Be honest. We have all had some sort of interaction with porn. It is very difficult to avoid, whether that be ads popping up while pirating a movie off of a shady website or using these videos for our own personal use. Either way, porn is in every corner of the internet. Running into these sensitive topics is inevitable. There is no way to live on the internet without having some sort of run-in with the gifs advertising a porn browser or getting inappropriate messages in the spam folder of email, Snapchat sexual bots, or even inappropriate DMs on Instagram that revolve around the 100% fake offer of a sugar parent and sugar baby working relationship. Anyways, we are here to dive into the ins and outs of how porn negatively impacts women by also highlighting some of the effects of porn on men too. In any topic, there is not only one party that is solely affected. There may be more minor influences on parties, but in contrast, sometimes a specific party is affected more. To start off, we’re going to first start off with the issue of consent.
The Gray Area:
As we all know, consent is a very black and white matter. There is no wishy-washy in the true terms of consent despite many individuals playing the oblivious card in not understanding the bare minimum of what is needed. If any of those individuals are not aware or would like their understanding to be strengthened, here’s an article that will help clear that up. In terms of consent for porn, it can be difficult to be concerned if consent was given loud and clear. For some topics that can be a little bit on the more sensitive side, a snippet of “consent on video” can be recorded before and after the particular intense scenes that are caught on camera. This is also a situation where things can be manipulated on the topics of true consent.
As a viewer, any individual would not know what happens behind the scenes of the production and would not be knowing of the overall truth. I’m not saying that every pornographic video relying on these types of scenes is non-consensual, but we should be wary of this possibility. This segment in itself is in no way directed to the community of kinks but instead directed at the visual portrayal of these sexual interests. The problem with the industry is that there is a lot of behind-the-scenes abuse that is entirely directed at the cast members of the production. Women are primordially at the blunt of this abuse due to most pornographic productions placing the women as the partner who essentially gets “used” or is the receiving part. Women do not necessarily star in videos where the material is shown to be aggressive, but the aggressive categories are more popular in comparison.
There’s nothing wrong with this interest, but it also leads to totally not realistic expectations on how sex is even initiated:
Before we dive into the next issue, Here’s an absolute banger of a song that perfectly amplifies explicit consent!
Orientation-geared material for the Male Gaze:
In all honesty, porn has always been geared in the interest of men, whether that be serious topics, Women on Women, or super-soft and more innocent porn. You can see who the target audience is purely on acting choices, the types of scenery in the setting, and even camera angles. I understand there is a gradual shift in the target audience of the inclusivity of women consumers, but it’s still not enough. In my own opinion, the women I know gravitate towards a more literary-based due to comfort reasons along with that form of media being better for them envisioning the events occurring. The visuals in porn itself can also have a very misleading impression.
The expectations of skills.
You and I might know that most porno videos are extremely misleading in what should be expected in any entanglements. The whole point of these videos is to understand that these actors are fully theatrical and shouldn’t be taken to be realistic. The fact that some viewers take this very seriously is very harmful to the sexually empowering image of women as a whole. The fact of the stereotype is that women have to be treated and viewed in a certain sexual way. The actors in these films have been trained for the skills that are used during these shots. The fact that some individuals accept a “novice” or those in other fields are able to perform these feats is highly unreasonable.
Self-image in the eyes of the beholder.
With porn setting up the expectations of women, there is quite a valid consequence to follow this action. Women around the world have been expected to follow a guideline of the female image that honestly is impossible. There are a variety of body types, interests in the bedroom, and different personalities. This variety is never negative but instead a realistic truth of being human. The fact that women receive backlash for not fulfilling the body of a porn star is absolutely disgusting. And you know what I mean. Top heavy, thin waist, and noticeable Gluteus Maximus. To make matters worse, the possibility of a partner fetishizing the image of another human being’s body type without any type of permission. This worship of a porn star’s reputation can also be very damaging for women who compare themselves to these women on the internet. These women have purposely been forced to mold themselves to fit the requirements of the job description. The actors on the screen are not an example or representation of the general populace throughout the world. For all those women out there, the image or idea of porn is not realistic, nor should you ever feel like you need to be the carbon copy of the women who appear on the internet.
The advantage of this societal treatment.
Porn is most definitely harmful to women as a whole, but for those individuals who have made the porn industry work in their favor, kudos to them. It takes a long time for huge parts of life to change. As a matter of fact, there’s nothing more impressive than a woman who turns the oppressive habits in society into a career that uses the patriarchal bullshit structure of society in her favor. We do see this occurrence more recently with the blowup of Onlyfans during the time of covid and such. Shoutout to TikTok being a huge influence of opening up women’s eyes to take back some of the power the male gaze took away over the many years of society.
In today’s world, porn has only contributed to the oppressive treatment and behavior of women. This media of sexual portrayal only has women continuously being objectified in a sense where it is their purpose to fit into a certain type of sexual needs. Luckily, there are some women who have been able to warp their objectification into a means of income. I personally think that this career path comes with nasties of the corrupt porn industry, but I think these women should get a round of genuine applause for putting up with all the BS along with making a sexist society work for them in return. But, it should be a more conscious awareness of the effects porn has on both women and men in every part of their lives, in relationships, romantics, or even self-reflection.