Recently I’ve noticed a bizarre chain of attacks on pornography, but I’m not too convinced by them. Although the attacks relate porn to all different kinds of problems with society, from marriage rates to gender equality, flawed reasoning that results in misleading conclusions is a ubiquitous feature throughout all of them. As for “Porn and the degradation of women,” a recent DM Online column written on the topic by Alexis Smith, it succeeds in addressing serious problems involving both women and pornography, but it fails in providing a convincing argument that pornography is guilty in actually being a major cause in problems involving women. By overstating society’s negative attitude towards women, Smith relies on inciting emotional reactions rather than making an actual case for her argument.
Beginning the column with an anecdote, Smith makes quite a shaky initial connection between pornography and the degradation of women. Long story short, she was called a bitch. Although her story absolutely indicates an issue that deserves attention, she relates her incident to rape culture and sexual harassment, then connecting that association to the assertion that men think that women exist only for man’s pleasure, randomly claiming that pornography is to blame for instilling that mindset in men. I have no qualms with the claim that some men think that women exist only for man’s pleasure – the issue is that she arbitrarily claims that pornography is somehow to blame for it.
First of all, pornography has actually been linked to a decline in rape rather than an increase in rape: According to the U.S. Department of Justice, since 1990, there has been an 85 percent reduction in sexual violence; this decline was so drastic that it led one researcher, Anthony D’Amato, to write a paper on the relation between pornography and rape entitled “Porn Up, Rape Down.” So, from the perspective of the rates of sexual assault, pornography is not to blame for some men believing that women are just objects for their pleasure. Continuing on from that initial faulty premise, Smith then references the age at which males begin watching pornography, embarking on an argument that should seem all too familiar if you’ve followed one hot-button issue in particular – violent video games.
In this second half of the column, the basis for Smith’s argument is that males are exposed to pornography at a young age, leading to an indoctrination of the idea that women should be objects. This argument seems reasonable enough – which is why it’s the exact argument made in objection to adolescents playing violent video games – right? Kids are impressionable; their minds are malleable. Yet, research has shown time and time again that violent video games actually have no long-term impression on violent tendencies in children, one study stating: “The effect of violent video games on public safety does not appear to be equivalent to the effect of smoking on lung cancer. Although video games might ‘affect people,’ it is unlikely they are a bigger problem than guns.” Just like pornography and rate of rape, violent crime and rate of sale of violent video games has also shown a negative correlation.
I’m sure at least one person is wondering how exactly studies with violent video games relate to watching pornography. It’s true that video games and pornography are not two of the same, but that isn’t the point – the focal point when relating these two studies is that the methodology and reasoning behind the two arguments are extremely similar. Before research emerged to prove otherwise, the primary concern with children playing violent video games was that they can’t distinguish the real world from the game world. In an identical manner, Smith claims that boys are unaware that the adult video world differs from the real world. Following a rant aimed at various issues within the pornography industry itself, she states that “every single time you type ‘non-consensual porn’ into your Google Chrome incognito window, you are allowing your brain to become further influenced by the belief that slipping a date rape drug into a girl’s drink at the bar is okay.” This is the exact line of reasoning held by advocates against video game violence, and it also happens to be the exact claim that is not reciprocated by the results of scientific studies.
Admittedly, a much better alternative to using statistics of violent video games would be using statistics involving the relationship between pornography and the devaluation of women, but such statistics don’t exist. Regardless, the central theme is the same: Children (and adults) are capable of differentiating the real world from virtual reality. An adolescent playing Grand Theft Auto won’t increase the likelihood of him or her going out and committing assault or any other violent crime. In the same vein, the arbitrary claim that the degradation of women is a result of porn consumption is not only totally unsupported, but it’s even disproven by closely related cases.
Rather than presenting factual evidence, Smith instead abuses emotional rhetoric in order to persuade rather than to prove. In most cases, Smith makes statements with the goal of shocking the reader, for example, “Remember that the woman tied up, gagged and being called ‘daddy’s nasty slut’ on your computer may not be able to even speak English, or may go home with a bloody vagina and bruises all over her body” or “Many women experience anal prolapses, where their anuses literally come out of their bodies because they are ‘ridden too hard.’” In both of these instances, Smith attacks the porn industry itself and makes it abundantly clear how badly the porn industry needs reformation (or at least regulation of some sort), but neither of these statements contribute to the claim that pornography is actually causing men to treat women as inferior in daily life. Pornography covers a massive range of subject matter, and although a portion of it is incredibly disgusting, there’s no evidence that pornography of any type actually affects the male psyche.
Now I want to discuss the actual state of affairs. I applaud Smith for bringing issues such as sexual harassment and gender inequality to light because, as someone who was also born and raised in the South, I too have regularly witnessed instances of men treating women unequally. That being said, blaming pornography is a misguided effort. It just isn’t based on evidence. The concept of female inferiority has been present in cultures across the entire world since the beginning of recorded history. Chinese men bound women’s feet because women were seen as nothing more than pretty-looking objects. American women couldn’t vote until 1920. Hell, arranged marriages still happen today. Clearly, the concept of gender equality is incredibly fresh and it’s still a work in progress. Thousands of years of tradition cannot be totally overridden in less than a century, and certainly not in an area like the South, where tradition has historically trumped rational thought. Topics like slavery and evolution come to mind.
So yes, gender equality is far from fully accomplished at Ole Miss. That being said, the idea that pornography is the reason for a lack of gender equality just doesn’t have a defendable case. The pornography industry undoubtedly has issues it needs to address, but if men are being brainwashed into believing that women are inferior, it’s the effect of a backwards culture, not of pornography consumption. Furthermore, to assume that all men consume “non-consensual porn” (which, by the way, is quite a misleading phrase, since it apparently refers to “revenge porn,” e.g. photographs distributed by an ex, much more often than it refers to porn in which one party does not consent to the act itself, according to sources such as a recent bill passed in Florida) is far beyond what could be considered reasonable, and it creates an argument more focused on shaming pornography-watchers rather than exploring the actual causes of lingering gender inequality. As gender equality has made more and more advances in American society, with equality in pay rising from 62 percent in 1979 to 81 percent in 2010 and with employed women attaining average levels of education surpassing that of employed men, pornography has remained a consistent part of young males’ lives – reports from the mid-80s show boys aged 12-17 were the largest consumers of pornography. The pornography industry itself continues to raise moral questions, but the claim that it has a measurable effect on the way men view women is simply not a claim that can be made based on the available evidence. Until such evidence surfaces, situations such as the one that Smith experienced are much better used as tools for examining the underlying issues behind gender inequality, such as ingrained cultural beliefs, rather than as an excuse to chase after a red herring with neither statistical nor historical backing.
Brandon is a sophomore international studies major from Knoxville, Tennessee.
