Pornography & Pornification
The global industry of pornography is growing rapidly. The business of pornography is now worth in excess of $57 billion worldwide. More than $10 billion is generated in the United States alone. Pornography is an industry which, like prostitution, makes its ever increasing profits from the sexual exploitation of women and girls. Women in both the pornography and prostitution industries suffer abuse and violence. Despite this grim reality, tolerance for pornography is increasing in Australia and many other Western nations. Through the ‘mainstreaming of pornography’ or ‘pornification,’ pornographic imagery and even pornography itself are gaining legitimacy and a degree of glamour and cultural chic. Porn stars are becoming household names, advertising mimics pornographic conventions and poses, and Playboy is not just a magazine but a global brand that markets everything from clothing to stationery. The mainstreaming of pornography is also changing our conceptions of sexuality. Women are increasingly becoming required to perform sex acts straight from pornography in their everyday heterosexual relationships, and the pornographic model of sexuality is harming girls’ and women’s concepts of self. As pornography continues to become more prominent and pornographic imagery becomes more ‘mainstreamed’ we become accustomed to living in a pornified world in which it is acceptable that women and girls can be bought and sold.
FAQs
How is pornography related to prostitution?
Pornography and prostitution are often thought of as completely separate entities. In many parts of the world, this is even reflected in law where pornography and prostitution hold very different positions; pornography is often privileged as a form of ‘representation’. Pornography, however, is filmed prostitution. Both pornography and prostitution involve the sexual use of women in exchange for money. Often, the only difference between the two is the presence of a camera. Pornography can also be seen to increase the legitimacy of prostitution, by depicting the commercial sexual exploitation of women as entertaining, glamorous and acceptable. In addition, pornography is frequently used by pimps to ‘season’ or train women for prostitution and in a rather cyclical relationship, women used in prostitution are often also used in pornography.
Shouldn’t pornography be protected as free speech?
It is important to note that pornography is not speech but rather filmed acts of prostitution. Pornography is not merely the representation of sex acts, but involves the filming of real sex acts, performed by real people. Arguing that pornography is speech, ignores the realities of how pornography is actually produced and also ignores the harm to women that pornography both generates and reinforces.
Isn’t porn just harmless sex?
No pornography is harmless. Many people believe pornography to simply be sex between ‘consenting adults’ rather than understanding pornography as a multi-billion dollar industry. Pornography is not ‘just sex’, it is a particular construction of sex which involves the commercial sexual exploitation of women for the purpose of men’s sexual pleasure. Pornography harms both the women who are directly abused in the making of it, and also women as a group more generally. It promotes a model of sexuality which is incompatible with women’s equality. “[P]ornography plays an important part in contributing to sexual violence against women and to sex discrimination and sex inequality” - Catherine Itzin Pornography: Women violence and civil liberties. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 (p. 1).
Isn’t pornography a good sexual outlet for men?
The idea that pornography creates a useful sexual release for men, assumes that men have uncontrollable sexual ‘urges’ which require an outlet. It also assumes that pornography use is acceptable and healthy. Neither is the case. Pornography use is harmful to the women used in creating it, and pornography creates and reinforces harmful ideas about women, sex and sexuality; for example, that women enjoy or welcome unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault. Rather than reducing the likelihood that men will act out, it creates a culture in which women are increasingly objectified and viewed as commodities. Such a culture helps to fuel, rather than prevent, acts of sexual violence.
Doesn’t opposing pornography make you a prude?
Many people assume that the only reason to oppose pornography is because you find it personally ‘offensive’ or are ‘anti-sex’. Opposing pornography means that you oppose abusive sexual practices that harm women, not that you must oppose all sex. Nor does opposing pornography have to be about arguing that its content personally offends you. From a feminist perspective, it is not necessarily explicitness or the depiction of sex which is the problem with pornography. It is not about offence and decency, but about harm. “What is objectionable about pornography…is its abusive and degrading portrayal of females and female sexuality, not its sexual content or explicitness” – Diana Russell Dangerous relationships: Pornography, misogyny, and rape. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998 (p. 5).
What is pornification?
Pornification, sometimes referred to as pornographication or ‘raunch culture’ is the increasing distribution and acceptance of pornography as well as the fragmenting and blurring of pornography and pornographic imagery into popular culture. Pornography and pornographic imagery are infiltrating popular music videos, outdoor advertising, fashion and art to name but a few. While pornographication is sometimes viewed as simply the increasing acceptance of sexual themes in media, it is actually the promotion of a particular model of sex which is harmful to women. The mainstreaming of this type of pornographic sexuality which fundamentally objectifies women, is already harming the development of young women and girls. The American Psychological Association, for example, has linked the rise of this unhealthy model of sexuality to increases in mental health problems such as eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression. See: Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2007). Available from: http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html
