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This paper will talk about and bring awareness to the link between pornography and violence against women. With a number of reliable sources, the reader will understand the painful legacy that porn leaves and how it affects everyone, not just the viewer. The viewer is usually known as men and violent videos change their expectations of sex. Women on the other hand tend to sympathize with the actor on screen and also subconsciously compare their bodies to the over-dramatized images. Children can easily stumble upon pornographic images and videos in today’s world with simple access to the internet. If we are not careful, soicety will let the porn industry become the sex educators of our generation and those to come. While the viewer is at risk, usually they are not thinking about what the future holds for the actors on screen. Women are caught in this lifestyle and the only difference between shooting porn and rape, can sometimes only be the money. Pornography gives society the wrong idea of what sex is supposed to be like, and encourages problematic sexual behavior.
With the society we live in today, constant access to the world and connections on the internet are in the palm of our hands. With that power, danger and explicit content are also easily accessible. Pornography has become more popular than ever before in our digital day and age and has become a mainstream pastime. However, what many people don’t realize is that the link between pornography and violence, usually against women, is inseparable.
The reality is a painful one. The porn industry is directed at men and the man’s pleasure, usually at a woman’s expense. As porn becomes more violent and degrading, so do the real-life requests of boys and men. Their preferences mirror what they’ve seen in porn. This is all easily overlooked considering the popular belief that women in porn do it for the enjoyment. Today’s society has basically let the media and the pornographers become the sex educators (Research 2014). Ran Gavrieli speaks in a Ted Talk video about how even just watching porn encourages and leads to the production of more videos and views. Gavrieli states perfectly that porn is just filmed prostitution and how it is no one’s childhood dream but instead a product of trouble and distress which leads the victim down a path looking for fulfillment.
When we think about consumers for porn, we think of men. However, when we think of performers, we think of women. “Consider that a recent study of one popular porn site discovered that 78% of men were shown having an orgasm in the site’s top videos, compared to just 18.3% of women” (How Porn). A clip can focus in on and highlight a performer’s agony, if it’s intended to be violent or “punishment” sex. This only adds to the misuse of power by men who have been socialized into believing they are entitled to control the women in their lives, even by violent means. Fight the New Drug talks about how porn affects everyone, not just the viewer, or even just the actors in the videos or live cams. “No one has ever died from an overdose of pornography.” These words reflect a belief many of us quickly hid behind: that our personal porn habits aren’t that harmful.
As the expectations of sex change, a painful legacy lies in its wake. When the viewer watches these explicit videos, they are not thinking about what the future consists of for the actors on screen. Porn takes away, and even kills, equality, dignity, and identity (Carey 2017).
A former porn star who now goes by Jessica tells her story and experiences with the help of Fight the New Drug. This video is such a powerful source because of the raw emotion Jessica shows and her story she shares. She claimed in the video that the only difference between the porn she was shooting and rape, was the money. Even though she had the money and fame, Jessica states that porn took away everything, including her value and self-worth. As she sheds light on the dangers and evils of the porn industry, Jessica reveals the diminishing value of her self respect and dignity when she was shooting these explicit videos.
The problems pornography causes go further than just the stress it afflicts on self worth. Another ex-porn actress known as Alex shared an especially gut-wrenching account of a particular adult film she starred in: “[One particular film] was the most brutal, depressing, scary scene that I have ever done. I have tried to block it out from my memory due to the severe abuse that I received during the filming. The [male performer] has a natural hatred towards women, in the sense that he has always been known to be more brutal than ever needed. I agreed to do the scene, thinking it was less beating except for a punch in the head. If you noticed, [he] had worn his solid gold ring the entire time and continued to punch me with it. I actually stopped the scene while it was being filmed because I was in too much pain” (How Porn).
While the science and research on the harms of porn are powerful within its own right, these personal stories of women and even men who are treated like animals are especially powerful when exposing the harmful reality of porn. Countless studies show that exposure to porn can begin to desensitize consumers to violence against women and influences them to believe it’s acceptable to repeat what they’ve seen on screen (How Porn). Even the actress on screen was desensitized to the abuse she was about to receive thinking, “It’s only one or two punches.”
David Ley attacks the argument that stands against the negative side effects of porn with his Ph.D in psychology. He addresses the common sense that goes into the research, which explores all the commonly held beliefs about the dangers of the porn industry. Ley argues “whether or not it has a negative effect, on peoples’ sexuality, on men’s objectification of women, on sex crimes and rape, on the developing brains of adolescents, and on erectile performance” (Ley 2014). Because sex releases neurochemicals in the brain, those neurochemicals could act like drugs on the brain. “When we hear people talk about starting with one form of pornography, like Playboy Magazine, and ending up later looking at some extreme forms of porn like rape porn or bestiality, it makes common sense for us to worry that porn could have a tolerance effect that might lead people to pursue harder and harder forms of it, in order to reach the same level of stimulation” (Ley). If that slippery slope of porn tolerance might lead men to watch extreme porn like rape porn, then it could even allow them to act on those desires.
While viewing porn also increases the violence against women and has a negative effects against men and their thought processes, Sarah Hunter Murray touches base on the bias that research takes on women and porn. Murray has a Ph.D and background focusing on women and psychology studies concerning them. There is a gender bias that takes place. “And due to a lack of social discourse and empirical research, we just haven't learned all that much about women's experiences when watching porn” (Murray 2018). Murray talks about the empathy that woman show when watching the explicit videos and how they also tend to compare their bodies to the ones shown on screen, which most are overly dramatized. This article offers a completely different point of view when it comes to analyzing the viewer of pornography.
The effects of porn are drastic and should not be overlooked. While the porn industry continues to grow, so does the violence against women. With no regulation and easy access, the porn industry has become the sex educators. Giving society the wrong idea of what sex is suppose to be like, encourages problematic sexual behavior.
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