Pamela Anderson, former Baywatch star and Playboy bunny, is speaking out against the dangers of pornography. Co-written with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Anderson’s op-ed appeared in the Wall Street Journal where she argued that porn has a, “corrosive effect on a man’s soul and on his ability to function as husband, and, by extension, as father. This is a public hazard of unprecedented seriousness given how freely available, anonymously accessible and easily disseminated pornography is nowadays.”
Or, as Anderson put it bluntly, “porn is for losers.”
Anderson also published a press release statement regarding the article.
“I speak with both experience and authority about the damaging effects of easy access pornography – I am glad to join forces with Rabbi Shmuley in raising public awareness of the innocent lives this has destroyed, and the relationships it is undermining. Something must be done immediately. A healthy, loving sexual experience demands both intimacy and respect, both of which pornography addiction destroys, and I am committed to raising this fundamental awareness and protecting the vulnerable enslaved in the sex industry and abusive relationships.”
This is a surprising turnaround for a woman who has appeared on more Playboy covers than any other model and whose career in pornography has spanned twenty-two years.
Yet, at the same time her public stance against the industry that made her famous has been an issue she has struggled with her whole life and is a response to the memories of sexual exploitation that still plague her.
According to a recent interview with the New York Times, Anderson was “molested by a female babysitter from age 6 to 10, raped by a man in his mid-20s when she was 12 and sexually assaulted again at 14 by her boyfriend and his six friends.”
She recently started the Pamela Anderson Foundation in 2014 that advocates for both human and animal rights, working for causes such as, “Exposing human trafficking” and a “Domestic Violence Hotline.”
The article also comes at a time when the dangers of pornography have been in the mainstream media. Earlier this year Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert signed a resolution that declared pornography as “a public health hazard leading to a broad spectrum of individual and public health impacts and societal harms.” Popular actor Terry Crews confessed his own porn addiction and A few weeks ago Elizabeth Smart joined the campaign and confessed that during her captivity, “Pornography made my living hell worse.”
Even the Republican Party now states, “Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions.”
To drive the point home, Anderson and Boteach included the recent sexting scandal involving former congressman Anthony Weiner. They wrote, “If anyone still doubted the devastation that porn addiction wreaks on those closest to the addict, behold the now-shattered marriage of Mr. Weiner and Huma Abedin, a breakup that she initiated…in shock at the disgraced ex-congressman’s inclusion of their 4-year-old son in one lewd photo that he sent to a near-stranger.”
Both are trying to lead a “sensual revolution” where sex is reunited to a loving relationship and is no longer a spectacle to be watched.
They challenge men in particular to, “Take the Pledge: No More Indulging Porn” and write that, “we must educate ourselves and our children to understand that porn is for losers—a boring, wasteful and dead-end outlet.”
And today we celebrate...