Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry
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The second slide show, written by Rebecca Whisnant, is called ‘It’s Easy Out Here for a Pimp: How a Porn Culture Grooms Kids for Sexual Exploitation.’ This show focuses on how a pornified popular culture (including pornography itself) shapes the identities of children and adolescents, while increasingly portraying them as sexual objects for adults. Our goal is to produce more slide shows that look at the different ways porn infiltrates our daily lives.
Every year Stop Porn Culture! holds training sessions for people who want to become anti-porn activists. These two-day seminars introduce participants to the literature on the effects of porn and provide a general introduction into the history of feminist anti-porn activism. Central to the training is a day of mock question and answer sessions where we train people in how to answer the various questions that audience members typically have after seeing the slide show. This helps people develop the confidence necessary to give public lectures on porn.
The SPC Website has an array of resources for people seeking more information on the effects of porn, on how to deal with a partner who is a habitual user, as well as videos and articles on issues relating to the sex industry. Over the years SPC has become a visible movement in fighting the porn industry and we are now developing international links with other groups who are trying to raise consciousness as to the harms of porn.
Linda Thompson
Challenging the Demand
Imagine standing up in a room full of strangers. Imagine standing up talking to them about pornography. Imagine going into that knowing that a good few will be hostile to everything you say and extend that personally to you. Imagine hearing young women talk of practising faked orgasm sounds and faces to meet partners’ expectations. Imagine talking with parents supporting their teenagers as they deal with their naked images being shared online.
And yet, I love my job challenging demand for commercial sexual exploitation, including prostitution and pornography. I don’t love what I see, read and hear, but every day I am proud to be involved in challenging one of the most destructive forces in our culture. Saying “I am anti-porn” is definitively stating a position which some are surprised even exists. There is disbelief that anyone does such a job and that I would confess to being like that. Sometimes there is a nervous laugh, slight defensiveness or even an envious “Wow, I’d love to look at porn and get paid for it!” Clearly, I am part of a minority, holding an alternative position outside the dominant view of pornography as acceptable, liberal and progressive.
Years ago, this anti-porn position would have seemed incompatible with my work with young people in sexual health projects in Belfast. Now, my work as the Development Officer with the Women’s Support Project1 includes reading porn industry journals,2 viewing the latest uploads on Youporn or scanning the highest-rated pornography on British Bukakke Babes. The idea that this regular exposure to the pornography industry would radically change my views was something I never expected.
In the 1990s, I was a woman who knew about pornography, knew its language but thought if someone wanted to use it to get off – what was the problem? Back in that era of videos, DVDs and magazines, I reassured female friends that all guys look at this stuff and blew the whistle on the usual hiding places. I said, “Where is the harm?” This seemed to fit with my sexual health work and with the ostensible need to be sex-positive.
So, what changed? Simply, I took a step back, found out more and had to accept that pornography was not unproblematic.
I thought I had a good working knowledge of the sex industry but I was not prepared for what I discovered. Finding out about the US activists’ group Stop Porn Culture! and watching their slide show started the steep learning curve. After I decided to develop their ‘Who wants to be a porn star?’ slideshow3 for the Scottish context, I read all the research, checked out the evidence and looked at examples down to local levels.
As all elements of the sex trade are inextricably linked, so is my work. I not only watched pornography but read opinion pieces, talked to women involved and became au fait with punters’/consumers’ review sites. I had to be informed which meant, in turn, being shocked, angry and upset. I heard the experiences of women in the sex trade, saw the language used to market them as commodities and consumers’ total disconnect with them as individuals. I had to then find a way to get all this across with a feminist underpinning. When I delivered this information to wide audiences, I also got feedback on their own real, lived experiences with pornography. This showed me how far we have gone with letting porn become mainstream.
I have yet to talk with any groups of women, men and young people without hearing real concerns about porn in people’s lives. Research undoubtedly guides and informs, but the whole process from funding to peer reviewed articles takes a long time. Meanwhile there is growing lived evidence around us. People’s experiences may not be currently captured in research results but activism provides the bridge.
This activism offers understanding outside of the myths and justifications of men’s need for porn as they are peddled in the mainstream. It uncovers people’s concerns, the emerging trends, and so, paying heed to what you hear ‘out there’ can form a comprehensive agenda about how pornography is affecting us. Sexual health clinicians, health advisors, relationship counsellors and help-lines are increasingly dealing with pornography’s adverse effects. Why do we ignore them for cutting across the idea that porn is a positive, liberating influence?
Attendees at our seminars frequently have preconceived, and sometimes outdated, ideas of what pornography is and does. What I offer is often the first unequivocal challenge to these assumptions. I am conscious of what I show people and maintain a sense of responsibility. Things seen cannot be unseen. It is necessary to have safeguards in place; people decide to attend after being informed about my approach including looking at images drawn from pornography, from its move into the mainstream, from advertisements, videos, DVDs and the Internet. I remind them at the start of my talk, and then, before they see any images, they are reminded again.
I have found that using references from the everyday media can have more impact than current mainstream pornography. Some of the hardest days at work are not spent immersed in porn land but in supposed ‘entertainment’. A memorable occasion was ZOO online lads’ mag4 showing a series of images, purportedly uploaded by a young woman who was penetrated by bottles in her bedroom with framed family photos on the wall, soft toys on a bed … It takes only a few steps to access young people’s social networking sites on the Internet, and it becomes immediately clear how internalised the porn messages have become, with 13-year-olds posting semi-naked pouting images in the hope of being rated a ‘sexy hot babe’ by self-appointed panels of older male peers.
Some in our audiences perceive anti-porn activism as personal challenges and sometimes retaliate in vicious ways, launching personal attacks. Their ‘helpful’ advice ranges from the “Just watch more porn – then you will understand,” to the more threatening suggestion that a porn-style f*cking, notionally delivered by the commentator will ensure we ‘get’ the benefits of pornography. Anti-porn activism is under constant scrutiny and unless we are experts on media, philosophy, economics, ethics, the law, and human rights, to name just a few, then our work is undermined. People are all too eager to attack, vilify, dismiss and trample you underfoot in their rush to defend this global industry at any costs. But it is precisely at the point when it feels you are pushing against an ever-expanding frontier directed by the sex industry, that we must celebrate and share our successes. These connections motivate and keep the energy going.
It is hearing from women who now have, for the first time, words to express and validate how they have been feeling. It is a young woman writing that she is taking a break from sex while she works out what she wants sexually, without pornography’s influence. It is reading a young man’s blog who is now pushing pornography back from his life and making personal changes. It
is men opening up about their experiences with porn and struggling to counterbalance its messages on their kids’ understanding of sex and relationships. It is hearing from a father of teenage girls now challenging his friends’ acceptance and sharing of ‘hot schoolgirl sluts’ porn. It is hearing about women discussing pornography in new ways with their friends. When others are showing enough commitment to question, discuss and take action – then the balance can be redressed. Imagine the potential for change if more people spoke up. Then imagine if you did something.
You have to make it personal – take a stance and make decisions. With growing economic hardship, women are facing even more reduced opportunities while the sex industry is ever more acceptable, accessible and affordable. There are fewer resources to fund support services and run campaigns so we need a groundswell of activism. This is crucial if we really want to change assumptions, confront the apologists, and challenge the demand.
My work across Scotland would not be possible without the foundations laid down by women in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the field of violence against women. Activism worked to allow victims and survivors of rape and sexual assault to be the ones who defined what was violent. A growing number of women with experience in domestic abuse and sexual assault work moved into positions of influence in party politics and community development. This forged the links between the real lived experiences of women and policy-making (Macleod et al., 1994). Much effort and energy went into furthering understanding of the dynamics and realities of domestic abuse and sexual violence, against the backdrop of deeply rooted male attitudes about entitlement and power. Thirty years later, it is sobering to see the same discussions and processes repeated with commercial sexual exploitation, which is now specifically identified in the national approach to violence against women, Safer Lives, Changed Lives (2009).
The birth of my daughter also prompted me to take fresh stock of our culture. Did I want her coming of age in a world where coming on her face would be the marker of manhood for her male peers (Clark-Flory, 2009). Did I want her value to be judged against how ‘porn-ready’ she is (Sawyer, 2010)? Did I want her sexuality to be directed and dictated by certain industry moguls? Most of all, did I want my daughter to ask why I hadn’t done anything?
People can remain in denial that sexual exploitation doesn’t affect them, but through anti-porn work you are really asking them to consider where they are positioned with the industry. Do they collude with the exploitation of women’s social and economic status? Do they consume sexualised inequality and sustain the market? Do they turn a blind eye to the consequences of what they and their partners and friends are demanding? Or do they become informed and honestly appraise how it all relates to them? Do they then take action?
The global growth of the sex trade, pornography included, counters so much of what I believe in. But I believe that if we are given factual information, are supported when we process this information, and understand what it really means personally and for others around us, we can make informed decisions. We need skills to weigh the consequences of our decisions and follow them through with a sense of respect. With the growth of the sex trade and its seepage into everyday life, the notion of ‘informed choice’ has changed. Sexual health promotion is almost rendered valueless given the affordability, accessibility and anonymity of the pornography industry (in Cooper, 2000). When high numbers of young people identify porn as their main sex education, we have allowed the pornography industry to write the script (Flood, 2009).
If I don’t challenge this, I am helping open the floodgates to allow this take over of our public spaces, our online world, our media and our entertainment as well as the co-opting of our personal lives. As Alasdair Robertson, a Scottish activist against violence against women said, “If you think that it doesn’t affect you – you must be living on another planet.”5
Bibliography
Cooper, Al (Ed) (2000) ‘Cybersex: The Dark Side of the Force’ Special Issue Journal of Sexual Addiction and Compulsion. Brunner-Routledge, Philadelphia, PA and Hove, Sussex.
Clark-Flory, Tracy (18 August, 2009) ‘Generation XXX: Having sex like porn stars. How is smut changing teen sexuality? One word: Facials’,
Flood, Michael (2009) ‘Boys, Sex, and Porn: New technologies and old dangers’,
Macleod Jan, Patricia Bell and Janette Foreman (1994) ‘Bridging the gap: feminist development work in Glasgow’ in Miranda Davis (Ed) Women and Violence. Zed Books, London.
Safer Lives Changed Lives (2009) Section 4.1,
Sawyer, Miranda (2010) ‘Shag bands, porn on mobile phones … kids need more help to understand sex’, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/03/sex-education-porn-twitter.
Stop Porn Culture!
ZOO Today!
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1
2 The porn industry, similar to other large commercial sectors, has its own trade journals. Included in these are Adult Video News (AVN),
3 Stop Porn Culture! through Gail Dines, Rebecca Whisnant and Robert Jensen developed a slide show for activists to use,
4 ZOO magazine is a high-street lads’ mag with an accompanying Website,
5 See
Anna van Heeswijk
OBJECT: Challenging ‘Sex-object Culture’1
My name is Anna van Heeswijk. I’m 29 and the Campaigns Manager for OBJECT – the award winning pressure group set up in 2003 to challenge the sexual objectification of women and the mainstreaming of the multi-billion pound sex industries. OBJECT has no office and little money, yet with the help and support of trade and student unions, survivors of the sex industry, feminist policy makers, sister organisations, and committed activists across the country, in 5 years we have changed 2 laws and helped revitalise grassroots anti-pornography feminism in the UK.
In partnership with the Fawcett Society,2 a leading campaigning group for equality between women and men, OBJECT stemmed the proliferation of lap dancing clubs and stripped the illusion that lap dancing is a harmless part of the leisure industry. We have exposed the exploitative industry of lap dancing for what it is and lobbied successfully for a change in the law to allow for better regulation and for limits to be placed on the number of clubs in any vicinity – which can now be set at zero by local councils. We have provided a feminist analysis to underpin our campaign and put the issue of sexism and sexual objectification at the heart of the licensing debate.
In partnership with Eaves,3 a feminist front-line service provider for women exploited in the sex industry, we secured the first piece of legislation in the UK to directly tac
kle the demand for prostitution, bringing the buyers out of the shadows and making it a crime to purchase sex from a person who has been exploited. This shifts the criminal gaze away from the person exploited in prostitution on to the person who directly contributes to this exploitation by paying for sex. We have raised awareness of the harmful nature of the sex industry and successfully lobbied for government-run job centres to ban advertising vacancies in the sex industry.
As well as legislative change, OBJECT campaigns for a shift in cultural attitudes. We make explicit the links between the explosion of the sex industries, the ever-increasing portrayal of women as sexual objects, and the misogynistic attitudes which underpin and legitimise violence and discrimination against women. In order to raise awareness and to develop grassroots activism on these issues, OBJECT spearheads national days of action against ‘sex-object culture’ including Feminist Fridays which initiate direct action against ‘lads’ mags’. Feminist Fridays have served to empower individuals and groups to take action and have led to major retailers agreeing to cover up lads’ mags and put them on the top shelf.
An important time to be an anti-porn feminist activist
Women in the Western world are told that feminism is outdated and that sexism is a thing of the past. And yet, wherever you look, sexism and inequality remain rife. In the UK, approximately 80% of Parliament is male;4 nearly 1 in 4 women over 16 has experienced sexual violence;5 2 women are murdered each week by male partners (Povey, 2005); and the gender pay gap means that in effect women stop being paid in October whilst men continue to be paid until the end of the year.6
The explosion of the sex industries represents a backlash against the struggle for equality between women and men. Increased levels of objectification and the sexualisation of women’s bodies promotes the idea that no matter how intelligent or capable women are, and how far we progress as a group, our worth is still dependent on how attractive we are to men.