Bibliography
Papadopoulos, Linda (2010) ‘Sexualisation of Young People: Review’, UK Home Office. Available at
Rush, Emma and Andrea La Nauze (2006a) ‘Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of children in Australia’. Discussion Paper, Number 90, The Australia Institute, Canberra,
Rush, Emma and Andrea La Nauze (2006b) ‘Letting Children be Children: Stopping the sexualisation of children in Australia’. Discussion Paper, Number 93, The Australia Institute, Canberra.
Tankard Reist, Melinda (Ed) (2009) Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls. Spinifex Press, North Melbourne.
Zurbriggen, Eileen L., Rebecca L. Collins, Sharon Lamb, Tomi-Ann Roberts, Deborah L. Tolman, Monique L. Ward, Jeanne Blake (2007) Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. American Psychological Association. Available at
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Matt McCormack Evans
Men Opposing Pornography in the UK
It was at university in 2008 that I experienced firsthand how pornography affected my perception of women as I caught myself constantly sexualising them in an increasingly demeaning way. I believed I could keep the time I spent using pornography partitioned away from the rest of my life, and my attitudes, values and behaviour. But it became more and more obvious that this ‘partitioning’ was not possible; that porn continued to negatively influence the way I viewed women and could not be separated from who I was and how I behaved.
Along with this realisation came a new awareness of how pervasive porn use was among my male peers. I became more receptive to male friends revealing the influence pornography had on how they saw and thought about women. This led to a heightened awareness of references to porn in mainstream media, and it became obvious to me that pornography is a huge part of modern culture, promoting a relentlessly misogynistic kind of propaganda. With the content of mainstream porn being so sexist, violent and degrading to women, and with an increasing number of men watching it for an increasing amount of time, pornography is one of the primary issues facing men who believe in gender equality and ending violence against women.
The year 2010 saw a huge resurgence in UK feminist activism and involvement (see Long, van Heeswijk, this volume). However, despite this renewal, there was little being done to specifically target men. Many men experience a conflict between their intellectual values and the nature of the pornography they use, finding it incredibly difficult to reconcile their use of sexist, violent and degrading material and their beliefs in equality and respect for women. However, few men openly admit such a conflict and it is difficult to find sources. There was little online that addressed this phenomenon and provided a space where men could read posts by other men talking about these issues.
In response to this, The Anti Porn Men Project was created to provide an online forum for (mainly) men to speak, discuss, and learn about porn, porn culture and the anti-porn movement. We wanted to create a space where those who were coming to anti-porn thoughts for the first time could read material that would confirm and legitimise these concerns and help them feel like part of a wider community as well as for those further along the path who wanted to develop and discuss their anti-porn perspective. The Anti Porn Men Project was launched in September, 2010 to a huge response. The Website had over 10,000 visits in its first 3 weeks and received media interest spanning 6 continents in the next 2 months. It had certainly struck a nerve.
The Project’s approach has been one of combining a user-authored blog with more traditional educational material. The Project’s mission is to raise awareness of the harms of pornography and encourage men to speak out against it with the aim of bringing about a greater level of debate and questioning of pornography in our culture. Our strategy for consciousness raising and increasing the level of questioning of pornography essentially lies in the maintenance of a growing online presence through the regularly updated multi-contributor blog and an active comment and debate section.
In accommodating both newcomers to anti-porn thought as well as more seasoned activists, we publish a wide variety of material including general opinion pieces, personal experiences, reviews, academic-style studies, comment on current affairs, news and events updates, along with a ‘Featured Posts’ section. The comment and debate section plays a significant part in the Website’s activity, and is central to the community that has built itself around the site which largely takes care of itself in answering the queries of newcomers and maintaining a healthy level of debate amongst the site’s subscribers.
The Project also hosts online educational resources and acts as a signpost for links to other organisations and Websites in the anti-porn movement. The Website (
Despite the early success and attention enjoyed by The Project, we have become very aware of the obstacles that exist when attempting to get men to talk critically about pornography. Before The Project, those anti-porn organisations that were aimed at men were largely driven by religious concerns, or concerns about sex, family or addiction. People who speak out against porn are routinely thought to be prudish and/or deeply conservative or religious. We demonstrate that this is not the case. We are clear about the basis for our objection to porn and this is central when communicating our message.
The concept of a ‘real’ man represents another serious problem. Men who object to porn are often thought to not be ‘real’ men in some way. The accepted view of masculinity is largely built on dominance and control over women. This not only plays a huge role in shaping the aggressive nature of pornographic content but also acts as a powerful barrier to men’s openness about their usage of and concerns about porn. Challenging the macho posturing and rhetoric, so integral to porn usage and culture, is essential to engaging men in serious discussion about pornography. Aside from having the vast majority of our articles authored by men, The Project has an ‘anti-porn men’ page which features leading male anti-porn scholars and activists, as well as popular
figures who have raised objections to porn. The Website also has a page devoted to ‘men and masculinity’ which seeks to challenge established concepts of masculinity.
Finally, when challenging pornography, the pervasiveness of its use and influence on our culture is a huge obstacle. The normalisation process that comes with the widespread use of pornography and the mainstreaming of pornographic imagery in the music, magazine, and advertising industries has led to a society which is accustomed to seeing women presented in provocative poses, as being essentially associated with sex and only valued for how they look. This desensitisation to the ‘pornographic norm’ renders the sexism and degradation in porn invisible and unnoticed. Remarkably, while pornography is so obviously present in the private lives of a huge number of men it remains largely absent from both private and public discussion about serious issues of gender equality and violence. For many men it is already an incredibly uncomfortable task to challenge one’s own behaviour when it comes to pornography use and this is only compounded by the normalisation of both the industry and pornographic imagery.
However, despite the difficulty many men experience when challenging their own behaviour, a visible presence of men who are openly anti-porn can only encourage more men to question it. It is for this reason that activism is essential and why activism that is conducted by men and which targets men, has such great potential. It is vital for men to get involved in the rejection of pornography and porn culture. Porn is overwhelmingly produced and consumed by men and if it is going to be effectively challenged it must be done so with the inclusion of men.
In the wider context of the struggle for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women, pornography represents the primary barrier to men’s mass engagement in the cause for women’s equality. The cultural and social impact of porn on the way in which men think about and treat women is profound. Pornography has become the principal machine of patriarchal propaganda and its use is fundamentally incompatible with genuine engagement with and respect for women, I believe that the inclusion of men in the anti-porn feminist movement is vital to its success.
The anti-porn movement in the UK is largely activist-led. This gives it the energy and freshness required to stay motivated and ready for the ever more insidious ways in which porn culture is normalised and justified. The Anti Porn Men Project hopes both its membership and contributor base will continue to grow through the use of this dynamic activist-led approach. We have plans to develop workshops for men and boys, pursue greater support for the anti-porn movement in both feminist and left-wing political circles, and push ever further for it to be socially acceptable for a man to be anti porn. The Project, unique in its focus on men and its presence online, at events, and in the media, will continue to give a voice to the growing number of men who are speaking out against pornography.
Caroline Norma
Challenging Pornography in Japan: the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP)
Over the organisation’s 10-year history, members of the Tokyo-based Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) have initiated a wide range of research projects and campaigns against pornography and prostitution in Japan. These activities are described in the organisation’s yearly journal (Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai: Ronbun/shiryoushuu) and Webpage (http://www.app-jp.org/), as well in a number of books. The Group’s activities mostly focus on the harm of pornography for women and children in its production, distribution, and consumption in Japan.
The harms of pornography production are documented in the Group’s investigation into a Japanese pornography production company called Bakkii Visual Planning. This research has involved APP members monitoring a chat forum run by the company for consumers of a particular film series in which women are dragged around by the hair, pushed face first into bathtubs of water, set alight, and beaten up. In the chat forum, pornography users discussed with the series producer what sex acts and abuses they wanted to see women undergo in the next release of the series. APP members documented the harms that were requested by pornography consumers, and then matched them to the abuses that were perpetrated in the next release of the film series. These findings were published in a 2004 article that discussed producer/consumer collaboration in the abuse of women in pornography (Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai, 2004, pp. 6–9).1
In another major project to document the harm of the distribution of pornography in Japan, APP members received funding to survey counsellors and lawyers working with women’s support organisations in Tokyo about their experience of assisting sexual assault victims whose abuses featured pornography or prostitution. The APP collected a large volume of qualitative data on this issue, which was presented in an article published in 2003. The Group identified 7 different ways in which pornography is used by sex offenders to victimise women. These include women being: 1) forced to watch pornography, 2) forced to re-enact scenes in pornography, 3) forced to appear in pornography by boyfriends or husbands, 4) raped by men provoked by consuming pornography, 5) blackmailed by pornography made of them, 6) having pornography made of them distributed on the Internet, and 7) women having their faces superimposed onto pornographic pictures distributed on the Internet (Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai, 2003, pp. 5–73).
The APP has also led a campaign to mobilise support for an amendment to be made to the Tokyo metropolitan youth development regulations to regulate the selling to minors of graphically animated pornography that glorifies rape or incest. In this campaign, the Group has faced strong opposition from gamers, manga authors and publishers, gaming industry associations, lawyers associations, and the heads and other leaders of the Socialist Party of Japan and the Japan Communist Party.
Another one of the Group’s activities includes a campaign against ‘upskirting’, and the secret filming of women in public places like bathhouses, fitness clubs, public toilets, and ‘love’ hotels. The Group believes this kind of activity is not just a sex crime of individual men, but is closely linked with the sex industry in Japan, because the footage is often compiled and edited into films that are sold as pornography. The small cameras that are used to secretly film women and girls are sold in Akihabara, which is a shopping district where pornography is sold in Tokyo. The APP campaigns for a national law to be enacted against this filming activity, as well as a ban on the small cameras being sold or possessed when used for unlawful purposes.
The Group also campaigns against the producers of DVDs and Websites dedicated to pictures of underage girls wearing bathers and other revealing clothing. This genre of pornography is openly sold in districts like Akihabara, and is recognisable from shelf labels that indicate the age-range of the children in the different films (e.g. ‘second year primary school’). These films evade Japan’s child pornography law because they are perceived not to be arousing or provocative enough because children’s genitals are not shown. Nonetheless, the APP has audited chat forums of online sites selling the films, and has documented sexualised discussion among consumers. On the basis of this research, the Group campaigns against the films as a form of child pornography.
Other research projects by the APP have included content analysis of 32 different violent pornographic films with findings published in the Group’s 2000 edition journal, and sponsorship of Catharine MacKinnon to speak in Tokyo in 2002. Group members publicise their availability to speak at forums against pornography, and run workshops to promote abolitionist activity in Japanese society against pornography and prostitution. In its daily activity, the group further aims to foster support networks for women harmed in the production of pornography in Japan.
Bibliography
Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai (2003) ‘Ankeeto chousa kekka no bunseki’ pp. 5–73.
Yamamoto, Yukino (2004) ‘Seisaku genba ni okeru henka’, Poruno/kaishun mondai kenkyuukai pp. 6–19.
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1 An English translation of this article will
be published in a volume edited by Caroline Norma in 2012.
Susan Hawthorne
Quit Porn Manifesto
Just as lung cancer and other illnesses were identified as having links to tobacco consumption, pornography is linked to an increase in harm to women. The tobacco industry, like the pornography industry, pumped billions of dollars into advertising and sponsorship around the world. Particular targets of that marketing were young people at a point in their lives where they are especially vulnerable to peer group pressure and to the idea of looking and being cool. Advertising towards men emphasised manliness (think ‘Marlboro Man’).1 Advertising towards women emphasised beauty and sexiness (think Virginia Slims). Cigarette placement in films was the norm, and holidays in Europe were associated with Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes.
Pornographers use all the same tricks to get their message across to consumers. But this time it is not a product, but a person. By and large, that person is female and young. The purchasers, on the whole, are male. Boys are groomed through masculine culture to become purchasers, responding to pornography as propaganda (Jensen, 2007). Propaganda for a particular kind of social structure that fosters the exploitation of women by men, that is, patriarchy. The message for men is about manliness, about power and pleasure. Just as in tobacco advertising, the message for women is different: it’s about presenting an aura of sexiness and of being appealing to men.
The first reports of the dangers of cigarette smoking appeared in 1964 when the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health was released in the USA. Tobacco advertising is banned in many countries and sponsorships of sport almost unheard of 45 years after the Surgeon General’s Report. While feminists have been providing evidence for the harm of pornography for many years (Dworkin and MacKinnon, 1988; McKinnon and Dworkin, 1997) the Surgeon General has not appointed an Advisory Committee to report on Pornography and Health.
Big Porn Inc: Exposing the Harms of the Global Pornography Industry Page 42