Note: This story discusses sexual abuse. If you or someone you know is struggling with abuse, 24-hour support is available through the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN).
Thin, short, cute, doll-like, and “hairless” are words often used to describe the modern standard of beauty in women, which also could describe a child. This expectation is related to the unfortunate reality that pedophilia infests our society, and this standard promotes pedophilia further to a point of normalization in social media and pornography.
Beauty standards are used as a means of controlling how people look, not necessarily because someone desires a certain appearance, but because they have to follow it to be found attractive. Unfortunately, the standard of “attractiveness” for women is shaped by pornography. This misogynistic view of women demeans the true purpose of our bodies. It removes the value of women and leaves them as an object.
This is especially apparent in pornography. If you open any porn website, the first thing you notice is how it is catered to men. The second is the explicit and degrading titles that are applied to women: “virgin,” “stepdaughter,” “teen,” “slut.” It is disturbing to see this being promoted, as well as how effective it is in doing so. These videos receive millions of views as though it is normal to view women in this way.
Modern sex culture often glamorizes men and leaves women feeling ashamed, with words like “crack,” “smash,” “bang,” and “hit” casually used in youth culture to mean having sex. A closer look at how these words relate to violence may reshape the way that you understand them. “Taking” someone’s virginity begins to sound degrading and ultimately misogynistic. As though after having sex the woman loses a part of herself, whereas the man takes. It does not represent an equal exchange, but rather leaving behind guilt and shame.
As the Florida House Experience (FHE) Health center states in a peer-reviewed article, 90% of children ages 8-16 have viewed pornography, and 70% of men ages 18-34 visit a pornographic site monthly. This in comparison to women is vastly different, with only 42% of women visiting a porn site in the past year. As a result of this, the site PornHub is the fourth most visited site in the United States, with only Google, Facebook, and YouTube surpassing it.
As the National Institutes of Health states, in a content analysis study performed by researchers Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer, Sun, and Liberman (2010) identified that 88.2% of pornographic videos had physical aggression and 48.7% contained verbal aggression. This aggression was predominantly directed from males to the female victim.
With an audience that is mostly male, repeated exposure to this explicit content causes the normalization and promotion of sexual violence against women, such as spanking, gagging, hair pulling, bondage, slapping, and even rape. Even if a pornographic video is staged by consenting actors, that doesn’t mean it promotes consensual sex.
In a study analyzing pornographic media done by researchers at the Journal of Sex Research Barron, M. and M. Kimmel (2000). They found that nine out of 10 X-rated videos depict violence, and many of the videos rely on nonverbal consent. This creates a standard that demotes consensual sex. Exposure to these videos at a young age can have its own complications.
The Positive Childhood Alliance of North Carolina states that around one in four women were sexually abused as minors, in comparison to only one in 13 men. With sexual abuse being more prevalent among girls, it reinforces the connection between the “ideal” woman, and the fact that the “ideal” woman reflects childlike traits and not that of an adult whatsoever.
According to Culture Reframed, a feminist non-profit organization formed to address the negative effects of pornography on youth, being exposed to pornography at a young age alters the brain at a critical stage of development. This may influence a change in behavior and even lead to mental health issues with repeated exposure. Individuals subject to pornography during adolescence are more likely to display sexual aggression and be less likely to understand consent, safe sex, and social-emotional skills necessary for a healthy relationship.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “More than 4 in 5 female rape survivors reported that they were first raped before the age of 25, and almost half were first raped as a minor.”
With this, it becomes apparent that sexual violence is a real issue that the United States faces today.
As society continues to acknowledge the issue that is pornography, we can start to see its connection to misogyny and sexual abuse. By refusing to tolerate pornography and other media based anti-feminist language or attitudes, as a society we can work toward a future of equality for the betterment of society as a whole.
