The College Fix

OPINION

Both Hollywood and mainstream colleges have proven reputations as secular-progressive and left-leaning. Yet once in a while, they break the mold.

Such is the case with the new movie “Don Jon,” which dared to tackle the pervasive problem of pornography addition, a prevalent and pressing issue on college campuses, with one study finding nearly half of male students view porn weekly, and one in five young men view it daily or nearly every day.

A groundbreaking study published last month by Cambridge University found those who view porn compulsively show the same signs of addiction in their brain as alcoholics and drug addicts. Cambridge researchers state viewing porn greatly stimulates the brain’s “reward center, involved in processing reward, motivation, and pleasure.”

Yet college officials, despite studies scholars produce on the addictive nature of pornography, are more likely to tout it to students than offer support groups for addiction to it.

In recent years, many public colleges across the nation have hosted porn stars to speak to students and screened pornography as part of campus talks on sexual health. One California college event devoted an entire course to the celebration and study of all things porn.

So while porn has been a part of the culture for many years, especially for men, secular society has not come out to denounce the problem, and colleges haven’t done much to curb it.

Perhaps that tide is turning, and surprisingly it’s Hollywood taking the lead.

The new movie “Don Jon,” released in late-September, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Don Jon. It’s a tale of one narcissistic young man and how his porn addiction takes control of his life.

In the movie, Jon is a porn addict and admits that he has been since his elementary school. For Jon, he enjoys porn more than he enjoys sex. Porn is a motivation, a reward for a hard day of work for Jon. Each time Jon clicks to watch porn, the audience sees it also, hence the R-rating.

The pornographic images help show how addicting the porn is, but there is an excessive amount. When the movie begins, porn is immediately shown. The audience likely could have ascertained the point without so many gratuitous flashes of breasts and butts.

But “Don Jon” has an underlying message about viewing porn, and that is it can be harmful. The fact that Jon eventually quits porn is a positive message about addressing and overcoming addictions.

Hollywood is now taking notice of the prevalence of porn in society today, the addictions and relationship strife it causes, and how much of the younger generation is knee-deep in the problem. Pornography has become a secular issue, gaining attention from larger audiences like that of Hollywood movie stars.

It’s a step in the right direction. One could argue the only way to convince the secular community to address the problem of porn is for the secular community to first admit that it’s a problem.

Fix contributor Samantha Watkins is a student at Point Loma Nazarene University.

To learn more about how porn is heralded on campuses, read: this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.

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