by Jessica Westfall
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation held a briefing about Pornography in July.
One of the speakers, Gail Dines, is a Professor of Sociology at Wheelock College in Boston and the Founder and Chair of Culture Reframed. She has studied the nature of pornography for 25 years. In her presentation she gives this scenario and explanation of pornography exposure and the goals behind the pornographers:
A young boy, about 11 (the average age of first porn exposure) , is interested in sex and he goes to the internet for his information. Mainstream porn is easy to access and largely free and it is what this young boy will be exposed to roughly 15 seconds after typing “porn” into a search engine. It is also cruel, abusive, and violent. What he sees will traumatize him. Gail Dines explains why this is such an effective business plan (the porn industry is a business with a plan like any other Fortune 500 company). The more traumatizing the porn the more this boy will come back. You go back to the site of your unresolved trauma. It is a smart move for pornographers searching for clientele.
She has many excellent recommendations to fight this pornography epidemic. The recommendation I want to especially emphasize is education. Most people are not aware that the porn industry has grown into one of the word’s most lucrative and harmful businesses. This business is invested in attracting young viewers. The idea that porn is harmless or empowering still permeates society, while nearly all forms of sexual violence are connected to porn in some way. Porn is legitimizing and normalizing violence against women and children. As Gail Dines puts it, ‘porn is teaching the man to “make hate” to woman, and the woman is portrayed as enjoying this “hate”.’
To sum up the pornography industry in Gail Dines words, “Porn is often misleadingly defined as fun or fantasy, but in reality, it is a predatory multimillion dollar industry that has our sons (and daughters) in its crosshairs.”
For more information on the harms of pornography watch the presentation or read the speakers’ remarks here: http://endsexualexploitation.org/briefing/
Gail Dines remarks are not sugar-coated, she details the words, images, and acts available from the porn industry, and it is horrific. It is worth knowing to understand what we’re dealing with. To skip her speech start watching the video at 10:40.