... I'm now going to spend October 7th watching all of the porn I can get my hands on. Because if National Porn Sunday isn't an appropriate day to break out the porn, I don't know when is.

Concerning the name "elephant in the pew," I think they are making a sideways reference to the idiom "elephant in the living room." I.e. that porn is a huge problem in church communities that everyone sees and no one talks about.

Couldn't tell if the author of this post had seen it that way or not.

Well, it makes sense if they're talking about an "elephant in the pew."

And the entire campaign makes a lot of sense considering that porn actually DOES hurt some people (like neglected spouses and the addicts themselves) - unlike gay sex.

I think it's a take on the "elephant in the living room"

(from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room)
The elephant in the room (also elephant in the living room, elephant in the corner, elephant on the dinner table, elephant in the kitchen, etc.) is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored. It is based on the fact that an elephant in a small room would be impossible to overlook.

I found it a bit weird when I ran into it over the weekend, especially the article that talked about these guys showing up and setting up booths at porn shows, but I think it is something that should be addressed and if churches can take it on in a way that could possibly help, I say go for it.

Mum... I think I'll also be laying aside that Sunday to engage in some little 'family corruption'. Sounds like a good time to be had.

I guess the other elephant in the pew is the one where many church communities have such a narrow view of sexuality that their members use porn to explore other aspects of themselves...ie what they see as "corruption of families".

Lol. I am quite aware that they were referring to the "elephant in the room," I just still found it humorous for them to use a big inflatable blue elephant to talk about porn.

The National Porn Sunday Elephant?

This sounds like one of my stranger dreams. "I dreamed that a Christian organization was trying to stop pornography by carrying a giant inflatable blue elephant from town to town."

I'm going to be giggling about this all day.

Um, as a feminist I don't really have a problem with this campaign. Porn IS a problem for many people, Christian and otherwise.

I like this blog, but I wish it took a broader approach (no pun intended) to women's issues. Feminism is about more than the right to sleep around. No offense meant, that's just how I feel.

Do me a favor, florafloraflora, before you criticize the blog.

Go through the posts from the last two weeks. Add up the number that are about the right to sleep around. Then add up the number of posts that are about other things. See which number is larger.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha *kicks feet against floor* ha ha ha ha ha *gasps for air* ha ha ha ha ha ha. *wipes tears away, giggles* tee hee hee hee hee *snorts* ha ha ha ha ha!

Can you tell us exactly what makes you uncomfortable, florafloraflora? Just today there have been posts about street harassment, title ix, women's political rights in afghanistan, homophobia, and morning sickness. Are you saying the blog concentrates too much on sexuality in general? Not trying to attack you, I'm just mystified.

Sorry, Kimmy, I stand by what I said. I subscribe to this blog's feed because it gives me lots of food for thought. I've been pondering the Brazilian yogurt story ever since I saw it four days ago, and wondering whether to weigh in as (possibly) this site's only Brazilian reader. But there's a lot of content here that really doesn't speak to me either. If this is feminism, I have to wonder whether I'm truly a feminist.

I don't mean this as an attack because, obviously, it's not my blog and it's none of my business what the ladies of Feministing decide to post here. But it does make me wonder, that's all.

What do you mean by "this" when you say "If this is feminism?"
There's a lot of content that doesn't really speak to me on Feministing too. But I accept that I am not the only woman in the world, and I skip them. There aren't many, though. Even though I don't have personal experience with breast feeding, I recognize that women who do breast feed deserve the right to do so without being harassed or shunned. Just an example.

And I happen to agree with your stance re: this campaign. I just don't get your beef w/ Feministing in general.

ktorre, I don't want to hijack this thread so I'll just say, today brought a nice diversity of interesting topics. That hasn't always been the case.

SarahMC, you're right, I know I'm not the only woman or the only feminist in the world, which is why I'm still reading. I've been frustrated by a recent string of posts that really don't speak to me, but it's not a dealbreaker or I wouldn't still be here.

It should really be a giant RED elephant because studies have shown that Red Staters buy significantly more porn than Blue Staters (I guess the Blue Staters have more actual consensual sex?). Anyway, tee-hee. I do know that porn addiction is a real problem and can cause problems in people's marriages and can cause many porn addicted men to have very bad sexual etiquette (meaning, treating real live partners like the women in porn which I wouldn't be okay with), but that's a matter of degree and kind. Any addiction eventually spirals and the real world consequences of poor sexual etiquette can be quite alarming to partners. I'm not against all erotica, don't get me wrong, but I'm thinking that the Big Blue Elephant campaign isn't looking at the issue with nuance--porn bad, sex bad, blah--is probably their tag-line.

Peace & Orgasms

Ugh. I hate those XXXChurch twatwaffles (the ones who are sponsoring this campaign). People trying to hipify fundamentalism and archaic, anti-sex/pleasure attitudes irritate the crap out of me. Much like the sex toy bans, I just can't bring myself to hop on the "using dildos and watching people have sex is going to completely dismantle society" boat.

And by the way, am I the only one who found the "feminism is more than the right to sleep around" comment offensive and over-simplifying?

And by the way, am I the only one who found the "feminism is more than the right to sleep around" comment offensive and over-simplifying?

I cannot help but think that attending porn conferences under the pretense of changing the minds of the actors is just another way for these people to get off. They can't pretend they won't inadvertently view or see some explicit material while in the porn conference.
I feel these people are so sexually repressed and shamed into hating their bodies and themselves and their own sexuality that that cannot deal with people who aren't the same.
Pastor Ted Haggart, the homophobic preacher who was later caught buying meth from a male prostitute comes to mind..oh and the Catholic church..that is a whole other can of worms. (though I understand the church doing this isn't the Catholic church, they are a very old organization rampant with child molestation and anti-women policy)

"Church pastors attend pornography shows and pass out Bibles to participants, in an effort to help actors get out of the business, Mahon said."

I'm with you all the way PamelaV. If this group was really interested in helping actors "get out of the business" they'd be doing something a bit different than handing out fucking bibles, which in the worst case is an attempt at shaming, and in the best case will just get them laughed at.

flora -- I think it's safe to say that while most of the regular readers and commenters here identify themselves as feminist, each individual has certain issues that speak to them more than others. For many (myself included), sexual freedom is a really big one. Historically, many milestones in the feminist movement (and please, anyone who knows more on this, feel free to correct me) have gone hand in hand with the increased ability of women to make sexual choices as varied as their male counterparts.

Oddly enough, this is not the first time I have seen elephants directly connected to porn. One of my favourite erotic fanfic pieces features elephants in tutus on rollerskates who announce the more explicit bits of the story.

Just a small favor: Can people please rethink the phrase "porn addiction"?

Yes, using porn become a harmful habit or obsession. So can jogging, working, dancing, eating, surfing the Web, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, masturbating, blogging... pretty much anything that has a powerfully pleasurable affect on people's lives can become an obsession or a habit.

But addiction is a fairly specific physical response that can happen with certain drugs. Its symptoms include physical withdrawal symptoms when the drug is removed, and needing an increasingly higher dose of the drug to get the same physical effect.

Porn isn't that. It isn't heroin or alcohol, or even coffee. You may get cranky and dysfunctional when you use it a lot and suddenly stop; but you don't get vomiting, blinding headaches, or delirium tremens.

Like anything in life that gives pleasure, it can be misused. But I've seen no good evidence that there's anything special about porn that makes using it more likely to become habit-forming or harmful than any other pleasurable activity.

(Apologies for the hijack, but it seemed like it was already in process, so I decided to relax and go with it.)

I took a gander at the site and its boards, and holy crap, did I get pissed off. Basically they're oversimplifying sexuality, belittling the mental health system (sorry, but I can't help but get pissed when someone claims that something that saved my life never did such in the first place), the role of the individual in running their own life, and acting high-and-mighty to boot. (Big surprise)

Plus, with dreck like this: (response about whether or not the mental health system was to blame for the VT shooting) "I think it was lack of an armed staff and other armed students. Colleges have become citizen disarmament zones, leaving the average law abiding citizen defenseless and a "sitting duck." I think all countries have had their own versions of "mass murder."

This tragedy was unfortunate, but I don't see it as a failure of the mental health system. Mind you, I'm not defending the mental health system, which I have serious misgivings about and more criticism than praise for. I just don't think it can be blamed here. Nor can gun laws, unless you count the gun laws that disarmed students who might have been capable to stop the shooter. Nor is it campus messaging policies." I think some people have forgotten that the Second Amendment applied to EARLY-AMERICA MILITIAS, and NOT THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

Either way, it's just insulting to young people on so many levels.

Oh, and get this - they have a HATE MAIL section! I started reading it, thinking that it'll be letters from imbiciles that make the rest of us look unintelligent and not worth listening to, but many of the authors make some great points. Many of them point out how the site is pretty hypocritical. I can't believe I'm saying this, but...some of them are Fundies that I actually AGREE with.

Time for another shower. I feel so filthy saying that...

Wow. I took a look at their site and found this quote that, heaven help me, made me laugh my ass off:

Does Jesus really love porn stars? Absolutely. Now that may go against what you thought about Jesus, but it is true. You see Jesus loves porn stars as much as he loves pastors, soccer moms, liars, thieves, and prostitutes. In his eyes, we are all the same. We're all just people in need of a Savior, who can come into our world and fix our messed up lives. The Bible says that we have all screwed up. Whether you're making porn, working at Starbucks, or running a church, we are all sinners. And despite this fact, Jesus really, really loves us. He is not angry with us. He is not too busy for us. He isn't waiting for us to get our crap together. He just says come. Come now. Check out what I have for you. A life that is greater then you could ever imagine.

You can't write shit like this on a website about pr0n and not realize how hilarious it is. I mean, I can't believe this is unintentional... except that... they're talking... about... JESUS.

(resumes laughing ass off)

I know it would be wrong to pinch another church's elephant and put it in a compromising position with this church's elephant...but I would still love to see that happen.

So when will we be seeing the "stop people working at Starbucks" "church harms families" elephant?

He just says come. Come now. Check out what I have for you.

Omigod hilarious... Jesus is hella dirty!!

$50 to anyone who steals it.

Just a thought... maybe if sex wasn't so stigmatized as negative and maybe if sexual repression wasn't such a big issue, maybe porn wouldn't even be an issue because they'd be happy enough with themselves/who they are with.

I know that is really over-simplification of things, but just was the first thought that came to my mind.

sounds like someone should refer jesus to this thread: http://feministing.com/archives/007244.html#comments .

From their site, under "Get Help>Men"

"Fact #1
Women are beautiful because that's the way God made them. We are naturally attracted to them. If you're not, then there is probably another website out there that can help you with that problem."

Yeah, you fag!Only men are attracted to women and only women are attracted to men. You are defective!

Thank you, Greta Christina.

I have some issues with the mainstream porn industry, but not all porn is misogynistic or exploitative. And "porn addiction" is a myth spread by fundies trying to give a pseudoscientific legitimacy to church tradition.

ediblestars, do you mean that there is no way you can be addicted to porn, or that fundies try to exaggerate porn addiction so people will steer away from it? I'm not trying to argue, but I always thought it was very possible for someone to become addicted to porn.

I believe there is such a thing as a porn addiction. It is much more severe than being just obsessed with jogging...which can also be considered an addiction or compulsion..

Anyone that has worked with substance abusers knows that the physical withdrawal from the drug is the smallest problem in addiction. It is the mental issues and road blocks that come from it that are what makes it most difficult to recover.
That's just my little piece.

Also, on the comment "if this is what feminism is about than maybe i'm not a feminist"
I think what upsets people is that it's another side of the "i'm not a feminist but..." coin. There have been things on here that I have no agreed wtih, (mainly some of the negative feedback on marriage) but i have come and spoken my piece without doubting my feminist beliefs. It would be great if we all could agree but that's not good for our progress. Don't assume that just because you don't agree with everything that you understand what feminism is. Other than equal rights for women we're still hammering out the details and the only way that willi mprove is if we constantly debate on issues. especially if we don't agree with them. I dont want people that blindly follow every article that states it's feminist. I want people that read, maybe do other research and critically think about how they feel about it and why that is.

I think that certain groups of people (like these yutzes) oversimplify porn addiction. The message they give is, "OoOoH, u lik sex, ur weak n bad! Stop lookin at pron n start lookin at Jeezuz, n u be ok!" When in reality, a lot of sexual dysfunctions have deeper psychological roots, some of which have nothing to do with sex. The same is true about other addictions. The last thing people with disorders need are loudmouth naysayers to prevent them from getting help.

And I completely agree with those that said that giving out bibles at porn conventions isn't going to do anything. If they want to help stop the world's sexual problems, they should campaign for issues like human trafficking.

"Just a thought... maybe if sex wasn't so stigmatized as negative and maybe if sexual repression wasn't such a big issue, maybe porn wouldn't even be an issue because they'd be happy enough with themselves/who they are with."

I think so too, Taisa-Marie. Specifically, I believe that lack of good sex education and taboos against discussing sex in a mature, non-boasting way prevent a lot of people from understanding a simple fact: like other entertainment, porn is FANTASY. In real life, it's a bad idea to leap through the air with a gun blazing in either hand like Chow Yun-Fat; and it's a bad idea to attempt anal sex using nothing but spit. Real police investigations rarely degenerate into firefights; real suburban barbecues rarely turn into orgies.

Before children are told, "No, that's just pretend", many of them think that policemen run around shooting at bad guys every day. If adults haven't been allowed to learn how real sex works, they may assume that what's on the screen is a sort of documentary/instructional*.

It's certainly true that porn is still predominantly male fantasy, but I think the best solution to that is for more progressive women to come in and add their visions to it, as they've done to other "boys' club" industries.

With this in mind, it seems to me that what's called "porn addiction" may just be a heavy reliance on fantasies that someone won't, or feels they can't, share with their partner.

*Actually, there does seem to be a growing trend for porn stars to become sex educators (like Annie Sprinkle), and to make actual instructional videos. I think this is a good step, as it's bringing education to an audience that needs it.

"Anyone that has worked with substance abusers knows that the physical withdrawal from the drug is the smallest problem in addiction."

Actually, my partner is a nurse practitioner who has worked for many years with substance abusers. Much of my information about addiction comes from her.

And what she says is that there's a non-trivial, not merely semantic distinction between addiction -- i.e., addiction to certain drugs, with the constellation of behaviors and physical symptoms that comes with it -- and obsessive or habituated behavior, of the sort that can form around almost any human behavior (especially ones that are intensely pleasurable.)

I hear a lot about porn addiction and sex addiction -- but I have yet to see a good, carefully controlled, peer-reviewed study showing that sexually compulsive behavior is substantially different in any way from compulsive behavior around any other activity.

Now, it is certainly true that mental and emotional issues are the hardest to deal with, when dealing with either an addiction or a habituation/ compulsion. No argument there.

The reason I keep harping on the difference between the two is this: When people look at compulsive behavior around porn and call it addiction, there's a much greater tendency to place the blame on the porn. It's the porn's fault. Porn is addictive, like heroin. Pornographers are like drug dealers.

When you call it a compulsion -- which is what I believe the evidence points to -- the responsibility shifts away from the substance, and onto people's tendency to behave compulsively and harmfully, even with behaviors and substances that aren't inherently dangerous.

And when it comes to porn, I think the evidence shows that that's a more accurate and appropriate approach.

Porn addiction doesn't sound like the same thing as nymphomania. Not everyone who is a porn aficionado is into casual sex or sex every night. And I would not call an interest in porn the same them as masturbation addiction, because not all porn watchers masturbate every time they watch porn. Nymphomania, masturbation addiction, and porn interest are 3 different things (granted there is some over lap between the three). I like porn because I find porn entertaining, especially good porn. I like to masturbate on a occasion, because it's a quick stress relief, and it allows me to get in touch with my body. I like sex, because sex is the most intimately pleasant thing 2 people who love each other can do together, and I like to prefect my sexual techniques as often as I can with my wife (no 2 sessions of ours are every the same).

Porn, masturbation, and sex (with my wife) don't harm my family in anyway, and in fact all three aid my marriage. I wish Christian fanatics would stop trying to tread into my home.

Actually I agree with FloraFloraFlora. Porn appreciation should not be part of the feminism plank. However, feminism doesn't need defense of porn as a plank. The porn aficionados will keep the industry alive without help from feminist. Christian fanatics can parade their big blue elephant as mush as they want, but at the end of the day it won't stop anyone from, buying, renting, downloading, and watching porn. Who was that guy in the Bush administration recently caught with possession of porn, even though it was his job to keep porn off of TV?

Porn aint going away anytime soon, so feminists don't need to defend it.

Actually I agree with Fl