Has Porn Ruined Sex?

In episode 5 of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan get into some pretty spicy territory: the monoculture of academia (may not be suitable for sensitive listeners or people without PhDs) and the omnipresence of pornography. Citing a recent Washington Post article about the percentage of professors whose parents also held PhDs, Sarah talks about the lack of conservative thinkers on college campuses and wonders how anyone can get a complete education in such an environment. She and Meghan ponder the differences between left-leaning intellectuals and conservative intellectuals, a line of inquiry that inevitably leads to a discussion of female conservatives and whether they are hotter than liberal women.

The girls/women then move on to the more staid subject of pornography. Inspired by a July 6 post by Emma Collins on Wesley Yang’s Year Zero Substack newsletter, they discuss the psychological effects of early and frequent porn exposure, particularly on young men. They compare and contrast their own earliest exposures to porn (Sarah saw online porn when she was eleven-years-old; Meghan had to make do with furtive peeks at her friends’ fathers hidden Playboy stashes) and wonder if the sexual function of all of modern civilization is being wiped out by increasingly hardcore and exaggerated visual stimulation.

Bonus Content (only for subscribers, here) is big this week! Sarah and Meghan discuss (wait for it . . .) gender ideology and wonder why they are so obsessed with it. (More accurately, they ask why everyone isn’t as obsessed with it as they are.) They discuss (and disagree a bit on) whether there is such a thing as “true trans” and also return to a subject previously discussed on The Unspeakable: which dictators, terrorists and depots are hot.To get access, please consider becoming a paying subscriber!

Other highlights:

* Meghan describes a recent meltdown over the challenges of the creator economy and contemplates going back to (gasp) . . . writing.

* Sarah explains how, growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, “feminism” was presented as chiefly about sex positivity. This is very different from Meghan’s 1970s and 1980s experience. (Also, Meghan doesn’t get the choking thing.)

* Sarah discusses how devoid from reality philanthropy can be.

Relevant links:

* Washington Post: People From Elite Backgrounds Increasingly Dominate Academia

* Wesley Yang’s Year Zero Substack: The Case Against The Sexual Revolution

* Meghan’s oped writing course: She said the wrong dates last week and failed to mention it altogether this week. But please note that Meghan’s Zoom workshop in opinion writing will run four consecutive Mondays in August beginning August 8. Application deadline 7/27. More info here.

* Sarah’s Substack Newsletter Hold That Thought

* Meghan’s project-in-progress, The Unspeakeasy: an intellectual community for freethinking women.

Credits:

Opening music by Mia Dyson. (Opening quotation: Madeleine Albright.)

Ending music: Dating A Porn Star by The Weepies.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com