The Pornified Man is a man whose entire being has been corrupted by pornography. Porn damages a man’s spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, and relational life.
The Enslavement of the Pornified Man
The Pornified Man is a man whose desires, mind, habits, and way of seeing people have been shaped by pornography. He does not merely view porn. Porn begins to form how he thinks, what he craves, what he expects, and how he responds to the world.
The Pornified Man experiences corruption across every aspect of life, including his relationship with God, his body, his thoughts and behaviors, and growing division with his spouse, children, friends, and society.
Separation from God – Because he has chosen to turn away from God and engage in objectively sinful acts, the Pornified Man is at high risk of being in mortal sin and separated from God. If so, he falls into a state of mortal sin, loses sanctifying grace, and becomes separated from the communion God gives to those who live in Him, including unworthy reception of the Eucharist and the loss of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Left in mortal sin, the man is in clear danger of eternal damnation. Because he has turned away from God and lost the blessings of grace, he becomes unaware of and unable to fulfill the mission God has prepared for his life.
Invitation to Satan – Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, Satan has continued to attack men, divide them, and draw them away from union with God. Satan and his demons observe each man intently and seek to discover weaknesses they can exploit. For men who fall into a habit of pornography, it is no secret to Satan, and he fans the flames of temptation in a man’s mind, constantly urging him to enjoy these sins. In a very real spiritual way, a man who opens himself to pornography invites demonic influence into his life.
Brain and Mind Are Hijacked – As a man falls deeper into the habit of pornography, it can dramatically affect how his brain functions, and may also alter important brain systems related to reward, motivation, attention, and self-control. Pornography can become an addictive behavior that strengthens neural pathways, rewarding continued use and driving the search for greater novelty in sexual images. As the habit progresses, some studies suggest changes in brain regions associated with self-control and decision-making. At the same time, a man’s thinking may become increasingly clouded, and he can lose the ability to think clearly, focus attention, and sustain attention on what is most important.
Sight Is Poisoned – As his pornography habit progresses, his vision becomes deformed and poisoned. He begins to look at others not with the dignity owed to human beings, but as sexual objects. He becomes fixated on the bodies of others, imagining them without clothes and engaged in sexual acts he has seen through his pornography habit. He no longer looks first at their faces, their souls, or their dignity as persons, but sees them chiefly as sexual objects meant to arouse and gratify him.
Identity Is Warped – At the core of who a man is lies his identity. The Pornified Man forgets who he truly is. If baptized, he forgets that he is an adopted son of God and increasingly takes on the false identity of a Pornified Man. If he is married, in a very real way he has become an adulterer through his pornography habit: “every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28). If he is not married, by analogy, he has become a fornicator through his pornography viewing, giving himself to sexual sin outside the chastity God calls him to live.
Virtues Are Corrupted – Because the Pornified Man has fallen into the Vice of Lust and begun to engage in immoral behavior through pornography, he drifts farther and farther away from virtue. Those who consume pornography are often more willing to tolerate, justify, or participate in disordered sexual acts. He not only falls into the Vice of Lust, but becomes more vulnerable to wider moral collapse. He is prone to fall away from Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and the many parts of Temperance.
Emotions Are Deadened – The Pornified Man experiences a corruption of his emotions. As pornography becomes a deeper habit, his emotional life can grow suppressed and deadened, and he may lose much of his ability to experience joy. He often becomes weaker and more fragile, unable to handle ordinary stress without retreating into pornography. As commonly happens when a man falls into serious sin, he experiences growing shame, fear of discovery, guilt, and the burden of living a secret life.
Genitals Are Misused and Damaged – The Pornified Man can experience significant stress due to how he perceives and uses his own genitals. Because of the warped view shown in pornography, he can develop a distorted understanding of his own body and become highly dissatisfied with how God created him. He falls into addictive patterns of masturbation, which is gravely disordered because it deliberately misuses the sexual faculty outside the gift of marital love. Through repeated exposure to perverted and highly sexualized material, joined with excessive masturbation, he may lose sexual function. His pornography habit can lead him to be unable to become aroused by real women, because he has conditioned himself to be aroused by highly sexualized and perverted images. Because of his pornography use, he can also develop a growing hunger for abnormal and perverted sexual acts.
Body is Weakened – The Pornified Man often develops a chronic state of arousal that disrupts sleep patterns, causing lost sleep, exhaustion, and greater confusion. Because he has lost self-mastery over his sexual urges, he becomes more prone to the cravings of the body, including excessive food and drink that can lead to obesity. He is also more likely to suffer reduced endurance, lethargy, and generalized weakness, becoming physically deconditioned because he no longer has the discipline to engage in regular exercise.
Neglect and Abuse of Spouse – If a Pornified Man is married, he has, in a very real way, fallen into a state of chronic adultery, and whether he perceives it or not, growing separation develops between him and his wife. Because he is depleting himself through selfish sexual self-gratification, he becomes less able to give himself fully to his wife in the marital act. He may also seek to persuade or coerce his wife into sexual acts he has seen in pornography, acts she may tolerate but does not truly desire, and in this way, he defiles the marriage bond. Whether he understands it or not, his wife often senses that something is wrong. If she discovers his pornography habit, she may fall into despair, self-doubt, low self-esteem, and deep emotional trauma. Some wives experience symptoms similar to betrayal trauma or PTSD after the shock of discovery. He also faces the very real risk of divorce.
Neglect of and Risk to Children – The Pornified Man, in a very real way, cannot fully fulfill his duties to be a chaste and loving father to his children. Because of children’s technological savvy and his own carelessness, he exposes them to the real risk of discovering the same perverted imagery he has been viewing on his devices. Because he does not practice the virtue of chastity, he is often ashamed, hesitant, and unable to teach his sons clearly about pornography, purity, and the importance of chastity. He also fails his daughters. Whether he understands it or not, they often perceive his coldness and sense that something is wrong. He fails to give them the fatherly love girls need and to model the kind of man they should one day seek.
Loss of Fraternity – The Pornified Man, because his mind has been deformed and rewired by pornography, is less likely to desire friendship and fraternity and more likely to fall into isolation. He becomes less motivated and less able to cultivate deep friendships with other men. In this way, he can lose the powerful and necessary gift of fraternity and brotherhood that helps men grow in holiness.
Complicit in Corrupting Others and Society – The Pornified Man falls into injustice regarding others and the broader society. Through his willing engagement with pornography, he directly cooperates in the sins of pornography performers and encourages them, through his viewing, to fall deeper into sin and perhaps even damnation. He also directly supports the pornography industry and the production, distribution, and spread of corrupting content. By his viewing habits, he helps sustain the corruption of others and encourages further pornography development. As men become pornified, they are far less likely to stand up and oppose sin in society and far more likely to tolerate growing sexual perversion in its many forms.