Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

Pornography and Its Effects on Views of Women

Sarah Nieuwkoop
Wayne State University
Com 1500: Survey of Mass Communication
Professor Oshagan
December 10, 2015

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

One has heard the phrase Sex sells multiple times in their life. What does that
mean exactly? Sex is the most profitable and largest industry in the world. Facets of this
industry include strip clubs, prostitution, brothels, phone sex, and pornography

(Andersson et. al, 2013). Of these aspects, pornography is the easiest accessible and for
that reason reaches the largest audience. Along with its ease of access, pornography also is
popular because it suits all of those looking for satisfaction from it. Within the media, there
are several different ways of accessing it, it has many sub-categories, and includes all types
of people. It has become a large part of society, and for many this poses lots of controversy.
While some love it and others despise it, psychologists and communication scientists have
always been interested in pornography. They have always wanted to discover why users
enjoy watching pornography and what using this content does to the mind of those
watching. Through studying the uses and gratifications of pornography, scholars have
found that using pornography has detrimental effects on women, who are most often the
focal points of pornographic material. Exposure to pornographic material makes viewers
become more likely to objectify, have sexist views toward, and support or commit violence
against women.
Pornography use increases the likelihood of users to view women as objects, or
things without their own thoughts, rights, and beliefs. Jochen Peter and Patti M.
Valkenburg tested this hypothesis in 2005 with adolescents. They surveyed 674 Dutch
teenagers ranging from 13-18 years old about the frequency by which they were exposed

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

to sexual content. Some types of exposures they were tested on were semi-explicit content
in magazines and on television and sexually explicit content in magazines, on video or DVD,
and on the internet. The participants were then asked about their agreeableness to acts
that fall under the viewpoint of women as objects. These statements included subtle things
such as Whistling at a female as she walks by makes her feel better about herself and
others referred to sexual topics such as Girls who participate in more sex are more
attractive to me. It was found that exposure to sexual content and thoughts of women as
objects were positively correlated. In addition, thoughts of women as objects got stronger
and more frequent as the content became more explicit. Those who viewed the most
explicit DVDs or videos online most often had the most objectifying views of women (Peter

& Valkenburg, 2007). Pornographic material portrays women as objects and for that
reason, users of pornography become aligned with the ideals of pornographic content.
While the first study looked at the viewpoints of women from the user, Tracy L.
Tylka and Ashley M. Kroon Van Diest looked at how pornography use and sexual
objectification of women ideals affected women themselves. They surveyed 171 women
from a large Midwest university and asked them questions about their partners
pornography use and their feelings of objectification. To assess objectification, the
participants were asked questions like How often have you noticed someone staring at
your body? and How often have you been touched in an inappropriate way without
consent? The study found that the more those women thought their men watched

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

pornography increased the direct experiences and overall feelings that they had been
sexually objectified.
Along with objectifying women as a side effect of pornography use, users have also
been found to have sexist views about women. Sexism is defined as judgements based on
someones sex that leads one to treating them unfairly. In 1986, Luis T. Garcia surveyed
115 college aged men about their exposure to sexual context both intentionally and
unintentionally, their views towards women, and their attitudes about rape. The
questionnaire concerning views about women included their place in certain workplaces
and intellectual roles, womens rights and independence, how women should act in a
marriage or relationship, women swearing and drinking, and their sexual behaviors. The
study found a positive correlation between pornography use and sexist views toward
women. Men who watched more pornography believed that women did not belong in the
workplace, should have fewer rights than men, and that in a relationship, a womans main
goal is to keep the man happy (Garcia, 1986). The idea of pornography users being more
likely to have sexist ideals is still tested today.
Scholars Paul J. Wright and Michelle Funk investigated sexism and its relation to
pornography use further in a specific sexist viewpoint against women: the right to
affirmative action in the workplace. They observed that many Americans opposed the idea
of affirmative action for women and sought a source for this viewpoint. Affirmative action
in the context of the study means hiring or promoting in favor of women to decrease the

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

wage gap between men and women. Wright and Funk surveyed 190 adults (both men and
women) ranging in ages 19-88 from 2006-2010 to test their theory of pornography use
being a key factor in this sexist viewpoint against women. Participants were first asked
about how frequently they watched pornography, and then on their agreeableness to
preferential hiring or promotions for women, or affirmative action. The hypothesis
proposed by Wright and Funk was supported through the data for both men and women.
Gender and affirmative action attitudes surveyed in 2006 and pornography use in 2008
predicted opposition to affirmative action for women in 2010. Although more women were
in support of affirmative action than men, the women who watched more pornography had
more negative views against affirmative action than those who rarely or never used
pornography (Wright & Funk, 2014). Pornographic content not only promotes sexist
thoughts about women, but also violent acts against them as well.
When viewing pornography, users are also more likely to attain violent thoughts
about women. Violence against women has been a monumental problem for a very long
time. According to UN Women, 35% women have been victim of some kind of sexual or
physical violence at some point in their life (2015). The link between pornography use and
support of or violence against women has been tested in laboratory settings and also in
observation. In 1995, Mike Allen, Dave DAlessio, and Keri Brezgel conducted 33 laboratory
studies with 2,040 participants. 24 studies tested participants on their behavioral
aggression after viewing nonviolent pornography and 7 studies after viewing violent
pornography. These studies concluded that exposure to nonviolent and violent

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

pornographic material increases behavioral aggression. Allen et al. also conducted 16

experiments with 2,248 participants concerning support of violent behavior after being
exposed to nonviolent and violent pornography. Researchers found that both nonviolent
and violent pornography viewers had an increase in attitudes supporting sexual violence;
and the attitudes were much stronger after viewing violent pornography. Also in 1995,
Crossman observed a sample of 488 college-aged men. She wanted to know if there was a
correlation between degrees of sexual aggression and several individual variables such as
peer pressure, impulsiveness, and pornography use. Pornography use as a variable
included different severities of violence within the content. Out of all the variables studied,
Crossman found that use of pornography was the largest contributor to sexual aggression,
counting for 12% of the data. It was also found that the more often men used pornography
and the more violent the content was also increased the likelihood of committing rape

(Malamuth, Addison, & Koss, 2000). Not only are these findings conclusive in
experimentation and observation, but also in application to the real world.
Psychologists Drew A. Kingston, Paul Fedoroff, Philip Firestone, Susan Curry, and
John M. Bradford were interested in testing pornography use and its effects on recidivism
rates with committed sex offenders. They took 341 convicted male sex offenders living in a
large Canadian city and studied them from 1982-1992. They were asked to disclose their
pornography use habits such as how often they used pornography and what type they
preferred. From this, they observed the participants for 10 years and tracked their re-

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

offenses and categorized them: criminal, violent, or sexual crimes. From the 337 that
responded to content related questions, 303 viewed nonviolent pornography and 34
viewed violent pornography. When analyzing the data, Kingston et al. found that when
including violent and sexual crime recidivism, the offenders were 185% more likely to
recommit crimes if they viewed violent pornography. They also saw a positive correlation
between frequency of pornography use and likelihood for all 3 types of recidivism

(Kingston, Fedoroff, Firestone, Curry, & Bradford, 2008). The idea that users of
pornography are more likely to commit violence against women was both proven true
through these studies.
From these studies summarized above, it is evident that pornography use increases
the likelihood of having objectifying thoughts about, a sexist view towards, being
desensitized to or committing violence against women. These effects directly impact the
lives of women daily; they are in constant fear of being victim of verbal, physical, and
emotional harm from others. While there are many factors contributing to the oppression
of women, the majority of these ideas of women as the lesser gender come from
pornography. The pornography industry is worth billions of dollars and will not be
eliminated from society any time soon. These acts against women are being fueled by the
consumption of pornographic material. In a society primarily driven by sex where
pornography is the figurehead, how can women escape this increased repression?

Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

References
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Facts and Figures: Ending Violence against Women. (2015). Retrieved December 8,
2015, from http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-againstwomen/facts-and-figures
Garcia, L. T. (1986). Exposure to pornography and attitudes about women and rape: A
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Pornography Use and Its Effects on Views of Women

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