Author suggests Democrats should 'embrace pornography' to win back young men
"I have many thoughts on how the Democratic Party might start to win back young men who have abandoned the party for fascism," Elie Mystal, justice correspondent and a columnist for The Nation, wrote in an article published Wednesday.
"None of them involve abandoning women's rights, women's leadership, or the LGBTQ community," Mystal said. "But one of my suggestions is that the Democrats should embrace pornography and other examples of sexiness and smut under the umbrella of free speech."
Mystal, who is the author of "Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America," released in March, which discusses "the flawed foundations of the rules we live by," said that pornography helps people.
"Now, to be clear, pornography is viewed and enjoyed by all sorts of people, male and female, gay and straight, trans and cis," Mystal wrote. "Indeed, one of the highest, best uses of porn (I can't believe I just wrote that) is that it helps young people figure out what they're actually into. Sex-positive porn enjoyers are not a political demographic the Democrats generally have a problem with."
He suggested that Democrats might have difficulty persuading straight White men that "Free Palestine" flags are included in one's right to exercise free speech, but says it will be easy to persuade men that pornography is free speech.
"That's because pornography is an actual free speech issue," Mystal wrote. "So is smut. So is obscenity. These are forms of free speech that conservatives and Republicans in the government are constantly trying to regulate."
Also at issue in his column is his belief that age verification laws, like the Texas law recently upheld by the Supreme Court which reaffirmed Texas' right to verify the ages of people who use pornography sites to ensure minors will not have access.
The Supreme Court pointed out that about 21 other states have passed similar regulations on sexual content that could be damaging to minors.
"Nobody was arguing that minors have a constitutional right to access porn," Mystal said. "But adults do. Regulating adult access to porn is a point-and-one-handed-click restriction on the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression."
In a reply to Mystal's post on X sharing his article, journalist Taylor Lorenz praised his take, saying, "YES PLEASE!!!!!!! I'm screaming to the void about this. So grateful for your piece."
Haley McNamara, Senior Vice President at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, condemned the take from Mystal.
"No political party should embrace pornography—research shows both men and women alike are facing serious mental health challenges as a result of porn, ranging from depression and compulsive behaviors to escalating addictions and stunted sexual and social development," she told Fox News Digital. "These issues often manifest as isolation, anxiety, or difficulty forming healthy relationships. Not to mention, as exposes against Pornhub, XVideos, OnlyFans and more have shown, even mainstream porn sites are often filled with videos of sex trafficking, rape, and child sexual abuse. It is a ludicrous suggestion that any political party promotes porn on its platform."
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