Truth About Porn Finally Coming Out as Pop Superstar Reveals What It Did to Her
Pornography is a growing problem in our culture, but some celebrities are finally starting to speak out against the harmful effects that porn has on people.
Pop singer and superstar Billie Eilish spoke out about how damaging porn is, how she thinks it is disgraceful and how it “destroyed” her brain, as she explained on the Howard Stern Show.
Though media and Hollywood have tried to normalize porn consumption, the harm that porn brings on individuals and relationships is undeniable.
In popular TV shows like “Friends,” “New Girl” and “How I Met Your Mother,” porn is casually referenced as if it is normal and completely acceptable for people to watch it regularly.
Unfortunately, it is pretty normal for many to regularly consume porn. Even if you don’t want to see porn, anyone who uses the internet is often exposed to it through ads and pop-ups.
Webroot broke down the numbers for internet pornography and revealed just how pervasive the problem is.
Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography on the internet. Every day 2.5 billion emails containing porn are sent or received. About 200,000 Americans can be classified as “porn addicts.”
Forty million American people regularly visit porn sites. Thirty-five percent of all internet downloads are related to pornography. Thirty-four percent of internet users have experienced unwanted exposure to pornographic content through ads, pop-up ads, misdirected links or emails.
However, as Eilish rightly pointed out, porn is destructive.
“As a woman, I think porn is a disgrace. I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11,” she said. “I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.”
Eilish explained how porn then gave her unrealistic and warped ideas about sex, and said it completely distorts the reality of women’s bodies for viewers.
“I’m so angry that porn is so loved, and I’m so angry at myself for thinking that it was okay,” she said.
Psychologically, Eilish is completely correct about how damaging porn is.
Gary Gilles, a licensed clinical professional counselor, wrote in a blog post for MentalHelp.net an explanation of how pornography can wreak havoc on relationships.
“Pornography creates unrealistic expectations about your spouse and sexual behavior. Pornography has been shown to weaken commitment in marriages because it creates an utterly false impression of what a normal body looks like and what sexual behavior is really about. The sexual relationship is meant to be mutually satisfying expression of each partner’s love for the other. In contrast, porn is about self-gratification and often involves dominating or mistreating the other person,” Gilles wrote.
Psychologically speaking, porn does act like a drug in the way it affects the brain, and it can cause serious damage and, obviously, addiction.
The nonprofit Fight the New Drug explained how viewing porn can actually change the brain’s neural pathways to basically rewire how your brain perceives pleasure and releases dopamine.
“Like it or not, porn consumption entails pleasure, focus, and repetition—the perfect recipe for a build up of Delta-FosB, and the creation of long-lasting pathways in the brain,” the nonprofit’s site noted. “It can also provide an overabundance of supernormal stimulus that can completely rewire what we find arousing, and what we desire and expect from sexual intimacy. These changes in our expectations can have tremendous implications for how we view others and how we view relationships.”
The psychological toll that porn takes on a person’s brain, emotions and perceptions is why it is so addicting and so damaging for individuals and their mentality toward relationships and sex.
Then there’s the industry of porn as a whole, which is exploitative and abusive to people both physically and mentally.
A few years ago, former porn star Mia Khalifa spoke out against the industry and how it abuses women.
“[Porn] corporations prey on callow young women and trap them legally into contracts when they’re vulnerable,” Khalifa said, according to The Guardian.
However, despite the evidence of porn’s destruction, some spoke out against Eilish’s condemnation of it.
One porn actress, Cherie DeVille, wrote a piece for the Daily Beast saying that the issue has made her “blood boil.”
“The anti-sex work organization NCOSE immediately seized on the pop star’s comments, issuing a press release applauding her ‘courage in speaking out about porn’s destructive influence,'” DeVille wrote. “And it makes my blood boil because Eilish is speaking from insecurity and projecting her own problems on a group of innocent — and marginalized — people.”
The porn actress then went on to say that Eilish should blame her “parents for letting them consume content inappropriate for minors.”
“No porn star wants kids watching their videos. We’re not the bad guys. Parents are,” DeVille said.
But no matter what might be said in support of porn, Billie Eilish was right to speak out against porn and bring the spotlight on how horrific it is.
Porn is abusing people, as well as ruining relationships, mental health and lives. It has to be called out for what it is and not simply accepted — no matter how much it may be pushed as “normal.”
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