During a weeklong visit, I saw how they used the internet to communicate between villages, chat with faraway loved ones and call for help in emergencies. Many Marubo also told me they were deeply concerned that the connection with the outside world would upend their culture, which they had preserved for generations by living deep in the forest. Some elders complained of teenagers glued to phones, group chats full of gossip and minors who watched pornography.
Over the past week, more than 100 websites around the world have published headlines that falsely claim the Marubo have become addicted to porn. Alongside those headlines, the sites published images of the Marubo people in their villages.
The New York Post was among the first, saying last week that the Marubo people was “hooked on porn.” Dozens quickly followed that take. TMZ’s headline was perhaps the most blunt: “TRIBE’S STARLINK HOOKUP RESULTS IN PORN ADDICTION!!!”
The Post and TMZ did not respond to requests for comment.
Similar headlines proliferated across the world, including in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Nigeria, Mexico and Chile. RT, Russia’s state media outlet, published the claim in Arabic. There were countless videos, memes and social media posts.
In Brazil, the rumor spread fast, including in the small Amazonian cities where some Marubo now live, work and study.
The whole “porn addiction” thing was just the latest entry in centuries of “the hot-blooded natives are sex-obsessed” bigotry about anyone who has the temerity to not adhere to a Western, Christian way of life. There’s a reason this was most widely-reported on in Conservative outlets.
You’re underscoring the reality we now know. I’m not disputing that. I’m saying the whitewashed view that a good chunk of America isn’t also “hot blooded” and “sex obsessed” is the implied lie from the christian community.