LONDON — Conservative U.K. tabloid The Daily Mail revived the pseudo-medical concept of Pornography Induced Erectile Dysfunction (PIED) in a recently published porn panic piece which used as its source statements by a British orthopedic surgeon.
The article, sensationally titled “Doctor warns excessive masturbation is behind the rise of an embarrassing male health problem - but how much is too much?,” was authored by Barney Calman, the right-wing publication’s Head of Health, who based it on statements by Dr. Donald Grant.
Grant, presented as “GP and senior clinical advisor at The Independent Pharmacy,” is a media-friendly orthopedic surgeon who often offers quotes to journalists on sex issues.
Grant told The Daily Mail that PIED “is a type of erectile dysfunction that stems from an unhealthy consumption of pornography,” and he linked it to an Ofcom survey that “half of adults in the UK now access graphic material online.”
According to Grant, PIED is characterized by “unhealthy porn usage can lead to desensitization, making it more difficult for men to achieve and maintain an erection — as they're used to more intense sexual activity seen on screen. It can lead to reduced interest in sex with actual partners as men prioritize porn and masturbation instead.”
PIED, however, is not a widely accepted or even long-established medical term. The pseudoscientific notion was a fringe notion in the early 2010s until it became popularized by a 2014 video and accompanying article by the late Gary Wilson, the U.S.-based anti-porn crusader behind the controversial “Your Brain on Porn” cottage industry which includes a website, a best-selling book, an animated series and a much criticized TEDx Talk.
The Long Shadow of Gary Wilson
As XBIZ reported, Wilson’s self-described “neuroscientific claims” was persuasively questioned by actual brain science experts leading the TED organizers to take the unusual step of attaching the following disclaimer to the YouTube video of his talk: “Note from TED: This talk contains several assertions that are not supported by academically respected studies in medicine and psychology. While some viewers might find advice provided in this talk to be helpful, please do not look to this talk for medical advice.”
Wilson’s controversial claims about PIED were immediately challenged as pseudoscientific by experts, which led the anti-porn crusader to publish a vitriolic rebuttal in 2016.
This tirade is written in the peculiarly non-scientific style of several Your Brain on Porn articles, and uses a number of juvenile references to masturbation: “Since 2016, an audacious red herring has insinuated itself into the tweets and blogs of some AASECT sexologists: the notion that PIED (porn-induced erectile dysfunction) is caused by masturbation. Without offering any scientific support, this band of porn-apologists has determined to persuade us that porn is not behind the recent rise of coital ED in online porn enthusiasts (Gotta be anything but porn, right?). So far off the mark is the suggestion that waxing the one-eyed wonder weasel is the culprit, that if you see anyone proposing it as the cause of youthful ED you can be confident that you’re dealing with a propagandist pushing a pro-porn agenda (or someone who has been misinformed by such a person).”
From Your Brain on Porn, the notion of PIED spread around religious conservatives and other pro-censorship activists, lecturers and right-leaning publications in the U.S. and worldwide, including The Daily Mail and its expert orthopedist.
And though the right-leaning media ecosystems have perpetuated the notion of PIED, few to none of the experts backing it are mainstream sexual health academics and physicians. The top Google hit for an academic article on PIED, for example, leads to an article authored by a Bosnian-Swedish sociologist whose background is in Bosnian history and Muslim studies.
PIED and the Semen-Retention Manosphere
The Daily Mail’s Dr. Grant himself is a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which was recently embroiled in controversy when a religious anti-porn group The Reward Foundation claimed RCGP accreditation to train general practitioners in the UK.
Nicole Prause — a U.S.-based neuroscientist and licensed psychologist who has long worked to debunk sensational, sex-stigmatizing claims by Your Brain on Porn and The Reward Foundation — told XBIZ that, based on her study of addictions and human sexuality, “there is no evidence that porn, itself, causes sexual dysfunctions in men or women, including erectile dysfunction.”
Several studies, Prause noted, “have found that those who experience shame and anxiety about sex, including using porn, struggle with erectile issues, making clear that the cause is not the pornography itself. Anxiety about sex has long been the best predictor of erectile dysfunction, and that remains the case in studies being published this year.”
Prause explained that many for-profit anti-porn coaching programs — like the ones routinely peddled by conservative publications and news reports in porn panic pieces — sell lucrative treatment programs claiming they can treat erectile dysfunction by helping clients — which are almost exclusively cis men — to stop their porn viewing.
“There is no evidence that these programs work, nor would they be expected to based on current science,” Prause stated. “Further, data show these anti-porn coaching programs are associated with worse erectile function, likely due to the fact that they use shame with their clients. If someone claims they can treat porn-induced erectile dysfunction, they are most likely an anti-porn coach from the manosphere,” and it may not be legal in the U.S. “for them to claim to cure medical disorders like erectile dysfunction.”
Scholars like Eleanor Janega have tracked down the roots of online manosphere notions like #NoFap, #NoNutNovember and similar anti-masturbation panic like that of this week's The Daily Mail piece to ancient superstitions about semen retention.
“Like medieval people,” Janega writes, the #NoNutters believe that “the very essence of maleness is sperm. They think that it must be kept inside of them in order to keep themselves vital, attentive, and rational. Not ejaculating allows men to store up this energy and express it elsewhere in their lives.”
