How "Oppenheimer" nudity lands in Utah's porn war
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Florence Pugh attends the "Oppenheimer" UK Premiere in London. Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage, via Getty
As the world gawks at a TikToker's distressed reaction to "Oppenheimer's" sex scenes, attention is turning to a question Utah has occupied itself with for years.
- Is it really unhealthy to see images of nudity?
Driving the news: A viral video this week showed an anti-porn activist describing her husband's efforts to hide his eyes from the intermittent sex scenes in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed "Oppenheimer."
- "I don't want my night to be ruined by being triggered by something on a screen," said influencer Jourdan Kehr. "…Have a plan and talk about it before you go."
Why it matters: Kehr's video was part of her ongoing discussion of pornography "addiction" with her 82,000 TikTok followers — a cause Utah has long focused on, with lawmakers declaring porn a "public health crisis" in 2016.
- Yes, but: Porn addiction isn't recognized as a diagnosable medical disorder, and the term itself is controversial.
Details: Porn and sex addiction are not included in diagnostic manuals because there isn't evidence of the same shift in brain activity that other, recognized addictions produce.
- Multiple researchers have found that religiosity was a significant factor in whether subjects reported problems connected with pornography — particularly whether they believed they were addicted.
- Studies have shown associations between porn and poor relationship outcomes, but a causal relationship isn't clear — and there hasn't been much research into couples' positive experiences with porn.
The big picture: Utah's cultural and political opposition to erotica is long-standing and fierce, from the Legislature's 2001 appointment of an official "porn czar" to an age verification law that prompted PornHub to cut off access here in April.
- Objections to nudity often extend beyond porn; a Cache County art teacher was fired in 2017 after François Boucher's "Odalisque" appeared in flashcards of historic art he was using to teach color theory.
What's happening: With critics hailing "Oppenheimer" as a cinematic masterpiece of our age, Utah news media have written detailed content warnings describing the degrees of nudity.
- A Deseret News opinion piece criticized the film's use of nudity as damaging to women and unnecessary to the story.
Zoom in: Erin, here! When my husband and I saw "Oppenheimer" a couple of weeks ago in South Jordan, the teenager staffing the theater lobby volunteered a similar word of caution.
- We didn't "need to worry about" swearing, he said — but he grimaced as he alerted us to "that scene."
The latest: We saw the movie anyway and found Oppenheimer's instruments of mass death to be generally more distressing than Florence Pugh's chest.