Critics of pornography do not argue that pornography is ever the sole direct causal agent in sexual violence. No one argues that if pornography disappeared that rape would disappear. Instead, the discussion should be about the ways in which pornography might be implicated in sexual violence in this culture. We understand that pornography alone doesn't make men do it, but that pornography is part of a world in which men do it, and therefore the production, content, and use of pornography are important to understand in the quest to eliminate sexual violence.
Pornography in the post-World War II era has changed from an underground business with extensive ties to organized crime, to a flourishing industry that operates more openly and includes many small producers and several corporations with substantial assets. In 2002, more than 11,000 new hard-core video/DVD titles were released ( Adult Video News, 2002) and annual sales are estimated at $10 billion or higher ( Lane, 2000, p. xiv). Although it is not the focus of this essay, one crucial question about pornography and violence concerns the conditions under which the women work in pornography. There is evidence that force and coercion are sometimes used to secure women's participation ( Lovelace, 1980, 1986), but the contemporary mainstream/corporate industry has no problem finding women (and men) who are willing to perform. Still, the question of what effect the routine sexual activity in pornography (such as double-penetrations, in which a woman is penetrated vaginally and anally by two men at the same time) has on women is largely unexplored. Anecdotal evidence ( Gittler, 1999) combined with extrapolations from the data available about women in prostitution ( Baldwin, 1989; Farley, 2003) suggests that psychological and physical damage is common and that heavy alcohol and drug use are routine.
An extensive analysis of the content of contemporary pornography is beyond the scope of this essay, but some understanding is important in evaluating the effects. My own studies and reviews of other examinations of content suggest there are a few basic themes in pornography: (1) All women at all times want sex from all men; (2) women enjoy all the sexual acts that men perform or demand, and; (3) any woman who does not at first realize this can be easily turned with a little force, though force is rarely necessary because most of the women in pornography are the imagined "nymphomaniacs" about whom many men fantasize.
Contemporary pornography will make use of any relationship of domination and subordination -- a power differential between people that can be sexualized and exploited. The primary domination/subordination dynamic eroticized in pornography is, of course, gender. Beyond that, there are specific genres of pornography that trade on racist stereotypes: the hypersexual black men, hot-blooded Latinas, compliant Asian women. There is pornography set on plantations with slaves and in Nazi concentration camps. Pornography is made using women with disabilities ( Elman, 1997). There is virtually no relationship of power and domination one can imagine that has not been "pornographized."
As pornography has become more acceptable, both legally and culturally, the level of brutality toward, and degradation of, women has intensified ( Jensen, 2004). As one pornography director put it, "People just want it harder, harder, and harder...what are you gonna do next?" ( Adult Video News, 2003, p. 60). Another director was blunt in describing his task: "[O]ne of the things about today's porn and the extreme market, the gonzo market, so many fans want to see so much more extreme stuff that I'm always trying to figure out ways to do something different. But it seems everybody wants to see a girl doing a d.p. (double penetration) now or a gangbang. For certain girls, that's great, and I like to see that for certain people, but a lot of fans are becoming a lot more demanding about wanting to see the more extreme stuff. It's definitely brought porn somewhere, but I don't know where it's headed from there" (p. 46).
These comments point to the problem in many researchers' creation of categories such as violent versus non-violent pornography. Are double anals (in which two men penetrate a woman anally at the same time) or gag-inducing oral sex (in which men try to press their penises so far down women's throat that they gag or vomit) violent or merely degrading but non-violent? If virtually all pornography constructs women as sexual objects to be used by men, is there pornography that isn't denigrating?
Virtually all reviews of the research on the potential connections between pornography and sexual violence suggest there is evidence for some limited effects on male consumers but no way to reach definitive conclusions. If one is looking for direct causal links in a traditional science model, this is likely to be a permanent assessment; it is difficult to imagine research methods that could provide more compelling data and conclusions. However, if we expand the scope of the inquiry, other insights are possible ( Boyle, 2000).
Three basic types of studies have emerged in the search for an answer to the question about the relationship between pornography and violence, two of which are within the traditional science model and of limited value. First, a few large-scale studies have investigated the correlation of the availability of pornography to rates of violence, with mixed results ( Kutchinsky, 1991; Jaffee & Strauss, 1987). The complexity of confounding variables and the imprecision of measures make these studies of extremely limited value.
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