Mail Article - Porn’s obsession with young girls

Oh yes, I did realise that it wasn't your opinion

@HoneysuckIejasmine

I 100% agree with you. But if it helps get into their thick misogynist heads that women are just like their Mums and daughters im happy to use this phrase to certain men. I appreciate everyone in this thread does not come under that category.

I appreciate that some men can only empathise with women they actually know, but I really hate the "she's someone's daughter/wife/mother". It implies she he's no value as a human being in her own right. She shouldn't be mistreated because it's wrong, not because it might upset her Dad.

I read an interesting article about a porn actor who has now had several allegations made by his 'co-stars' basically along the lines of that the scenes they consented to did not happen, once they were 'on set' as it were they were drugged and the scenes became brutal and degrading. Horrifying stuff. They consented to sex, not violent rape. There were comments under the article saying it's about time porn had it's own MeToo movement and i hope it does.
There are voices that need to be heard and these women are somebodies daughter/ sister etc.

Yes I agree many women but into it just as much as men. I think it has just become so normalised (especially for younger generations) that both men and women don't stop to question what it is they're actually watching. It's just another thing that it consumed mindlessly.

I agree the industry is rotten but how many here complaining about female abuse in porn bought or read that 50 shades monstrosity? A lot of women also watch violent porn.

The sad thing is women buy into the misogyny just as much as men.

...and sex sells
Not really, it is sexism that sells. And porn is not really about sex and making love, it is about making hate and dominance, raising men to become sadists and women to become masochists.

Women who watch porn or tolerate it's use by their partners are enabling abuse of other women, including their daughters.

What was one of the biggest selling books and film franchise of the last decade? 50 Shades. Essentially a violent porn novel with the lead female character abused by a man. And it was women who were buying it and wetting themselves over it. What message does that send?

Carey writes passionately how her own daughter is harassed as soon as she leaves the house. How this is partially due to the expansion of the porn culture and the long term implications for young girls and women. In fact these implications are already with us as seen by the court cases around ‘rough sex’.

Teenage girls being harassed is hardly a modern problem.

It's worrying how mainstream it has become to watch porn which is so degrading to women. There are plenty of women who watch it too. Many of my peers do and just don't question the morality of it or look at it from a feminist perspective because it's just there easily available on places like porn hub and it's something everyone does. Pornhub itself has done a very clever job of its marketing and normalising it's brand. I just don't think they see the performers as real people. Only when I raise the issues with them do they realise how problematic it is.

I don't have a problem with all porn in theory after all it is just consenting adults having sex on camera and the idea of policing peoples sexuality makes me uncomfortable. However in reality it is often really degrading to women, really rough/violent, there is some stuff which are so shady when it comes to consent and it is extremely problematic the way it fetishises really young women. It's warping the minds of young boys who have access to this stuff far too young. I also dread to think some of the conditions some of the performers (especially the women) work under and some of these girls get caught up in it at such a young age and then it's out there forever they can erase it.

I do also wonder if it feeds into our own sexuality and starts to influence what people find erotic (being submissive to a dominant male for example). So you think that is what you're into, but is it really!? Or is that what you've been conditioned to think.

Interestingly many of my friends who watch it don't have children. I do think having them can make you see the world through very different eyes with regard to this. It's deeply concerning that kids are able to access this stuff online so easily.

Plus, there's a social taboo about talking about it
Well yeah, suits men if women don't talk about it so don't know what it involved.
Then most of the companies have a vast PR machine/good marketing/lobbying.
It's a disgrace

Plus, there's a social taboo about talking about it though not about bloody watching it.

Raquel Rosario Sánchez takes part in a debate at the Oxford Union.

She's the young feminist academic from the Dominican Republic, who has been relentlessly bullied at Bristol University by transactivists. Could do with some digging, if anyone has a spade to hand.

Really interesting on that debate. She's wonderful.

The reality is that most of us here have probably never watched those videos and would probably be ill by the time it was finished. So, women dont actually know what our young men are watching.
Yes. Which is why there aren't effective campaigns by women about this. Most women don't realise what is on these sites, they just think "all men do it" and move on.

I agree somewhat Goose that women have lots of social influence, but I do think it is less than that of men.

And we are siloed off into "women's areas" so we can have influence over breastfeeding or period poverty...but not so much over "male issues", which is where I see porn lying.

But the cultural capture by the sexual revolution has been almost totally effective. Even those uncomfortable with porn today have very little language to express the problem, and even less to talk about the deeper issues of why it is bad. All that has been consigned to the prudes of earlier eras, or religion. At the same time, many believe it is next to impossible, even unhealthy, for people to repress sexual urges.

The other terrible thing about porn is that it doesnt just lead to desensitisation and need for more extreme porn, the need for more extreme stimulation spills into real life as well.

So these young men, at what should be the peak of their sexual lives literally cant get it up, or at least cant achieve orgasm without props, anal, choking etc.

And it affects women too, both as recipients of the need for men to have a more "extreme" experience to get off, and as porn consumers becoming desensitized themselves.

Someone linked to the Hope Not Hate study on misogyny in schools, and they found that it's actually growing amongst young people, especially men. Girls are accepting a level of casual misogyny now that we'd hoped to have seen the back of.

If kids see porn that degrades women horribly - violent, demeaning, misogynist in the purest form - with real ease of access from early in secondary school, then of course that will form some of their ideas on not only sexual relationships, but women's value.

The internet has meant porn (which used to be dodgy VHS cassettes and half hidden mags, and then something kids could sneak from the family computer when parents were asleep or out, if they were careful to scrub their histories) is now totally available to kids on their phones. And there are no limits online either - porn used to be subject to some controls, in terms of how violent or extreme it could be. Online, that's gone. It can be taken into school, so even if parents are vigilant over their own kids' acess, they can't control what other kids share with them.

Catcalling and street harassment and weird men following you is as old as time. Hardcore porn streamed for kids as they grow up is anything but. And film footage that is completely based upon degrading sexual abuse of women is not "sex positive". It's toxic.

Misogyny needs to be recognised as a hate crime, and women a protected strand for reporting and recording it. We need a way for people to actually notice. To see it. As things stand, it's so commonplace it's like fish trying to get people to notice water.

Hear, hear RE hydra head for bringing this topic up IRL. It seems the world is simultaneously watching this stuff all the time yet blissfully unaware of its existence. It's become an open secret.

Why is it that the only place where we see any pushback against the tide of pornography is where women talk?

Why are men not on their many many many many male dominated forums (fora?) talking about how much harm this causes?

SorryWavesI thought you were apologising for this behaviour.
Tone doesn't translate on a screen.

Its alright i hate both porn and pervs. But pervs have always existed. But i agree with all the comments that the normalisation of extreme acts have affected the behaviour of men, and society as a whole, and potentially made this issue worse.
Its just such a can of worms subject and when i talk about it in real life people look at me like i have 2 heads and that i am the one with the problem.
Pandoras out the box now and as pp have said, a man has to only go to the bathroom with a smartphone to access all kinds.
We need strong education for teenagers that porn isnt real and to teach them to respect one another.

Earl I agree, it's not the same as porn, but it does contribute to the general atmosphere of 'women and girls are there to be sexy'.

I don't really think I'd blame men for not saying anything to their friends - the fact is that a lot of pop culture says that it is normal and healthy, and many women also buy into that

You know Goosefoot I would have agreed with you a few years ago.

But, if you are on this board, you know where the power in society lies.
We all know the power of social attitudes. Right now, where I am, if I go into shops without a facemark, I feel naked and wrong.

Women are the weaker group in society, not only physically, but in terms of social influence and capital.
If men started expressing disgust at others using this extreme porn, that would be powerful.

As it is, we cannot even name the problem in "polite society" because no-one wants to bring up the word "porn" in those circles.
I have mentioned it in my children's parents education evenings....................lots of shifting in seats, uncomfortable silence, and moving off the topic.

The reality is that most of us here have probably never watched those videos and would probably be ill by the time it was finished.
So, women dont actually know what our young men are watching.

Men, real actual decent men, need to step up.

But, it's the degree of titlliation. While it's on the same continuum, and it is part of the commodification of women, the sidebar is nowhere near the degree of degradation depicted in porn.