Elizabeth Smart On Her Captivity: Pornography Made My Living Hell Worse

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Undoubtedly, everyone watched pornography (porn) at least once in their lifetime. There are many different opinions surrounding porn and they usually lean more towards the negative spectrum. Porn is associated with many perceptions such as it causes addiction, sexual violence and it objectifies women. This essay will discuss those negative perceptions in detail.

What is pornography? There is no definite meaning of pornography as "what is regarded as obscene in one era is often regarded as culturally valuable in another" (McKee, Albury and Lumby 2008, 4). An important takeaway is that although there is no clear definition, we still recognise porn when we see it (Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964). Thus, to identify porn, one needs to assess its audience …show more content…

In an article titled "Elizabeth Smart on Her Captivity: 'Pornography Made My Living Hell Worse'", Elizabeth talked about how watching porn caused her kidnapper to constantly rape her (Chuck 2016). Cases like this have us point finger at porn as a cause for sexually aggressive behaviour. However, it is worth mentioning that her kidnapper was diagnosed with mental illness and he was so unstable that he could only be sentenced years after his arrest (The Associated Press 2011). There are many factors to consider when it comes to assessing the cause of sexual violence. Multiple studies have shown that individuals with "an impersonal orientation toward sex, a hostile approach to gender relations, and a disagreeable personality" present a higher association between porn consumption and sexually aggressive behaviour (Wright, Tokunaga and Kraus 2015, 200). Research has also shown that people who display anti-social personality traits and tendencies towards sexual aggression are more likely to consume violent porn, and to be more negatively affected by them than are people without these characteristics (Kingston and Malamuth 2011, 1047). However, this does not mean that people who consume violent porn are all violent. It is proven that violent porn viewers purge their sexually aggressive desires vicariously thus, lessening their likelihood of committing sexual violence. Non-violent porn …show more content…

According to Vandenbosch and van Oosten, constant exposure to porn is associated with the objectification of women (2017, 1019). This, however, can be prevented by porn literacy education which aims to "increase awareness and an informed view of the goals and representations of sexual interactions in pornography" (Albury 2014). Findings reveal that individuals who received porn literacy education adopted notions of women as sex objects lesser than those who did not receive (Potter 2004). This shows porn literacy education aids in diminishing the relationship between porn consumption and women objectification (Vandenbosch and van Oosten 2017, 1030). Porn has mostly, if not always, been produced for and by men. However, there has been a rise of feminist porn which is porn produced by women for women, transforming the male gaze to female gaze. Feminist porn is "sex-positive, depicts sexual consent and agency, and prioritizes female pleasure" (HuffPost, 2013). Like many other industries, women possess the ability to control and make choices in their work. The idea that all porn actresses are exploited and degraded is untrue. An interview with Emiri Okazaki, an ex-porn star, revealed that she chose to enter the industry willingly and does not regret her decision (Asian Boss, 2018). It is also worth mentioning that the porn industry is one of the few industries that pay women more than men (Morris

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