Remembering Judith Reisman (1935 –2021)

The Academic Who Exposed Alfred Kinsey and Took on Big-Porn

86 year-old Judith Reisman passed away earlier this month. An academic with outstanding credentials and the author of numerous books and articles (including many published by Salvo), Reisman is best remembered for exposing Alfred Kinsey to be a pervert and a fraud.

Taking on Alfred Kinsey

Kinsey’s “research” into human sexuality provided the scientific basis for a slough of changes to America’s sex laws, paving the way for the sexual revolution. He was held in high regard as an idol of the sexual revolution until Reisman took him down, exposing his whole project to be little more than pseudo-science.

Reisman’s findings are as crucial now as ever, especially since the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University continues their founder’s legacy of using junk science to justify sexual deviancy.

Taking on Big Porn

Alfred Kinsey was not the only target of Reisman’s academic work. She also took on Big Porn.

Bobby Maddex did an interview with Reisman for Salvo #2, during which they discussed the damaging impact of pornography. The interview is available here. From Maddex’s introduction:

“For some thirty years now, she has devoted her life to demonstrating—through irrefutable scientific evidence—that pornographic images actually alter the chemical structure of the human brain, and not in a good way. Moreover, she has proven beyond question (and to anyone who cares in the least) that pornography can be as addictive as crack cocaine and is a key contributor to rape, incest, pedophilia, and other forms of sexual assault.”

During her interview with Maddex, Reisman shared research into the neurophysiological implications of porn:

“According to the field of neuropsychology, the brain has both excitatory and inhibitory transmitters, located in the right and left hemispheres of the brain, respectively, and the pornographic image triggers the former at the expense of the latter. Indeed, we now know that sexual imagery is more powerful and more indelible to the brain than even fear-inducing imagery.

Pornography thus causes our inhibitory transmitters to shut down, allowing the right brain, which is responsible for our emotional reflexes (lust, fear, shame, etc.), to override the logical left-brain activities that maintain control—homeostasis—in the body. This disrupts the entire process of human cognition and health. In fact, what we are looking at are erototoxins restructuring the human brain. The brain actually changes to accommodate the stimuli it experiences.”

Other topics discussed in the Salvo interview include the symbiotic relationship between Big Porn and Big Pharma, how porn strips men and women of power and dignity, and the role of porn in perpetuating violence and sexual abuse.

Hoping to silence Reisman, Playboy sued a Dutch broadcasting company that had published some of her research, yet ultimately lost as the court ruled in Reisman’s favor.

Conclusion

We owe Judith Reisman our gratitude for taking on a thankless task, as she was scorned by devotees of the Sexual Revolution. May she rest in peace, and may the cause she helped to foster never rest until sex is treated with the great respect and selfless responsibility it demands.

Further Reading

Reisman published ten articles in Salvo Magazine which you can read by visiting the Judith Reisman’s Salvo archives.

Also see Austin Ruse’s recent article for Crisis Magazine, in which he discussed Reisman’s role in revealing Kinsey to be a junk scientist and pervert.