Pornography

Nearly all mainstream pornography is depicted from a man’s perspective. This may be obvious, as in Point of View (POV) type scenes which are shot as if through the eyes of the male porn performer, or made evident through the fact that the woman (or women) take up most of the picture or screen (they are the ones to be looked at), or even apparent through the kind of sex and sex acts being depicted; Ass To Mouth (the only purpose of which is to grant the male performer and viewers additional pleasure through the degradation of the women involved) is a good example.

This document was found on the website of Men Against Pornography in the late 1990s. While I can no longer find it online, I've put this copy up on XY as a record of this powerful and provocate statement regarding profeminist men's accountability to particular feminists and feminisms. I am unsure of its publication date. Michael Flood.

Most everyday users of pornography are heterosexual men. Looking at, and masturbating to, pornography is the routine practice of large numbers of men. And most of the commercial pornographic industry caters to heterosexual men. These men – and their consumption of pornography – are the subject of a growing body of research. This chapter offers an overview of what we can learn about heterosexual boys’ and young men’s use of pornography, focusing particularly on quantitative studies of the extent, nature and meaning of pornography consumption.

In today’s world, sex has become commodified and industrialized. We see it all the time in print publications, television commercials, cable television shows, major motion pictures, and adult entertainment. Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry that misuses and abuses sex and represents it in disturbing ways. Pornographers sell and produce films based on teen sex, torture porn, humiliation, and/or racist caricatures.

Exposure to pornography is routine among children and young people, with a range of notable and often troubling effects. Particularly among younger children, exposure to pornography may be disturbing or upsetting. Exposure to pornography helps to sustain young people’s adherence to sexist and unhealthy notions of sex and relationships. And, especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifies attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault. While children and young people are sexual beings and deserve age-appropriate materials on sex and sexuality, pornography is a poor, and indeed dangerous, sex educator.

Don’t Be A Dick is a zine written (mostly) for men about the connections between the construct of masculinity, rape culture, and mainstream pornography. It combines (hopefully accessible) theory and personal experiences to address sexual assault in personal relationships. The zine also includes a section on radical consent.

This post is a partial response to finishing the book, Love and Pornography, by Victoria and Garry Prater.

This is the first part of a multi-part post. Here are the links to the rest of the series:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

What immediately follows is from the book Love and Pornography (2009). (See the previous post for more.)

A growing body of international scholarship documents that significant proportions of children and young people are exposed to pornography. Different studies define ‘pornography’ in varying ways or allow research participants to do so, and some do not distinguish between different kinds of pornographic media (videos, internet sites, and so on) or between accidental and deliberate exposure. Nevertheless, it is clear that large numbers of young people, particularly boys, are growing up in the presence of sexually explicit media.