No one could have anticipated a pandemic to disrupt our lives at the beginning of 2020, but here we are: at home, alone or with loved ones, and doing school or work all online. What a time to be getting through, right?
Pornhub and porn sites just like it are turning up their marketing game and taking advantage of everyone staying home because of COVID-19 so they can gain lifelong clients even after social-distancing is over. Instead of that, we can show you solid reasons why you shouldn’t buy into any of it and ditch porn for good.
If you don’t want to listen to us, listen to actor and activist Terry Crews:
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And here he is again, wearing one of our conversation-starting tees the other day:
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To catch you up, during his Instagram live last week, Crews talked about how he was exposed to porn at a young age, like so many people are, and how it negatively affected him for years afterward. He explained how the age of first exposure has gotten younger and younger, so much so that the vast majority of people are exposed to hardcore internet porn well before the age of 18.
Crews also talked about how porn can cause consumers to view people as products, and he echoed the research that shows how porn can rewire the consumer’s brain to need more porn and more hardcore versions of it to get the same “high.”
Crews clarified that he isn’t a supporter of banning porn—neither is Fight the New Drug—but that he’s a supporter of people getting the facts and making an educated decision for themselves. Check out his podcast interview with us:
But this isn’t the first time he’s sounded the alarm on porn.
Crews first started being candid about his lifelong addiction to pornography in his book Manhood, published in 2014. He talked openly about how he was first addicted to porn at the age of 12 years old and how it continued all the way into adulthood, eventually deeply affecting his marriage to his wife, Rebecca.
After facing many years of addiction and a tumultuous marriage that almost ended in divorce due to his porn consumption, Crews was able to break free and go on to be the success that he is today. And now he wants other people to break free from porn, too, which is why he’s encouraging everyone to have a #PornFreeQuarantine
“My Dirty Little Secret”
Throughout the last years, Crews has utilized Facebook’s live video feature to talk to his 8 million+ followers about his “dirty little secret,” as he calls it. Crews has live-streamed more than 7 real talk sessions solely about his past struggle with pornography, how it affected his life, and how he broke free.
“This thing has become a problem, I think it’s a worldwide problem,” Terry said in his first Dirty Little Secret video in 2015. “Pornography really messed up my life in a lot of ways. Some people deny it and say, ‘Hey man you can’t really be addicted to pornography, there’s no way.’ But I’ll tell you something: if day turns into night and you’re still watching, you probably got a problem. And that was me.”
Related: What Happens When The World Mixes COVID-19, Anxiety, And Pornography?
He talked about how pornography consumed his life by becoming a secret that he was able to keep hidden for years. Despite being able to keep it a secret from everyone, he said that it started to corrupt his relationship with his wife.
“My wife was literally like, ‘I don’t know you anymore, I’m out of here,’” he continued. “This is a major, major problem, I literally had to go to rehab for it.”
“My issue was, and is with pornography,” Crews continued, “Is that it changes the way you think about people. People become objects, people become body parts; they become things to be used rather than people to be loved.”
After some deep reflection and going to rehab for multiple issues—porn being one of them—Crews was able to reconcile with his wife, and they’re happily married to this day.
He encouraged porn consumers to put the issue out into the light and break free by no longer keeping it a secret. He concluded by saying he didn’t quit porn to get his wife back, but to get his life back.
Why This Matters
We applaud Terry Crews for choosing to use his globally-recognized platform to talk about the real scientific harms of pornography. His words have been a huge step in the right direction for our generation that has grown up with unlimited access to internet porn, and he’s an anti-shame light in the darkness.
By having people like Terry be bold enough to take a stand on this issue, we are seeing conversations getting started and perceptions starting to change.
Join Terry Crews and pledge to have a #PornFreeQuarantine! What do you have to lose?
