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Banning Pornography | Munk Debates

August 1, 2023

Banning Pornography

Be it resolved, pornography is exploitative, harmful, and too easy to access. It’s time to ban porn.

Guests
Meghan Murphy
David J. Ley

About this episode

It's a $97 billion global industry that has made its way into mobile phones, video games and laptops. Never before has porn been more accessible, and offered more variety, than the present day. And yet, some feminists want to revisit the question of whether it should exist at all. They say pornography exploits young women and creates unrealistic expectations in the bedroom. So many of society’s worst problems – from pedophilia, to sexual assault, to gender inequality – are amplified by porn use. And with the advent of the internet and video streaming, children are able to access hardcore porn with few guardrails, leading to a generation of young men who are getting their sex education from unrealistic and exploitative sexual relationships portrayed on screen. On the other side of the debate are those who see value in porn: research shows that men who watch porn value female pleasure more, couples who watch porn together have better sexual relationships, and LGBT folk report a greater sense of community acceptance. Porn, its defenders argue, is being used as a distraction when many of the problems related to the industry are already systemic in our everyday lives. And finally, attempting to ban porn would only drive it underground and increase the risk of exploitation. In their view, it’s time to put the decades long debate over porn to bed, once and for all.

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Guests

Meghan Murphy

“Porn is painful, it's humiliating, it's coercive, and it's made only for the pleasure of the viewer, who really has no idea what's happening on the other side of the screen.”

Meghan Murphy

“Porn is painful, it's humiliating, it's coercive, and it's made only for the pleasure of the viewer, who really has no idea what's happening on the other side of the screen.”

Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist, the founder of Feminist Current, and the host of The Same Drugs. For over a decade, her work has focused on violence against women, prostitution, pornography, and women’s rights. She founded Feminist Current in 2012, and it quickly became Canada’s most read feminist website, and one of the only feminist websites and podcasts in North America criticizing third wave feminism and pushing back against the normalization and legalization of the sex industry. Meghan launched The Same Drugs in 2020 as a means to provide heterodox commentary, interviews, and analysis of culture and politics. She is currently based in Mexico. You can subscribe to and follow Meghan’s work and podcast on Substack www.meghanmurphy.ca and follow her on Twitter @meghanemurphy.

David J. Ley

“Most people report positive experiences with pornography. It is the people who are ashamed of pornography or ashamed of their sexuality who struggle with it.”

David J. Ley

“Most people report positive experiences with pornography. It is the people who are ashamed of pornography or ashamed of their sexuality who struggle with it.”

David Ley is a clinical psychologist, sex therapist and author, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He's the author of several books and research articles on sexuality, including his second book, The Myth of Sex Addiction, which started a firestorm of controversy about the validity of the concept of sex or porn addition. His third book presents a model for men to use to approach their use of pornography in a healthy manner. Dr. Ley is a frequent guest in media around the world, with appearances in sources such as the New York Times, CNN and Time Magazine, to Hustler and Playboy magazines.

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