Looking for podcasts, books etc about the effects of porn and the pornification of society from a critical point of view?

[visionsofbanana]

I am looking for youtube videos, podcasts, articles, books, websites that take a critical look at the effects of porn on individuals and society as a whole. I've noticed that in general now there is an accepted view that porn, sexual liberation, not kink shaming, sex work as work are all positive things which we should all be embracing.

However I feel that the pornification of people, relationships and society is really damaging. As far as I can tell children are getting access to porn at younger and younger ages, and so by the time they get to young adulthood they are already desensitised to regular porn (and the abusive nature of it) and are already often deep into what would once have been extreme content. It is practically normal these days for girls to be into bdsm type stuff because that is what porn exposes them to and grooms them for. Boys watch ever stronger abusive content and then as they become more and more desensitised they seek every more extreme content hypnosis, brain washing type stuff as well as illegal content. It is now pretty common for posters on a well known cesspit forum to post asking for users to sent anything legal or illegal for them to get off to. While the roots of certain behaviours are debatable it seems highly likely that porn leads many to look at and experiment with things they would not have considered without such access to porn.

I have wondered if the drive to normalise the sexualisation of children is in part driven but the pornification of society and its drive legitimise more and more "edgy" sexual practices?

Then we have all the young women on platforms like onlyfans where they sell pornographic material of their own bodies in the hope of making £££ when most of them will only ever earn a small amount if anything while their content will be on the internet forever and who know if it will come back to haunt them or their families, affect career options etc.

On another feminist forum I have seen some discussion that porn seems to be seriously affecting the psychosocial development of some young men to the point where they are incapable of working or forming relationships, that porn severed as an easier proxy during key developmental stages so they missed out on normal healthy development.

Women of all ages are not increasingly opting out of dating and male relationships altogether, perhaps not a bad thing as poor male treatment of women is not a new development but I don't think the pornification of society and men has helped at all.

So I am interested in all these elements how porn use leads to desensitisation and need for greater and greater stimulus i.e. more extreme content and how that reflects in society as a whole, the boom in sex work, male development, and women's loss of interest in men.

Thanks in advance!

"Women of all ages are not increasingly opting out of dating"

Should be "women are now increasingly opting out of dating"

You could have a look at Julie Bindel’s substack or read some of her books/ research and at Gail Dines website. Also FiLia2022 recording : Organising Against Pornography on YouTube. FiLiA also have a link to their Feminist Library picks on their website, under books. There’s a book called “He Chose Porn Over Me” on their list.

@LoobiJee Thanks for those recommendations will check them out!

Try Louise Perry : The Case Against the Sexual Revolution

Feminist Current podcast by Meghan Murphy has had guests on who critically discuss porn.

There's a reality good episode of the FiLiA podcast about He Chose Porn Over Mr. It's an interview with the author.
podcast.filia.org.uk/1983918/11112569

Sex dolls, robots and woman hating is another good book and again, there's an episode of the FiLiA podcast with the author.
podcast.filia.org.uk/1983918/11454762-184-sex-robots-and-woman-hating-with-caitlin-roper

Collective Shout is a great campaigning organisation
www.collectiveshout.org/

Everyone's Invited was started by some girls who wanted a place to share their experiences of sexual harassment in schools which has risen greatly because of easy access to violent and degrading porn.
www.everyonesinvited.uk/

The children's commissioner produced a report about the harmful effects to children of exposure to porn.

www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/pornography-and-harmful-sexual-behaviour/

Nordic Model Now mainly campaigns against prostitution but also talks about web camming.

nordicmodelnow.org/2020/10/24/3-dangerous-myths-about-webcamming-debunked/

If anyone is interested, their next one day Conference is on London in November.
I went to last year's and it was excellent.

Porn has led boys to expect anal sex. Girls and young women are being coerced into this which has resulted in a rise in anal injuries and health problems.

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/11/rise-in-popularity-of-anal-sex-has-led-to-health-problems-for-women

Porn has also led to the normalisation of choking.

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/25/fatal-hateful-rise-of-choking-during-sex

It's also become common for boys and young men to spit on their female partners, often without asking first.
Again, what used to be a weird kink has become mainstream because of porn
Spitting is universally used as a sign of contempt so it's another way of degrading girls and women.

I looked for a link but everything was for a porn site or a website extolling the virtues of kink. Nothing I would click on.

I follow Fight The New Drug on Twitter. This is a link to the website.

fightthenewdrug.org/10-reasons-why-porn-is-unhealthy-for-consumers-and-society/

Here's a few useful FiLiA videos.

There is a great one by Meghan Murphy Feminist Current
'Beyond Fantasy' with Benjamin Nolan who makes documentaries about the harm caused by porn. It is an incredible listen. There are some very dark quotations from the pornographer Max Hardcore which will stay with you.

And another called The Truth About Only Fans. There is another one by her which I haven't listened to called 'Why are we still pretending porn is harmless?

In the Times today, I've not read it yet:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/2b5f2a4e-b8f6-404c-993e-2ffca1a161ba?shareToken=7a298d48bcdfaaf66fa3a39b2eb0784c

The Benjamin Nolan podcast with MM was the one I wanted to recommend but I couldn’t remember his name. He was interviewed on Benjamin Boyce’s Calmversations podcast around the same too, similar questions but some different angles covered. DH and I talked about the MM podcast afterwards. He still remembers something Max Hardcore said to camera on a TV documentary about the US porn scene that we watched (in horror) in the 90s, something along the lines of “if you’re not crying, we’re not having fun.” He said it stayed with him because he was so appalled. Benjamin Nolan touches on this with MM.

Thanks everyone these are all great resources although shockingly it seems even worse than I expected 😔It is frightening what has become normalised due to the wide spread access men and boys have to hardcore porn from a young age. Mumsnet have auto-suggested a few interesting links below too I see!

Anyway I will have a listen/read/watch of this stuff over the weekend. Thanks again I really appreciate it and if anyone has anything else then please add to the list!

Got this from my local library and have just started it - what I've read so far is very thought provoking.

Also more academic papers have come out about the possible impact of such very widespread porn consumption. I can think of at least two questions they address:

First, the surveys of young women and girls (maybe all women) who are asked if they are strangled (not choked which is the wrong word to use here), slapped, or spat at by male sexual partners without any consent being first asked for.

Second, the apparently increasing male erectile dysfunction among young men and boys who consume enormous amounts of porn to masturbate to.

There are also some medical statements (not seen studies but they may exist) about a greater number of young women and girls presenting with anal tears caused by anal sex (which is more dangerous for the female anatomy), and concerns about the use of strangling on general health as some of its harmful effects may not present right away (such as greater likelihood of strokes).

Finally, I have seen at least one study which found that giving male study subjects extreme porn to read (while giving the control group of men something neutral to read) caused the former to then give more misogynistic answers than the latter in a set of questions about women and women's rights.

There's probably much more in the research papers that is relevant.