Women Hooked on Pornography Part 2: How does Pornography Affect Female Consumers?

Last week, we reported that 1 in 3 women admit to viewing pornography. That means that although the majority of pornography consumers are still men, women are incredibly influenced by it. It got us thinking: How is it affecting them? How is a woman’s experience different from a man’s? These are giant questions, ones that need more time and space for exploration than we are able to get into here.

From the research we have done, however, it is clear that pornography affects women differently. Often, it informs their beliefs about what they deserve in sexual relationships which can be devastating to their self-image, intimacy, and health.

Women are Watching Violent Pornography

First off, according to a study conducted by a team of academics, pornography use is still considered a gendered activity that is, that “men are far more likely to watch pornography and more likely to have engaged or want to engage in pornographic sexual behaviors.””The study specifically looks at whether or not people who watch pornography—including violent and deviant videos—are more likely to practice what they see in their own bedrooms.

Before discussing the findings of study, it is important to note a few more statistics.

Statistic #1: Psychology Today has this to say about the relationship between female pornography users and the types of pornography they view:

• Most women don’t like porn
• But those women who do, tend to like the same kind of porn that men do.

These two facts are important, because they refute a common stereotype: That women who like pornography like “soft-core” or “erotica” type videos. Perhaps some women do but according to studies, women who watch are watching the same things men are.

Statistic #2: In her book Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality, Gail Dines reports that 88% of pornography videos contain violence against women. She says that “women of porn world seem to enjoy having sex with men who express nothing but contempt and hatred for them.”” Together, these two statistics suggest that women watching pornography are watching primarily violent pornography, and this causes a real problem.

In Pornography, Women Suffer Violence

Back to the original study, researchers found that overall, male and female pornography users “are more likely to have tried or have an interest in trying sexual behaviors most frequently seen in pornography.” They indicate that many of those sexual behaviors involve “some level of aggression ranging from light slapping to choking,” which are almost 100% of the time enacted on the female partner.

Women in pornographic films rarely act upon their male counterpoint. Studies show that women are “most often the targets of the sexually aggressive behavior or are engaged in a sex act that is more taxing on their body.” (Really, we do not need research to confirm this).

Typically, women are acted upon, and often with multiple male and/or female partners, sometimes in humiliating group scenarios where their bodies are used for often degrading and physically damaging acts.

Furthermore, according to Mary Anne Layden, a professor of sociology and women’s studies, pornography“”changes beliefs about rape and sexual violence ” a man may learn that there is no need to pay attention to a woman who is resisting, crying, screaming, struggling, or saying no, because ultimately she wants it and will enjoy it.

Making violence“”sexy” through pornography changes the way women who watch it understand what they, themselves, deserve and can expect in their own intimate lives.

So what happens?