Pornography often goes under the euphemism of adult entertainment, which makes it sound like something complicated that we young people wouldn’t understand, like Plato or Keynesian economics. The truth is, however, that most people who watch porn aren’t adults, and most people reading this website will probably already have come to the conclusion that it isn’t entertainment either.
Let’s look at the facts. The single largest demographic group of porn consumers is not over 18. It is believed to be the 12 to 17 year old age group. Somewhere between 60 and 90 per cent of under-16s have watched porn. Most children first experience pornography at age 11, which means they will be either in the final year of primary school or the first year of High School. A study has found that 54% of teenage boys find porn “really inspiring”. Porn in the modern world isn’t adult entertainment any more, it’s children’s entertainment.
Most people don’t take much time to think about this. At 11 years old I was still watching Tracy Beaker, and she was considered to be a bad influence. Many parents will still restrict the amount of time that their children play computer games because of the perceived psychological damage which they do. A quick scroll through the pages of the Mumsnet forum will show you quite clearly that the parents of 11-17 year olds seem to spend most of their time worrying about the bad influence of TV, movies, games and friends. The bad influence of pornography, which your children have almost certainly seen and probably watch regularly, is often not discussed. Most parents will simply not accept the role which pornography plays in the lives of their teenagers.
Look at the efforts which some “concerned parents” go to to get their young children out of sex education. “My 11 year old isn’t ready to be told about sex!” they cry. Too late. By 11 most children have already been taught all about sex by Mr Pornographer and by the time they are in their last year of High School they will be regularly watching porn. It’s a statistical fact that if you have a child of this age they probably watch porn. It might be a hard idea to contemplate, but porn is now a central part of youth culture, thanks to its easy availability and lack of any restraint.
We’re often told that teenagers are peer-pressured into carrying knives or taking drugs. We are rarely informed of a far more frequent and widespread issue, which is that teenagers are now peer-pressured into accepting porn as a part of their life. Porn is considered cool. It is thought weird if you do not admit to watching porn regularly.
As a feminist, I object to objectification, and I therefore object to porn. I do not need to list here the numerous reasons why many feminists reject pornography. But what is becoming clear is that we currently have no way to effectively examine the effects that the pornification of today’s youth will have on their future psychologies. Porn seems to lead to increases in violence to women, and it has been shown how it leads to a greater acceptance of violence. Some psychologists claim that it is as addictive, or even more addictive, than certain drugs. If my generation, educated almost exclusively by pornography, develops as many people fear, then the future for women’s rights is bleak. We can expect a regression, for perhaps the first time in hundreds of years, in which women will find themselves quickly losing, rather than gaining, rights. It is tempting to see the progress of women’s rights as a natural, continuing process, gathering strength throughout the last century, which will almost inevitably lead to fuller equality. Generation Porn, my generation, might well be the one to prove this idea wrong.
Porn’s biggest consumers are the people not supposed to be watching it, and nobody cares. Nothing will be done by the porn industry itself, and governments will not, and probably should not, get involved directly. But education is necessary. If governments are too scared to educate our young people about the effects of pornography then we have a duty to do so. It is time for young people who object to porn to make themselves heard. We might not be very loud, we might not be very numerous, but we’ll soon find out that we could be the last of our generation with a sincere dedication to defending women’s rights.
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Great points raised in this post.
Many thanks for this inspiring and heartfelt post!
I think you make a lot of very good points, especially pointing out that we do not yet know the impact of children’s pornography use on their future psychologies. I have been reading quite a lot about the increase of sexual bullying in schools recently and do wonder whether this is not linked to the amount of exposure young children have these days to sexualized and objectifying matieral as well as hardcore pornogaphy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7811000/7811468.stm
Concerns about access and availability are warranted for all the reasons stated. I personally would like to see them discussed alongside how this relates to unrestrained behaviour among private and public companies in the name of profit generation.
Any limitations on availability we may wish to see provided in legislation will be firmly resisted while ever we have a system that allows politicians to “cosy up” to big business.
We have more than one problem to solve here.
Yes – I very much agree that education is the key.
In my past I once taught a class of top junior year 5-6 children – 10/11 year olds and was responsible for sex education. Before the lessons I used to hold a meeting with parents in which we discussed what I would talk to the children about. Inevitably the parents were naive about their children’s knowledge – usually assuring me that they had talked to their children about sex and babies etc. (they were middle class parents). I used to hold small group discussions with children when they not only revealed a lot more knowledge than their parents ever imagined – gleaned from all the kinds of sources you mention (although this is 10 years ago now before so much internet porn) – but a lot of confusion, anxiety and worry – fear as well – about all kinds of inaccuracies and mixed up ideas they had got. Until this country gets sensible about sex education at a young age, in school and with parents at home – and also educates children to have good self-esteem, to be confident in their bodies, to know they have the right to say no, and how to deal with personal relationships – they will find out in whatever way is available to them.
And talking of profit generation – take a look a Melinda Tankard Reist’s blog and her just published piece about Sexpo and the Death of Sex
“I do not need to list here the numerous reasons why many feminists reject pornography.”
Well, you kind of do if you want to convince people to take action. I peruse pornography and am not going to stop until someone gives me a damn good reason to stop.
http://www.antipornmen.org/2010/10/21/adult-entertainment-really/ Feminists chatting shite again.
This was a recent thread on Mumsnet about children’s exposure to porn:
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1055035-Sex-Porn-and-Teenagers-8pm-Monday-4-10-BBC-Radio
Mumsnetters also led a campaign against Dr Pepper when the company posted a porn reference on a 14 year old’s Facebook page:
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/child_internet_safety/1003998-Need-help-with-a-very-sensitive-complaint-against-a-massive
It’s an issue that regularly gets raised there.
“By 11 most children have already been taught all about sex by Mr Pornographer and by the time they are in their last year of High School they will be regularly watching porn. It’s a statistical fact that if you have a child of this age they probably watch porn.”
Source of these facts please.
This post hits the nail on the head, mostly. The term ‘adult entertainment’ is a misnomer, certainly, but porn these days is not for adults only. This term serves to provide a false security blanket, that keeps disgusting magazines on the top shelf. No, youth are being actively targeted by pornographers. They want life-long clients and potential bodies to abuse, and they want that loyalty from as young an age as they can get. The earlier boys start consuming pornography, the sooner their view of women and society is warped, and the sooner the addiction forms. For young girls, who may or may not consume pornography due to peer pressure, they still find themselves surrounded by young men who do, and will have their appearance and opinions and their very freedom challenged as the pornography addiction takes hold of their male peers. How long until they are assaulted or bullied by their boyfriend into making a ‘home movie’? Adult Entertainment? The only adults entertained by porn are the pimps and the pornographers. And they’re coming for your children.
Of interest to the discussion about sex ed. vs pornorgraphy.
http://www.antipornmen.org/2010/11/05/china-unsafe-sex-rife-as-youths-get-their-information-from-porn/
Awesome info once again! Thanks!
I think porn can be traumatizing at any age, especially young people though. I was in my early 20′s when I first saw a porn clip, and it really affected me & my idea of romance.
I cried a lot because I started to realize that men are aroused by the woman in the picture/screen and imagining themselves causing her reaction or touching her body.
Yet, I think women usually focus on the whole scene and the pleasure the actress might be feeling.
Men aren’t sexualized enough in the media, so they can usually expect for a woman to think only of him sexually, and only desire him sexually, not even looking at other men. Yet a girl will never feel special because men say it’s “natural” to desire other women (which I think is bullcrap. Totally influenced by the media).
I totally agree with you, especially on the last point. It is a aload of crap in my opinion.
Well technically, I do believe their target audience are not teenagers and teenagers are usually not able to buy porn. I would like to bet that most teenagers stream (illegally) and pirate their porn (like me when I was underage) and therefore, the Porn Ind. is not making any money from “teenagers”.
Another point, I don’t think I was traumatized by porn at all. I discovered it during early 6th grade and by middle school I moved on the rape and BDSM stuff. However, I did not find any noticable mental change in my attitudes towards women or my sympathy towards vicitms of Sexual Assault. But I digress.
Oh my! I cannot put in words how tremendously grateful I am to have found this site & this article! I have had a very long and torturous problem with porn. When I say problem I don’t mean addicition. I mean problem as in I HATE it so much and I’m so desperate at this point in so many ways. I am contstantly ridiculed when people learn that I don’t like porn such as when people insist on showing my boyfriend & I porn pics on their phone. I have been just totally belittled by so many people over saying “No! I will not look at your vulgar pics.” Honestly, my boyfriend and I have lost about every ‘friend’ over the constant porn being brought into our lives. It’s toxic and I soon learned that it feels better to be lonely without friends than to allow that in our lives. I have actually written to every gas station in my area over the porn they sell. Didn’t do much good. One store decided to turn the porn shelf around to the window, but it’s still in total view at the register. That means we are forced to see it. Even children. You can’t even go in the mall with out seeing montrous sized half naked women on Victorias secret’s windows. They’ve recieved thousands of letters asking them to stop displaying the nudity, they don’t care. It hurts. Porn destroys lives, people who allow porn into their lives destroy loved ones and families. It hurts to be a woman and feel that you’ll never be good enough unless you’ve had a boob job, and every plastic surgery under the sun. I’m grateful that my boyfriend respects me enough to not do those things, but I constantly hear that it’s IMPOSSIBLE for men to not look at porn. Everybody tells me that my b/f is lying about not believing in looking at porn. It’s hard to hear. He’s the one who cheers me on when I’m on my ‘stop porn rally.’ He’s the one who encrouages me to keep on when I want to give up and think that I can’t make a difference. We need more of these kind of men! We’re in our 20′s so I know I sound delirious, but I’m not blind, I know what goes on & I’ve never found the slightest clue that he does those things. He has respect for women & sympathy for those of us who hurt over this. I think what we need is more brave women to stand up and even more than that, we need brave men to stand up for us too. They are the ones who can make such a drastic difference in the porn world. It doesn’t make you less of a man to be faithful and keep the vulgarity out of your sight.
I am sure your boyfriend is a great guy by himself, but the energy and vibe you give off here is probably a very good reason why he doesn’t use porn. People on a moral crusade are actually quite hot.
Instead of getting off on http://www.anal-rape.xxx, he gets off on you, his own warrior princess, having the guts to kick the porn industry in the arse. And that is much healthier!
Just so you people know pornography has been around for as long as humanity has been able to make stick figures on cave walls, there is even pornographic literature in the Bible, the Song of Soloman, and anything that has been around for that long is a pretty big part of our psych. Yes, there have been cases where it has been greatly curtailed like the Victorian Age, but that has also greatly altered peoples perception of proper sexuality (back then people thought it was abnormal for a women to have any sexual interest at all, to the point of forcing surgery on them to correct the problem) also it wasn’t abnormal for husbands to have multiple misstresses (check to see how many of the Founding Fathers cheated on their wives). What I am trying to say is that any time there is an attempt to restrict something that is that much a part of our human psych there is bound to be severe repercussions (think of the Prohibition where lack of respect for the law became common for most Americans because they didn’t want to give up booze, or think of all the gang activity and violence over illegal drugs that is going on today, there are entire counties that are overrun and terrorized because it is so profitable to make and sell illegal drugs. Not to mention the outrage over an attempt to force one groups morals on others (do I have to mention about the Muslim headdresses?)
But prohibition wasn’t restriction it was outright banning and there’s a world of difference between prohibition of alcohol and information being available about the risks and AA being there if you need it. I think our societal problem with porn should primarily be tackled at the supply end, but with certain restrictions (keeping it away from children, taking out the violence etc). I also think that the availability of hard core moving images is a long way distant from the erotic drawings and writings of ancient times in which women and the feminine were usually venerated. The pornification of our culture and our young, is something new.
Most people who argue against banning stuff think some things should be banned. Child porn and child prostitution, for example. Gun ownership, drink driving… It’s not that prohibition is inherently bad, it’s a question of using it where it can have the most positive impact in reducing harm and in changing our views of what’s acceptable.
I know from personal experience that debating the politics of porn and what is, or could be, happening on a national and international level is a lot easier than examining its impact on me, personally. It can even be an avoidance strategy. Using porn demeans and damages you, your sex life, the people to whom you are closest, the women and men who are involved in its making and others. You can argue for the freedom to use it, but using it doesn’t give you freedom, it restricts and limits you as your sex life and wider perceptions become shaped by bland, aggressive commercialisation.
Sorry, I meant that to say it should be tackled at the demand end.