Pursuing Sexual Health and Wholeness
in Our Community

THE CENTERFOLD SYNDROME

In his book, The Centerfold Syndrome, psychologist Gary R. Brooks, Ph.D., identifies five principal symptoms of what he describes as a "pervasive disorder" linked to consumption of soft-core pornography like Playboy and Penthouse.

VOYEURISM - An obsession with looking at women rather than interacting with them. Brooks contends that the explosion in glorification and objectification of women's bodies promotes unreal images of women, distorts physical reality, creates an obsession with visual stimulation and trivializes all other mature features of a healthy psychosexual relationship.

OBJECTIFICATION - An attitude in which women are objects rated by size, shape and harmony of body parts. Brooks asserts that if a man spends most of his emotional energy on sexual fantasies about inaccessible people, he frequently will not be available for even the most intimate emotional and sexual moments with his partner.

VALIDATION - The need to validate masculinity through beautiful women. According to Brooks, the women who meet centerfold standards only retain their power as long as they maintain perfect bodies and the leverage of mystery and unavailability. And the great majority of men who never come close to sex with their dream woman are left feeling cheated or unmanly.

TROPHYISM - The idea that beautiful women are collectibles who show the world who a man is. Brooks asserts that the women's-bodies-as-trophies mentality, damaging enough in adolescence, becomes even more destructive in adulthood. Furthermore, trophies, once they are won, are supposed to become the property of the winner, a permanent physical symbol of accomplishment and worthiness. This cannot be so with women's bodies.

FEAR OF TRUE INTIMACY - Inability to relate to women in an honesty and intimate way despite deep loneliness. Pornography pays scant attention to men's needs for sensuality and intimacy while exalting their sexual needs. Thus, some men develop a preoccupation with sexuality, which powerfully handicaps their capacity for emotionally intimate relationships with men and for nonsexual relationships with women.

continue...