Debate over effects of pornography gets hot and heavy

The crisp fall air buzzed with palpable excitement as a large line began to form outside of Bovard Auditorium Wednesday night.

“Yay, porn!” exclaimed an overly excited individual waiting to witness the Porn Debate. His enthusiasm was justifiable.

Pornography, as we all know, involves sex. And sex, besides the obvious attraction of its pleasurable aspects, is a necessary facet of human life.

Porn avenger · Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com, debated with Ron Jeremy about the negative effects of porn at Bovard Wednesday. - Ryan Alam | Daily Trojan

Most of us learned this in elementary school, but let’s take a quick refresher course. Human beings require only four things to continue to thrive on earth: food, water, oxygen and the ability to reproduce. We share these same traits with animals, a fact that many consider to be degrading. Although we do not frown upon a friend when his stomach rumbles in want of the next meal, the very mention of sex makes many people squirm in their seats.

Two “master debaters” took center stage in Bovard, which is only 20 miles removed from the heart of the American porn industry — the San Fernando Valley — to tackle America’s cultural taboo of sex and discuss the positive and negative aspects of the insanely profitable industry. In one corner stood Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com and a strong advocate for those struggling with porn addiction. It came as a pleasant shock when a young man casually dressed in jeans and a white button-down emerged behind the curtains upon Gross’ introduction.

Behind the opposing podium stood Ron Jeremy, a stout, Hawaiian-shirted figure sporting long curly black locks and his trademark moustache. “The porn king” — affectionately nicknamed “The Hedgehog” for reasons that cannot be fully detailed in this family-friendly university newspaper — has starred in more than 1,800 porn films in his lengthy career.

“I’ve had sex with about 4,000 women,” Jeremy said. “[Gross] has been with his wife about 4,000 times. I respect that.”

One might expect an animosity to exist between these men who represent two wildly different spectrums, but the two proved quite the contrary as they playfully joked about Jeremy’s colorful sexual exploits throughout the night.

“I have no problem with what he does for a living,” Gross said.

The “pastor of porn” clearly understands and respects the porn industry’s right to produce pornography and an American citizen’s right to watch its product.

“All of you have the right to see as much porn as you want, but most of you are unaware that this isn’t something that you can just turn off,” Gross warned.

A barrage of statistics and factual data about the incredibly young audience that porn attracts and its degrading treatment of women were Gross’ weapons of choice. The boyishly energetic Jeremy countered these facts by reminding the audience that the 18-plus rating on pornographic content demonstrates that the product is targeted for a mature audience.

Jeremy contradicted this when he conceded that “there is no such thing as ‘please watch porn responsibly,’” and that young teenagers have found easy access to porn online.

On the other hand, Jeremy rejected Gross’ claim to porn’s degrading treatment of women and assured the audience that most female porn stars are not fazed by their job.

“The majority of girls you have heard about have had happy, productive lives today. There’s a small group that is having problems, but the vast majority are not,” he said.

One aspect of porn that the two sides seemed to agree on were that its characteristics are deeply rooted in fantasy.

“Pornography is not what you are going to find in a real-life relationship,” Gross said.

Jeremy furthered this point by comparing the porn industry to Hollywood. Indeed, both produce content that allow their consumers to choose which fantasy they would like to experience, yet porn is the industry that is scorned.

Unfortunately, the two men never fully devoted their arguments to the intriguing idea that addiction is not caused by pornography, but instead by a person’s complex psychological nature. Though Gross’ argument was powerful, the “pastor of porn” must realize that religion can only provide hope for some since it is not universally practiced. Therefore, the hope for an end to sexual addiction rests in the rigorous study of human psychology.