This lawmaker wants declare porn a “public health hazard,” and we don’t know how to feel

Apparently 2016 isn’t going to end without a bang, and now the government is trying to get all up in our porn. According to The Washington Post, Robert G. Marshall, a Virginia lawmaker, proposed a new resolution stating that pornography should be declared a “public health hazard” because of the supposed negative impact it has on viewers. We have such mixed feelings, y’all.

This isn’t the first time a politician has tried to say porn is a public health crisis, as just this year Utah Republican Senator Todd Weiler tried to do something similar. So why does Marshall want this declaration?

It's not necessarily about banning porn, but about “the need for education, prevention, research, and policy change at the community and societal level in order to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the people of the Commonwealth and the nation.

In an interview, Marshall said,

“We’ve got to say, ‘This is a problem. Before smoking was identified as a problem, at least the recognition that it led to certain pathologies was a starting point to put restrictions on it. . . . If you recognize it as a problem, then you’re going to try to find ways to solve it within the framework of the statutes we can pass and the institutions we have.

 We honestly don’t know how to feel. Obviously there is porn out there that isn’t necessarily the best, and there are definite issues within the porn industry. However, the rise of feminist porn has been so important, to say the least, and generalizing the entire world as doing the exact same thing, and the same damage, seems risky. What do you think?!