Terry Crews is speaking out about the harmful effects of porn, and we’re here for it.
Crews is perhaps best known for his hilarious bicep-bulging Old Spice videos, but since achieving viral YouTube fame, Crews has gone on to become a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. He has had starring roles in successful TV series such as Everybody Hates Chris and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and was featured in popular movies such as White Chicks, The Longest Yard, Bridesmaids, and The Expendables, to name a few.
He even hosted Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for a while, still hosts America’s Got Talent, and hosted Netflix’s hit original series, The Ultimate Beastmaster. Terry shows no signs of stopping his rise to the top!
But aside from being a talented actor and spokesperson, Terry’s got a huge heart for real love, too.
An official Fighter with the movement for love
A couple of years ago, Terry officially joined this global movement for real love by repping one of our popular Porn Kills Love tees and giving Fight the New Drug a shout-out to his millions of followers.
As you can see, since topping the charts and gaining even more popularity, Crews has not shied away from talking about a big secret that he carried with him for much of his life.
Check out his interview on our podcast, Consider Before Consuming:
Crews first started being candid about his lifelong addiction to pornography in his book Manhood. He talked openly about how he was first addicted to porn at the age of 12 years old and how it continued all the way into adulthood, eventually deeply affecting his marriage to his wife, Rebecca.
After facing many years of addiction and a tumultuous marriage that almost ended in divorce due to his porn consumption, Crews was able to break free and go on to be the success that he is today. And now he wants other people to break free from porn, too.
“My Dirty Little Secret”
Throughout the last years, Crews has been utilizing Facebook’s live video feature to talk to his 8 million+ followers about his “dirty little secret,” as he calls it.
Crews has live-streamed over 7 real talk sessions solely about his past struggle with pornography, how it affected his life, and how he broke free.
“This thing has become a problem, I think it’s a worldwide problem,” Terry says in his first Dirty Little Secret video. “Pornography really messed up my life in a lot of ways. Some people deny it and say, ‘Hey man you can’t really be addicted to pornography, there’s no way.’ But I’ll tell you something: if day turns into night and you’re still watching, you probably got a problem. And that was me.”
He talked about how pornography consumed his life by becoming a secret that he was able to keep hidden for years. Despite being able to keep it a secret from everyone, he said that it started to corrupt his relationship with his wife.
“My wife was literally like, ‘I don’t know you anymore, I’m out of here,'” he continued. “This is a major, major problem, I literally had to go to rehab for it.”
via Instagram (@terrycrews)
“My issue was, and is with pornography,” Crews continued, “Is that it changes the way you think about people. People become objects, people become body parts; they become things to be used rather than people to be loved.”
He encouraged porn consumers to put the issue out into the light and break free by no longer keeping it a secret. He concluded by saying he didn’t quit porn to get his wife back, but to get his life back.
His first video on the topic quickly received over 4 million views, which led Crews to come out with Dirty Little Secret 2, this time taken while driving in his convertible through the streets of Los Angeles.
By the time Crews got around to posting Dirty Little Secret 3, an 11-minute video where he talked about what he learned about pornography addiction through rehab and therapy, news outlets like CNN and The Today Show began covering Crews’ bold message about overcoming pornography.
And just last summer, Crews posted another message about pornography on his Facebook page, addressed specifically to those who are struggling:
Why This Matters
Terry Crews is bold for choosing to his globally-recognized platform to talk about the harms of pornography. His words have been a huge step in the right direction for our generation that has grown up with unlimited access to internet porn.
By having people like Terry be bold enough to take a stand on this issue, we are seeing conversations getting started and perceptions starting to change. What do you think?
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
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