Let’s be honest, pornography is not sex positive – and it’s not prudish to say so
The debate about pornography is being stifled due to awkwardness, says Phoebe Arslanagic-Little
Internet pornography is a major global industry. To US companies alone, it is estimated to bring in revenues exceeding that of the whole of Hollywood. A 2023 study found that over 85 per cent of American men reported watching pornography and it is easy to believe the numbers are similar in the UK. Yet, oddly for an industry that is worth so much, producing a product that is so widely consumed, pornography is allowed to fly under the radar in discussions about wellbeing and ethics.
This is not only because consuming pornography is generally a private activity but also because so many of us believe it is benign – while those who don’t run the risk of being labelled as prudish Mary Whitehouse figures.
But is pornography harmless? For some, pornography use can dangerously escalate, in terms of time spent watching it and the extremity of content.
In July, the Guardian published the account of a 36-year-old man – writing under the pseudonym Matthew – who had been found guilty of viewing child abuse images. They also published the account of his wife, who found out about her husband’s crime when the police came knocking at 6:20am one morning. Both accounts are extremely worth reading. Matthew describes how his addiction to pornography developed over a period of years, so that he eventually ceased to find “basic” content stimulating and ended up in a spiral of escalation culminating in child abuse images.
Matthew committed an extremely serious crime and that must not be forgotten or pushed aside. At the same time, consider that many of us enjoy drinking alcohol and that many of us enjoy it too much, so that pleasure is ultimately burnt away and only compulsion remains, damaging our bodies and our lives and hurting the people around us. Awareness that alcohol is addictive and harmful is very high. We learn about it at school and we – to some extent – socially police one another. Buying alcohol is restricted by age. Your doctor asks you how much you drink. Advertisers are not allowed to link alcohol consumption to sexual activity, or portray it as confidence-enhancing, or use models who look under 25 years old.
None of that is true of pornography. The relationships and sex education curriculum does say that pupils should learn that pornography “presents a distorted picture of sexual behaviours, can damage the way people see themselves in relation to others and negatively affect how they behave towards sexual partners”. That’s it. That’s despite good evidence that pornography consumption can become compulsive and harmful to users.
And what about the ethics? Many people I know would never shop from Amazon for environmental and workers’ rights reasons yet are completely blase about their consumption of pornography.
It is commonly believed that watching pornography is simply part of a healthy sex life. Yet there is evidence that pornography use can reduce sex drive and cause erectile dysfunction
Pornhub, the most popular purveyor of internet pornography, has long been embroiled in court cases relating to the length of time it takes them to remove videos of children being abused. Where are the Boycott Pornhub badges on Instagram profiles?
Instead, it is commonly believed that watching pornography is simply part of a healthy sex life. Yet there is evidence that pornography use can reduce sex drive and cause erectile dysfunction. Many pornography users flick through clips like a teenager on Tiktok, always hyper-stimulated, always in control. It’s no surprise that such people find being presented with a real sexual partner, in real life, both different and difficult.
We don’t let friends, advertisers or the alcohol industry tell us that being drunk all the time is a sign of social competence or success. We don’t let Big Tobacco convince us or our children that smoking cigarettes is cool. The effects and ethics of Big Pornography must be examined and discussed in the same way. This industry must not be allowed to get away with questionable behaviour and a harmful product because we find talking about it embarrassing. That doesn’t serve us, it only serves them.