Michael Leahy, founder of the organization known as Porn Nation, was brought to campus on Nov. 9 by several student unions, including Campus Crusade for Christ, to give a multimedia presentation about pornography.

Before the event began in the Marshall Student Center’s (MSC) Oval Theater, students were bombarded by promotions that promised a fast-paced, multimedia-intensive speaker looking at the normalization of porn, the sexualization of our culture and its effects on students.

However, the presentation was heavily biased toward highlighting the negative effects of pornography, a fact that Leahy admitted early on.

At best, the presentation, and perhaps the organization, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Though Leahy never claimed that pornography was inherently evil, nor discouraged people from using pornography, the presentation he gave was too personal. One must maintain an objective approach when discussing something so sensitive.

Leahy’s assumptions that pornography as a whole enforces misogynistic thought processes were unsupported and the belief that intimacy between couples has declined due to an influx of pornography is unfounded. These are opinionated conclusions that cannot be scientifically proven or used as evidence to support a point.

No detailed discussion about pornography and its content was given. Statistics were shared and assumptions made about the effects of pornography on the individual, yet the definition of pornography that was given during the event is questionable: any medium designed with expressed purpose of arousing one sexually.

This definition is a stretch considering that Leahy is not any type of expert in sociology, psychology or any field relevant to studying pornography. Leahy said we are constantly bombarded by porn against our will. This assumption is only true if one accepts his definition of pornography.

Furthermore, pornography addiction is not necessarily a psychological disorder. Erick Janssen, a researcher at the Kinsey Institute, said that while it may be addiction-like, porn users should not be labeled addicts because it is unlikely that any “treatment” would help, according to WebMD.

Many people simply diagnose themselves as porn addicts after popular media tell them to, despite the lack of scientific criteria to judge the difference. Nonetheless, this did not stop Leahy from creating the term “sexual compulsivity syndrome.”

Leahy did present some interesting arguments on how sexualized our culture has become, comparing Playboy centerfolds of the ‘50s to today’s advertisements and showing how much more liberal the American public has become with sexuality.

Leahy also presented statistics claiming an increase of violent sexual crimes. However, since 1973, instances of rape have reduced from 2.5 per 1,000 people to 0.3 per 1,000 people, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Overall, while it may appear that society has become less restrained with sexuality, the effects of pornography are not as serious as Leahy wants people to believe.

Xavier Vega is a sophomore majoring in creative writing.