The Woman Who Took on Porn, Inc.

POWER OF ONE SERIES

Judith Reisman, Ph.D., passed away on April 9, two days short of her 86^th birthday. Details are murky, but she reportedly was found at her office desk.

Mrs. Reisman should be far better known for her work than she is at present. She exposed legendary sex researcher Alfred C. Kinsey as a predatory fraud in her 1990 book with Ed Eichel, “Kinsey, Sex and Fraud.” She also compiled a study showing how Playboy, Penthouse, and Hustler magazines had frequently used child porn imagery. 

Her work exposing Kinsey and the porn mags ignited an anti-pornography movement that led to President Reagan announcing the launch in May 1985 of what became known as the Meese Commission on Pornography.  The resulting report was well done, but it was harshly criticized. 

We’re only now seeing the science emerge that shows porn is as addictive as drugs and a public health hazard. Judith coined the term “erototoxins” to explain brain chemistry.

In 1994, when Timothy Plan was launched, founder Art Ally included in the firm’s portfolio of mutual funds a filter to exclude companies that aid, abet or profit from pornography.  That filter, one of eight used today, has this explanation on the firm’s website:

“Our culture has exchanged true beauty and sexuality for lust and impurity.”

The pornography filter “seeks to guard families from sexual exploitation by filtering out companies engaged in the promotion of adult themes through advertisements, media, games, stores, establishments, publications and the Internet.”

“You talk about unsung heroes,” said Mr. Ally. “Judith Reisman was a David against a ruthless Goliath with limitless resources.  Yet she never buckled or lost her sense of humor.”  

A Massive Campaign Against Her

In 1986, citing Dr. Reisman’s findings, the Southland Corporation, owner of 7-Eleven stores, stopped selling the porn mags.  Now it had hit the fan.

This woman had to be stopped. As a result, the smut kings hired Gray and Company, a premier Washington PR firm, to discredit the Meese Commission and Mrs. Reisman. Their aggressive campaign is detailed in Susan Trento’s 1992 book, “The Power House.”

For $50,000 to $75,000 a month, the firm planted stories in the press, formed a pro-porn First Amendment Coalition, and hammered the Justice Department for assigning Judith a grant at American University to analyze the magazines’ kiddie porn imagery.

Despite opposition within the university itself, she produced a damning report under the auspices of the DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs.  Cowed by the PR onslaught, the media ignored it. Therefore, the lack of interest wasn’t surprising, given that the media were already corrupt.

Interview requests and teaching opportunities for Mrs. Reisman dropped to nearly nothing, and she was portrayed as a careless, right-wing fanatic instead of the persistent, fearless academic that she was.   

Judith was a friend and collaborator on many fronts. She starred in the 1995 Family Research Council video I directed exposing Kinsey entitled “The Children of Table 34.”  Based on Judith’s research, the documentary refers to shocking graph tables about sexual abuse committed on 317 boys as young as two months and up to 15 years old. 

Exposing Kinsey and His Research as Frauds

The information purportedly came from pedophiles solicited by Kinsey, who included the “research” in his opus, “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” (1948).  As a result, when that book was released, the media fawned over Kinsey while ignoring the obscene experiments on children.

Kinsey’s male book and a female volume in 1953 became the “scientific” foundation for the sexual revolution. Its wreckage – broken families, millions of abortions, millions of annual new cases of STDs and a flood of pornography and obscenity – is all around us.  Huge Hefner’s first Playboy Philosophy essay cited Kinsey as gospel, and he credited the “Kinsey Report” with converting him from his Methodist upbringing to becoming an apostle for “free sex,” from which he made millions.

Because of Kinsey, people have been recast as “sexual beings” instead of human beings with a moral compass. He pushed the lie that sex has no moral implications whatever – even sex with animals – and that children enjoy sex and should be groomed early. This is the animating principle behind most “comprehensive” sex education to this day, beginning in kindergarten.

Judith showed how Planned Parenthood executives worked with Kinsey to rewire the public’s views on sex through the Sexuality Information and Education Council (SIECUS) and other Kinsey acolytes. 

The Kinsey “research” was also used extensively by the ACLU. They rewrote the Model Penal Code, relaxing penalties for criminal sex offenses, including rape and child sex abuse.  Judith’s book, “Kinsey: Crimes and Consequences” (2000), documents how they did it.

For her courageous work, Judith endured the scorn of the media, academia and even conservatives who were afraid of guilt by association.

Finding a Place to Share Her Work

To Liberty University’s credit, she finally landed a faculty job again.  After that, she became a visiting professor at the School of Law and then a research professor in psychology in the School of Behavioral Sciences.

Judith was a “red diaper baby,” born to communist parents. She became a feminist and knee-jerk liberal, but like many former leftists, she became their worst nightmare. She knew exactly what they were up to and told the world.

A Jewish woman, she reportedly accepted Jesus Christ as her savior several years ago. She long encouraged Christians and Jews to work together against the growing, anti-God darkness and immorality.

Someday, Judith may get her due on earth for her pioneering work. 

But we’ve reason to believe she’s enjoying something far, far greater in a far, far better place.