GRSJ224/Sexual Violence In Pornography

Summary

With Increasing Internet access over the last few decades more and more people have access to cheap, diverse, and readily available pornography. With 25% of total search engine requests being for pornography that makes up around 68 million requests per day. Regularly watching pornography can have a magnitude of effects on both the men and women watching them. These effects can include but are not limited to the objectification of women’s bodies, increased aggression towards women, and increased engagement in acts of sexual aggression. The working definition of pornography for this page will be “material created to enhance sexual feelings that contains both explicit exposure of genitalia and explicit sexual acts”. Although there are many different genres of pornography, this page will mainly focus on mainstream pornography. Within mainstream pornography there is also mainly gender conforming individuals so this page will mainly focus on heterosexual intercourse between gender conforming individuals.

Objectification of Women’s Bodies

Along with popular media, sexually explicit media often promotes women’s bodies being used as objects for the pleasure of men. Mainstream pornography isn’t the only type of pornography however it is created to make a profit and is therefore mass made, widely marketed, and distributed. This creates an online pornography culture of a very one sided view of what pornography really is.

In one study of bestselling and most rented pornographic videos it found that in every 1 out of 10 scenes it showed male ejaculation on the female's body or face. In another it was found that male actors ejaculated on their female partner’s face in 63% of scenes. These portrayals can be very harmful because they are often at the end of the scene which suggests that sex is supposed to end in male orgasm and that women’s bodies are solely a object for male pleasure instead of the pleasure of her own body as well. In multiple studies done on Dutch, American, and Japanese adolescent males there was findings that “the use of pornography positively predicted notions of women as sex objects”.

Additionally there are many other forms of objectification that take place throughout pornographic videos. In one study, mainstream pornography had 43% of it’s scenes include a striptease that was for either the camera or their partner. This suggests that stripping has become a part of mainstream pornography which is an interesting contrast to how it is not as acceptable for women to strip in real life. Another form of objectification that is consistently seen in mainstream pornography is double penetration in female pornography actors. This can be a harmful portrayal especially if the actor did not explicitly consent and can give the impression that a woman's body is only a series of holes for her partner to use.

Sexually Aggressive Behaviour Towards Women

There have been a number of studies done which have found that with increased exposure to pornography there is also an increase in endorsement of sexually aggressive behavior. This is strongest for men that specifically watch violent pornography but is not only specific to them. As with males, females who regularly view pornography also have a likelihood of increased sexual aggression.

There are many forms of sexual aggression but two very common ones are gagging and spanking. In mainstream pornography there isn’t anything to suggest that the women is getting pleasure from these acts or that she feels empowered, therefore these scenes are only perpetuating male aggression towards women. In a study that included gagging and spanking into their definition of aggression, they found that 90% of the pornographic videos they studied contained some sort of aggression.

When there is consistently only reactions of pleasure or neutrality from female counterparts this can be harmful to those viewing these pornographic videos because then the expectation becomes that all female partners should respond this way or that this is what they should want sexually. In reality this is not the way that consent should be happening and many identifying women will not desire sexually aggressive acts.

What Can Be Done In The Future

One thing that can be done in schools is pornography literacy education. There was a study that showed adolescents who recieved porn literacy education did not show a relationship between viewing pornography and the perception of women as sex objects. However for adolescents who did not receive any porn literacy education there was the relationship between viewing pornography and viewing women as sex objects. This clearly shows that their needs to be early intervention and conversations happening with youth so that they can become further resilient to the negative themes that are prevalent throughout pornography. Porn literacy education should become integrated into sex education so that adolescents can have the proper tools and information regarding what they are watching.

Even though many studies have concluded that watching pornography is a cause to misogynistic traits and actions, the studies only show a statistical association. There are many other factors that can contribute to these beliefs and actions such as personal problems, existing personal beliefs, and family upbringings. There is still many studies done that have found a correlation between regular pornographic viewing and increased sexual aggression towards women. Objectification of women’s bodies in mainstream pornography is another major issue. There needs to be increased education regarding consumption of pornography, there needs to be increased pleasure from women in pornography, and greater emphasis on consent.