Porn Cake

Disclaimer: While serving in the Young Women's organization I was often asked to teach difficult content. One of those lessons was about pornography. This was my favorite lesson to teach and the following lesson plan was sparked by a class I attended when I was a teen. Below is a rough outline of how I approached the subject. Please remember that I do not profess to know psychology or the "right way" to do this. This was just what made sense in my brain based on what I do know. I made a chocolate sheet cake and took it to class. I set it on the table at the front of the room next to my seat. As the girls chatted about their week I started picking at the cake with a fork. Before long I was eating forkfuls of cake while still engaged in our conversation. The girls would watch me awkwardly and someone would always ask, "Are you gonna share?" I would reply, "Maybe. I just wanted to make sure it tasted okay but now I've made a hole in the corner and I'm trying to fix it." We continued to chat and I continued to pick. The small bite-sized hole in the corner of the cake quickly expanded into a full piece of cake missing, sometimes more, depending on how long I could keep the charade going. I stopped eating and asked the girls if they had ever approached a cake sitting in the kitchen, picked up a fork, and tried to sneak a bite without their mother knowing. I explained that I had done this numerous times. The tricky thing was, once I started picking, it was hard to stop. One bite led to two, two bites led to three, and soon, half a sheet cake was gone! At some point, I cautiously used my fork to square off the piece I had eaten so that if someone looked at the cake after I had left, they wouldn't notice what I'd done. Q: When you take a bite of cake, what does your brain tell you? A: "It's good," and "I want more." Q: That's normal, right? The cake tastes good and your brain tells you to keep eating. What happens when you realize you've eaten half a sheet cake? How do you feel? A: "I'm in trouble," or "Sick," or "I'm ashamed." Q: When someone looks at pornography, what does their brain tell them? A: (silence) Q: Humans are wired to be attracted to sexual things. It's part of our nature. That doesn't make us bad. It makes us human. When we see pornography our brains want more because it stimulates gratification, similar to when we see a cake or take a bite of cake, our body enjoys it and craves more. How do you think you would feel after you started with a bite of pornography? Would it be easy to take another bite? A: "Yes." Q: Of course, it would, and pretty soon, one thing leads to two, and two leads to three, and before long you have ingested half a sheet cake of porn. How do you feel? A: "Embarrassed," "Ashamed," "Sick". This was usually the beginning of a very open conversation about pornography and the dangers it entails as well as the natural inclination humans have towards sexual material and behavior. I highly recommend defining what pornography is. There are so many definitions out there and it has been my experience that most youth and adults do not truly understand what pornography is. The young women quickly named my chocolate cake, Porn Cake, and the name stuck. My chocolate sheet cake will forever be "Porn Cake". My kids even call it that. Some will argue that my Porn Cake lesson is unconventional and inappropriate. It might be, but it is also effective, relatable, and memorable. I would do it again in a heartbeat.