic that guilt-tripped those in attendance.
While we agree with the conference that pornography addiction is real and can be damaging, most presenters made it seem that being addicted could be watching porn one or two times, having sexual thoughts due to watching pornography or casually watching porn throughout your life.
We found that those in attendance actually believe that pornography is a health crisis and should be viewed as a disease that affects the purity of a person. Throughout the conference, presenters kept saying and shirts read, “Porn kills love, but love kills porn.”
Ultimately, we believe this scare tactic, along with the demonization of sexuality and cherry-picking porn research to generalize as truth, is going to cause more harm within the state of Utah.
Oliver Anderson and Ray Taylor are graduate students in the educational leadership and policy master of education program at the University of Utah.
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