The website Family Facts has gathered citations of numerous studies that find that porn consumption correlates with increased rates of infidelity, use of prostitutes, aggression and rape-supportive beliefs. We highlight a few of these studies here: In 1992, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence reported that “Childhood exposure to pornography is significantly related to rape fantasies […]
Feminist Perspective
Male Attitudes about Rape Can Be Learned…and Unlearned
Male attitudes about rape are not bred in the bone. They can be learned and unlearned. Edward Donnerstein and Daniel Linz report their findings in “Mass Media, Sexual Violence, and Male Viewers: Current Theory and Research”, published in Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.219-232)… Aggressive pornography, as used here, refers to X-rated images of sexual coercion […]
Young New Yorkers Talk about Porn’s Effect on their Relationships (explicit language)
New York Magazine considers the impact of I-porn in “Not Tonight, Honey. I’m Logging On”. [T]he mass consumption of cyberporn has slyly moved from the pathetic stereotypes (fugitive perverts, frustrated husbands) into the potent mainstream (young professionals, perhaps your boyfriend). Thanks to the advent of cable modems and DSL connections, it’s now easier than ever […]
Porn and Sex Crimes in Other Countries: The Historical Experience
One way to get a sense of the impact of porn in today’s America is to review the historical experience in other countries. ProtectKids.com (PDF) again weighs in with interesting things to say… One area where porn advocates are happy to talk about correlational studies is in relation to Denmark, where the government lifted pornography […]
Children, Porn and Science
If we’re going to investigate the impact of viewing porn, we need to consider where it usually starts–childhood. Colin Erasmus, Microsoft SA’s security manager, said the average age at which a child is first exposed to Internet porn is 11. This typically happens by accident while a child is searching for information for school projects, […]
Carolyn McKenzie: Undercover with the Viewing Booths; Disease, Intoxicants Prevalent Among Strip Dancers (explicit language)
One night in Memphis about 15 years ago, Carolyn McKenzie accompanied a vice cop on a tour of adult bookstores, strip clubs, and a “modeling studio”. This mother of four and former public-health nurse had organized protests and filed complaints with the district attorney’s office over the porn shops and strip clubs that dotted suburban […]
Pornography and Male Sexuality
Harry Brod explores what porn does to the male viewer in “Eros Thanatized: Pornography and Male Sexuality”. This essay appears in Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.190-206). The proper framework for discussion about the manufacture and distribution of pornography is neither sexual ethics nor civil liberties, but business ethics. Anti-pornography campaigns should be conceptualized not as […]
Rebutting ACLU President Nadine Strossen’s Defense of Pornography
Long-time anti-pornographer Diana Russell takes on Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of Defending Pornography. Nadine Strossen’s OBJECTIVE in Defending Pornography is to destroy the reputation and achievements of the feminist movement against pornography. To this end, she dishes up the same tired old caricature of us as anti-sex prudes, […]
Sexual Freedom and Sexual Justice
John Stoltenberg writes about “Pornography and Freedom” in Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.60-71)… The popular concept of sexual freedom in this country has never meant sexual justice. Sexual-freedom advocates have cast the issue only in terms of having sex that is free from suppression and restraint. Practically speaking, that has meant advocacy of sex that […]
Porn: One Rapist’s Story (explicit language)
An account from Men on Rape (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982), reprinted in Men Confront Pornography (1990, p.43-49)… Regularly beaten by his stepmother and stepbrothers from the age of five, at thirteen [“Chuck”] ran away from home and began a life of drug addictions and crime. At twenty, after two painful years of marriage, […]