Excerpted
in part from Kids Online: Protecting Your Children In Cyberspace
by Donna Rice Hughes (Revell, September 1998)
Psychologist Dr. Gary R. Brooks, in his book, The Centerfold
Syndrome: How Men Can Overcome Objectification and Achieve Intimacy
with Womeni
, has identified four symptoms of the "centerfold syndrome." As
the result of a steady diet of soft-core pornography, men may display
one or more of the following symptoms:
- Voyeurism-an obsession with visual stimulation that
trivializes all other features of a healthy relationship
- Objectification-obsessive fetishes over body parts
and the rating of women by size and shape
- Trophyism-treatment of women as collectibles and property
- Fear of intimacy-inability to get beyond glossy, centerfold
images of women to have a real relationship
Pornography subtly communicates that the value of a woman is determined
by her body, shape, and size. Only those women with a perfect physical
appearance are valuable and worthy of being admired, desired, and
loved. This can have detrimental effects on how women and girls
view themselves. I often wonder how many young girls who struggle
with anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders are unknowingly
struggling to measure up to the perfect "10" image projected by
the airbrushed centerfold. I also wonder how many teenage boys,
consciously or unconsciously, measure the value of their girlfriends
against the "bunny" image.
iGary R. Brooks, The
Centerfold Syndrome: How Men Can Overcome Objectification and Achieve
Intimacy with Women (San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 1996),
2.
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