From Sin to Sick: Digital Judaism and Pornography

This article explores how a Jewish religious website dedicated to solving pornography addiction negotiates religion/tradition and science/technological modernity. Further, the article discusses how medicalization of sexuality is used to resolve inherent tensions in the practice of digital usage. Med...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tsuria, Ruth (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2017]
In: Journal of media and religion
Year: 2017, Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 117-128
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Judaism / Web Site / Pornography / Medicalization / Ultra-Orthodox judaism
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:This article explores how a Jewish religious website dedicated to solving pornography addiction negotiates religion/tradition and science/technological modernity. Further, the article discusses how medicalization of sexuality is used to resolve inherent tensions in the practice of digital usage. Medicalization language transforms the GuardYourEyes.com website from a forbidden medium for ultra-Orthodox members into a clinical space, a tool for healing. Furthermore, medicalization language allows religious digital prosumers to speak freely about sexuality. By framing sexuality as a "problem of truth" (Foucault, 1998), the ultra-Orthodox authors of GuardYourEyes.com can speak about sex, without being guilty of breaking the admonition that forbids speaking about sex. However, this open discussion serves as a tool to discipline and regulate sexual behavior, thus maintaining the accepted community norms, albeit in a way that is revolutionary for this community. Furthermore, by supporting religious language with medical language, religion and science blur in a way that could potentially undermine both.
ISSN:1534-8415
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of media and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/15348423.2017.1401407