The Link Between Pornography And Violence Against Women
An individual is able to access pornography in less than 20 seconds on the internet. Free, unfiltered, graphic photos and videos are all accessible to the public at any given moment. In fact, porn sites get more visitors each month than Amazon, Netflix and Twitter combined in 2018, Pornhub received 33.5 billion visits. Although, there has always been pornography, there hasn’t always been a porn industry. The porn industry began in 1953 with the first edition of Playboy which featured images of naked women. Although very popular in the 20th century, these magazines are rapidly being phased out for pornography more explicit and violent than ever before. Every second in the United States, 28,258 users are watching pornography on the internet, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography on the internet and 372 people are typing the word ‘adult’ into the internet. Pornography has become an epidemic especially for women. Women in pornography are often dehumanized as they lack authentic personalities and the ability to say no. Women in porn are constantly being disrespected, manipulated, repressed and physically and verbally abused. Although, some may argue pornography is ‘just fantasy’, research shows that pornography consumption is associated with an increased likelihood of sexual, verbal and physical aggression towards women. In this essay, I will be discussing how the porn industry eroticizes violence against women and the effects pornography has on society.
The pornography industry has changed drastically through the years. Softcore and hardcore porn were once used to reference the main types of pornographic media. Today, those two categories are rarely referred to in the industry as soft core porn has become extremely common in pop culture. Today, the industry is almost entirely comprised of harcore pornography. Studies have found that the porn that is executed as a movie, with characters, sets and storylines, often referred to as couple’s porn is the type of porn used by men in order to coerce their partners into porn-like sex (Dines, 2014). Studies find that when men are alone, rather than watching the couple sex, men typically gravitate towards what the industry calls ‘gonzo’. This hardcore pornography contains graphic, violent, abusive depiction of men overpowering women. This type of pornography is infamous for depicting women as objects rather than people in order to separate the subject of the porn from the viewer’s perception of how they would typically see women, as mothers, sisters, daughters, ect. The depiction of these women in a dehumanizing way allows for men to feel aroused by the aggression and abusive nature of the porn which is deeply unsettling, but what is even more unsettling is the reaction of the women depicted in these violent videos. A professor of Oklahoma State University, John D. Foubert, Ph.D reported that “When someone hits another person in porn, 95% of the time the person being hit responds with either pleasure or they have no response at all...The more we dehumanize someone, the more possible it is to commit violence against them, and that’s what porn does.” Gonzo pornography is very closely related to sexual sadism. One of the first creators of this type of sadistic pornography is Max Hardcore. His films frequently included acts such as as urinating on his female co-stars, fisting them, or inserting specula into their anuses or vaginas and widening them to provoke extreme pain. Many of his film’s which contained these extremely violent and malicious acts won awards within the porn industry. Although not all porn goes this far in violence, the majority of porn available on the internet contains some sort of aggression towards women. In one particular study, a team of researchers looked at the top 50 most popular porn films. Of the 304 scenes in the movies, 88% contained physical violence and 49% contained verbal aggression. The recipients of the aggression were overwhelmingly female while the majority of the offenders were male. Gagging is the most common act present in pornography and is when the man inserts his penis into the womans mouth and repeatedly forces her head so she is literally choking to the point she gags and even vomits. Mascara is commonly used in these acts in order to emphasize the woman’s tears running down her face as she is being choked and gagged. Another extremely common act in pornography is anal sex which is used to diminish and abuse the woman into obedience. A company called Pure Filth Porn created a series of pornographic films called Anally Ripped Whores and in their promotional ads for their content they write, “We at Pure Filth know exactly what you want and we’re giving it to you. Chicks being ass fucked till their sphincters are pink, puffy and totally blown out. Adult diapers might be in store for these whores when their work is done.” The eroticism of the aggression and violence towards women is escalating drastically as viewers become desensitized to the pornographic content so the industry must intensify the aggression, violence and abuse in order to make a profit.
Researchers have estimated that the average age of the first viewing of porn is 12, and is estimated to become lower with children’s access to the internet. Free and unfiltered pornography is extremely accessible to children, as lying about one’s age becomes second nature when it comes to the World Wide Web. Many young people look to porn as sexual education which is an extremely dangerous issue in society today. Research done by Middlesex University of London found that, “44% of males ages 11-16 who consumed pornography reported that the pornography gave them ideas about the type of sex they want to try”. They also reported, “Respondents from the online focus groups suggested that formal school education on the issues surrounding online pornography may help to challenge harmful attitudes towards women, or towards potentially harmful sexual relationships that can stem from exposure to online pornography.” Unfortunately, most young people curious about sexual health do not have proper sexual education that goes beyond the male and female anatomy which is why the consumption of pornography is dangerously skewing young boys and girls expectation of sex. An article in The Impact of Internet Pornography on Adolescents suggests a relationship exists between the exposure of pornography to adolescents and the acquisition of potentially harmful sexual beliefs. It reports, “sexually explicit material can offer numerous sexual attitudes to viewers, and that these beliefs may differ from those instilled in adolescents by their families and schools. This dissonance, or conflict in sexual beliefs, is attributed to increased sexual uncertainty.” They also examined the influence of sexually explicit material on attitudes toward sex, that is, “the notion of sex as primarily physical and casual rather than affectionate and relational.” While young boys are being exposed to this violent pornography, their expectations of sex becomes increasingly physical rather than emotional and intimate. The women in pornography that they are being exposed to are merely bodies rather than people, which allows them to emotionally disconnect when thinking about sex. A recent study was done to investigate whether sexualized media and pornography had an impact on adolescents and their views of women as sex objects. The belief that women are sex objects in this study is defined as, “ideas about women that reduce them to their sexual appeal in terms of their outer appearance and their body (parts)” (Peter, Valkenburg, p. 408). The researchers also states that, “such notions also entail a strong concern with women's sexual activities as a main criterion of their attractiveness and focus on women as sexual playthings that are eager to fulfill male sexual desires”. The results of their study found that in increased exposure to pornography and other sexually explicit material increased the likelihood that adolescents would view women as sex objects, regardless of gender.
A 14 year old girl from a study done in the UK which researched the effects of pornography on children and adolescents said when asked about men in pornography, “They become a different person - and begin to think that it is alright to act and behave in such ways. The way they talk to others changes as well. When they look at a girl they probably only thinking of that one thing - which isn’t how women should be looked at.” Results from the study show, “When considering whether online pornography led young people to believe that sex should be enjoyable for all participants, 59% of the boys agreed or strongly agreed with the proposition whereas again, a smaller proportion of girls agreed or strongly agreed, at 49%”. This study found that females between the ages of 14-19 years old who consumed pornographic videos were at a significantly greater risk of being victims of sexual harassment of assault. The psychological effects of pornography are both significant for adolescent males and females. Young girls are groomed at a young age to become sexualized. The porn industry has created an unrealistic expectation on women to fit certain body standards, and if they do not sexualize themselves, they become invisible in society. Social media and pop culture are examples of this, as the attention and praise by society is typically given to those who conform to a certain beauty standard. These expectations are also prominent in the performance of women during sex. In an article comparing women’s representation of orgasm in pornography and everyday sexual interactions, they note that the faking of female orgasms in pornography have a direct relation to women during sex, as women tend to feel insecure which leads to faking an orgasm in order to please her male partner (Frith, 2015). Research has shown that the consumption of pornography in women can result in decreased sexual desire with their partners and encourages ‘preformative sex’. Insecurity and lack of education in healthy sexual relationships result in the replication of pornographic content for women which ultimately is dangerous and very unhealthy for both partners. An article comparing pornography’s effects on men and women find that, “The women's reactions to pornography, especially to violent pornography, were consistently negative. Pornography elicited fear reactions, had a negative effect on women's identities and on their relationships with men, and was seen to reinforce sexist attitudes among men. Despite this, many of the women felt that their opinions were not ‘legitimate’, and overt resistance to pornography was often muted”. The study was based on interviews with 32 women in Eastern Canada. Through their research they found that despite the fact that pornography was not enjoyable leisure activity the women in the study, pornography use is a common leisure activity for at least some men. “Since most pornography focuses on women’s bodies and depicts women in various sexual acts for the exclusive pleasure of men, pornography can be seen as the quintessential leisure activity in which women are used as the objects of men’s leisure”. Their results concluded that, “The views expressed by the women in this study are clearly consistent with the notion of gender reproduction. They provide conrmation of the role that pornography plays in reproducing hegemonic femininity (and masculinity), through the objectication and inferiorization of women. As McKinnon (1989) and others have argued, pornography perpetuates men’s control over women’s lives, not only through fear of sexual assault, but also through the promotion of a narrow, stereotyped, passive, and heterosexist view of their sexuality”.
While the porn industry grows, the amount of violent content in porn media increases along with the abuse and aggression towards women. Fortunately, there are a growing number of movements in the United States that are committed to education people on the dangers of pornography and promote healthy sexual relationships. Fight the New Drug is a non profit organization that provides research based science, facts and personal accounts concerning pornography. They are primarily known for their slogan “porn kills love”. The movement and availability of reliable information on the porn industry caused an uproar in society, as many joined the anti-porn movement. Since then, many changes have been made within businesses in order to decrease the availability and promotion of porn thanks to the National Center of Sexual Exploitation along with other organizations. Youtube recently released a Youtube Kids app that prevents violent and sexual content. Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is the world’s biggest hotel company with hotels in 100 countries. In 2017, the company got rid of on- demand porn in all of their hotels. There are many organizations that are free and easily accessible that provide extensive information on the porn industry and sexual health. These organizations are growing in popularity everyday, allowing men and women to take control of their sexual values.
Pornography is an incredibly powerful industry that is extremely negatively influential for both men and women. The graphic and violent nature of the sexual content depicted in online porn is a growing epidemic which eroticizes violence and aggression towards women and normalizes the abuse of women’s bodies. It is greatly important that children receive proper sexual education when they are young, not only about the biology of male and female anatomy, but the effects pornography has on society. The conversation of unrealistic expectations of women when it comes to healthy sexual relationships needs to be had before young men search the internet and are faced with the violence of pornography today. Bondage, gagging, spanking, hitting can no longer be normalized in order to create safe and enjoyable sexual interactions between men and women in today’s society. The topic of pornography has always been taboo, but now is the time to have the conversation in order to end violence against women.
