(sorry Lauren for hijacking your post but. this makes me so angry. heartbreaking, indeed.)
of course women also watch porn. statistically, one third of viewers are women.
but regardless of who is viewing, pornography is incredibly harmful and detrimental. “studies show that after viewing pornography men are more likely to: report decreased empathy for rape victims, have increasingly aggressive behavioral tendencies, report believing that a woman who dresses provocatively deserves to be raped, report anger at women who flirt but then refuse to have sex, report decreased sexual interest in their girlfriends or wives, report increased interest in coercing partners into unwanted sex acts.” (source)
and sure, maybe there is a small minority of women that genuinely enjoy being in porn. but do you know how many women involved in pornography have reported being coerced into acts that they did not want to do (read: raped)? the people acting in these videos are not always giving their consent. there are so many heartbreaking reports of their bodies being violated and brutalized. 66-90% of those involved in porn were sexually abused as children, 89% say that they wanted to quit but did not have other means for survival, and 69% experience PTSD - a statistic that is comparable to that of combat survivors. (source: here, and the rest of the website has a lot of insight as well)
did you know that the pornography industry is highly responsible for the continued growth and escalation of human trafficking? (read more here, here, here, + here)
you pointed out that it’s not only men who watch porn, but women also. do you know who else is accessing porn? children. with the average age of initial exposure being 11 years old. a study was done that proved that children exposed to pornography showed increased amounts of sexual deviance and violence. this should terrify us. there are endless accounts of young boys raping their classmates because they had seen similar things online. (sources on the effects of pornography on children: here, here, here, + here)
how about that the most common search term on porn sites is “teens,” thus sexualizing young girls? other popular search terms serve to fetishize races and sexual orientation. rape and violent scenes are increasingly popular; 88.2% of top rated porn scenes contain aggressive acts. there are 116,000 queries every day related to child pornography and approximately 20% of pornography involves child abuse. (source + many more alarming statistics, also check here) it’s also been proven that continual use of porn desensitizes the viewer, which means that they will seek out more deviant material. in addition, only 10% of porn shows the use of a condom, and when many young adults are turning to porn for their sexual education, this seems horribly dangerous.
as if all of this wasn’t enough, porn also causes depression (severe clinical depression is two times more likely in porn users) and more than 50% of viewers have less interest in actual sexual intercourse with their partner. (source) pornography has an actual psychological and biological effect on the brain!! that is a serious thing!!
pornography is also largely responsible for ending marriages. 56% of divorces involve one party having an “obsessive interest” in pornographic websites, and porn increases the likelihood of infidelity by 300%. (source)
I literally could not care less who enjoys porn. when you look at the damage that it does to everyone involved, I don’t think it matters much if someone likes it. who frickin cares about pleasure. it comes down to the fact that pornography, whether you would like to believe it or not, radically shapes the way that our culture views sex. when we perpetuate the lie that porn isn’t a big deal, what we are actually doing is supporting an industry that objectifies (and often assaults) women, contributes to the global issue of human trafficking, turns children into sexual fantasies, condones rape culture, and is incredibly racist and misogynistic.
porn is not okay. it is not empowering, it is not innocent.
snowghoul
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
titsay
pixelskylines
gracieabrams
theartofmadeline
