I see this argument crop up a lot. I see it used as evidence that ev0l p0rn must die. I see studies conducted on this stuff (I personally think that they are about as useful as trying to find out whether or not men who use shoe-shine tend to be abusive, but that’s just me).
Now, I happen to like the movie “300.” A lot. It’s not Anita Ekberg splashing in a fountain, and it’s not a dying man whispering “rosebud,” but it’s something. It’s a weird and wicked and profoundly offensive movie, awesome in its sheer crassness and beautiful and lush in its scope, and it’s the sort of thing I happen to like. This won’t get me any invitations to Harold Bloom’s tea-parties, but it’s the truth.
Am I therefore a violent megalomaniac who tosses babies off cliffs? Or, to be more specific, am I inspired to toss babies off cliffs? Should someone come and take my DVD away, for my own good, before, y’know, tragedy strikes?
I’m asking this, because I honestly see no substantial difference between my love for oiled-up Spartans in red speedos and, say, someone’s predilection for Tera Patrick films. If we must get rid of the latter to be a better society, or whatever, might as well get rid of the former.
Now, does p0rn turn men into monsters? Hmmm… Have some of the men I’ve known in this life been jerks? Sure. Abusive jerks? Absolutely. Do I think it had anything to do with the sort of films they watched? No.
Honestly, doesn’t this amount to excusing rapists and violent sociopaths? “Terribly sorry, Your Honour, Tera Patrick made me do it.” Too far-fetched? Think again.
I think the goal of a world without p0rn is wedded to a very idealized view of sexual relations. Identifying and solving the problems of the industry itself is one thing, saying that it should be eradicated is a little too Old Testament for my tastes.
“History will judge us,” said the Cat Behemoth in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. I suppose it will be the same in this case. Who knows? Maybe a thousand years from now, someone will (somehow) read what I wrote here, and think, “what a barbarian!”
If I can do it to the Spartans, it is only fair. 😉
Natalia A. 
The argument reminds me of all the moral panic that happens in small communities every time they want to open a sex shop. The shop is selling dildos and porn, not encouraging Satan worship. But all of a sudden the cry of “think about the children” goes up, because apparently no-one who is not a child molester has ever had, or more importantly enjoyed, sex.
It’s all bred of unhealthy attitudes towards sexuality and the assumption that people who do not function in the same way as yourself are somehow weaker or unable to control themselves. Ridiculous.
I enjoyed this post, good analogy.