Encyclopedia of Opinion
Question
How do feminists view pornography
Position1 of 3›
Pornography harms women
Argument1 of 4›

Pornography perpetuates sexism and the subjugation of women

Pornography is an industrial product that shapes how we think about gender, sexuality, relationships, intimacy, sexual violence and gender equality — for the worse. Pornography is "the perfect propaganda piece for patriarchy". On the one hand, pornography's degrading representations of women embed those attitudes at both a sexual and social level in their male audience. On the other, the exposure of teenage girls to pornographic images affects their sense of sexual identity, with the result that women are "held captive" by images that lie about them. Femininity is reduced to the hypersexualized, young, thin, toned, hairless, and, in many cases, surgically enhanced woman with a come-hither look on her face.

The argument

The relationship between pornography and attitudes towards women has been widely debated. A feminist perspective on pornography is that it encourages sexist and sexually objectifying attitudes and beliefs towards women, particularly among viewers of hardcore and violent pornography. The reason for that concentration lies in the content itself: hardcore pornography often subjects women to violent and degrading acts, so what a viewer is repeatedly shown is not sex in general but a particular arrangement of power within it. The mechanism proposed is not simple imitation but endorsement. Cawston believes that the viewers of such porn agree with the attitudes and actions expressed in the pornographic material, in virtue of having a "taste" for that kind of material. On this account the preference is itself evidence of the attitude, because someone who sought out degrading depictions has already accepted something about how women may be treated; consumption and belief are not two separate things joined by influence, and repetition entrenches what the choice already revealed. The predicted consequence is that viewers of hardcore pornography may be more likely to express sexist attitudes and behaviour and degrade women. Empirical work is offered in support. Gert Martin Hald, Theis Lange, and Neil Malamuth carried out a study on heterosexual attitudes to pornography, exposing their subjects, Danish adults aged 18-30, to hardcore pornography to assess how the exposure affected sexist attitudes. The results suggest that increased consumption of pornography in males was associated with showing hostility towards women and holding negative prejudices and stereotypes. Proponents draw the strands together: the content depicts subjugation, the preference for it signals assent, and the measured association between consumption and hostility indicates that the attitudes do not stay on the screen. That said, pornography encourages sexism and the subjugation of women, and on this view therefore harms them.

Premises

[P1]A feminist view holds that pornography, especially hardcore material, subjects women to violent and degrading acts and encourages objectifying attitudes. [P2] Viewers who have a 'taste' for such material tend to endorse the attitudes it expresses. [P3] A study by Hald, Lange and Malamuth found increased pornography consumption in men associated with hostility and negative stereotypes toward women. [C] Therefore, because it perpetuates sexism and the subjugation of women, pornography harms women.

Counter-arguments

Opposers to the feminist approach have argued that the act of viewing pornography does not wholly contribute to sexist behaviour, but rather the very personality of the users concerned. If the viewers have pre-existing sexist beliefs upon coming into contact with pornographic material, we are misled to believe that the material causes and encourages sexism. However, pornography solely triggers and magnifies their already-existing beliefs. While there may be evidence linking pornography with sexism and misogyny, there is also recent evidence that suggests a relationship between pornography and attitudes and behaviour based on gender equality. A study carried out by Kohut, Baer, and Watts supports that pornography users do not hold negative sexist attitudes towards women. The authors reported a significant level of positive attitudes towards gender equality for those who had viewed pornography within the last year.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Characterising 'hardcore' material as typically violent and degrading is an empirical claim offered without measurement, and content analyses of what is actually produced and viewed report a far more varied picture than the premise assumes. [Rejecting P2] The inference from taste to endorsement is the argument's weakest step, and it is not generally accepted elsewhere. Audiences for crime fiction, horror or war films are not taken to endorse the conduct depicted, and no reason is given why this genre should be the exception. [Rejecting P3] The counter-argument on record raises the standard confounding problem: if men with pre-existing hostile attitudes select more of this material, the association appears without the material causing anything. It also cites work by Kohut, Baer and Watts reporting that recent viewers held significantly more egalitarian attitudes toward gender — a finding in the opposite direction, which the argument does not engage. [Rejecting C] Even on the argument's own terms the effects described attach to a subset of content among a subset of viewers, which does not carry a conclusion about pornography as such.