The Problem With Porn: Heteronormativity & Gender-roles
This article investigates heteronormative identities and gender-roles influenced by society and pornography in contributing towards female objectification and sexual dysfunction. Femininity and masculinity labels significantly impact perceptions and behaviours across cultures. In Western society, these labels exist at opposite ends of a mutually exclusive spectrum (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995), a view challenged by historical social, political and economic shifts in liberating peoples sexual-freedom, parenting-style, family-structures, marriage, work and life-choices pertaining to wider influences of gender-roles, identities and sexual orientation. Western women today are more empowered than in previous years whereby society historically condemned women’s deviation from social-norms as “unfeminine” or “irresponsible”. The Woman’s Movement is an example of activism that afforded this change involving the demand of equal rights and action against discrimination, sexual harassment, domestic abuse, and for female body-autonomy regarding abortion and contraception (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995; Levay & Baldwin, 2009).
Historically, women’s lives have been heavily controlled, facilitating oppression and inequalities particularly in ethnic minority groups (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995; Levay & Baldwin, 2009). Societal changes to a certain degree liberated women from social and political constraints that were underpinned by ridged stereotyped gender-roles and sociosexual-scripts. Nevertheless, it is important to further expand awareness of heteronormativity, sexism and gender constraints that still exist in converted areas as oppression, control, and exploitation persists in the corners of our social world - impacting criminal-trials and women’s rights, leading to objectification, sexual dysfunctions, disenchantment between the sexes and mental health issues.
Sexuality-stereotypes result from assumptions that males have different psychological and sexual needs to women - that males are the superior gender and that differences between the sexes are natural, as is male dominance (Bem, 1993). Concepts of male-centeredness is considered normal across many cultures as social-life organises itself around distinctions between the sexes with mutually exclusive scripts, maintaining that deviations from these socially-constructed norms are “problematic” (Bem, 1993). Gender-roles and heteronormativity persist across significant areas of life (Nanda, 1990) favouring men as the better, stronger, smarter gender - entitled to better money, opportunities and sexual-freedom - whilst women are restricted to exist within passive and accommodating social-narratives. However, gender-roles are not innate and neither is our awareness of them, thus it is important to investigate and challenge them and their impact. Gender-roles develop gradually from influences of sex, age, family, school, religion, friends, culture, celebrities, and various media. These influences inform us of what it means to be male or female, masculine or feminine, and what we must do to fulfil those positions in a heteronormative society.
Men and women are expected to think and behave differently in many contexts - especially in regards to sex - accommodating unfavourable double-standards. Expectations exist for females to ideally remain ‘virginal’ until marriage, whilst men aren’t confined to the same rules and expectations (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). Men instead are assigned as “sexual experts”, responsible for initiating sex and selecting erotic activities to arouse his female partner and bring her to orgasm (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). Thus, sex exists as something a man does “for” a woman, restricting sharing or flexibility of the experience as females are prohibited against directing their own sexual pleasure due to risks of “slut” labelling (Thorne, 1993).
Traditional gender-roles and social-norms aren’t as restrictive as they used to be, however similar themes still persist that pertain to archaic expectations that “nice girls don’t” and if they do, they should feel guilty and shameful. “Slut-shaming” has been highlighted in recent years by the ‘Everyday Sexism Project’, calling-out instances of sexism that are frequently disregarded and normalised. For example, women are expected to accept wolf-whistling and cat-calling as a “compliment” and face ridicule and verbal abuse if the unsolicited attention is rejected (Bates, 2014). Sexual harassment is unfortunately commonplace as the 2018 “Smart Dress” experiment demonstrated, revealing 157 incidents of groping on an average girl during a night-out, highlighting the issues of female objectification and male entitlement to woman’s bodies as sexual commodities (Natividad, 2018).
Such instances reportedly stem from stereotypical beliefs about sex and identity (Bem, 1993). Men are supposedly more interested in sex and expected to take the dominating role, whilst women are considered passive, harder to arouse and must be “coaxed” into it (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). Men resolutely try to “measure up” to hegemonic-masculinity expectations by adopting a “macho” stance, consequently ignoring or missing partners cues in maintaining a “he does it to her” dynamic (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). Women’s lack of sexual-agency and adherence to gendered sexual-scripts, obstructs women’s pleasure and positions themselves sexually as “second class citizens” (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995) by prioritizing males needs over their own. This “hesitance” in directing one’s own coital-experiences is reportedly due to women’s primed-reluctance against appearing “inappropriate” if they deviate from their feminine sexual-scripts (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). In severe cases, this can result in women being sexually subjugated to submissive roles and may be vulnerable to physical and emotional abuse as she may not feel able to demand otherwise (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). These experiences are also argued to be consequential of the depictions of female objectification in pornography which too stem from stereotypes concerning sex and identity (e.g. Papadaki, 2015).
There is significant debate around the extent to which pornography influences men’s behaviours and perceptions towards women in heterosexual-dynamics. ‘Pornography’ originates from a Greek word for writings about prostitutes, consisting of various types of communications intended to entice sexual excitement (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). The problem of porn isn’t due to the imagery itself, but rather the frequently accompanying sexual-violence which proliferates pervasive negative messages about human relationships (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). Innumerable varieties of porn are now available across multiple platforms, catering to various fetishes and kink-practices (Levay & Baldwin, 2009). Porn can be accessed remotely, securely and anonymously through the Internet, creating space between the viewer’s volitional web-searching behaviour and their accountability of those choices, opening doors for negative consequences.
Biological interactions happen when people view porn, causing men to experience erections and women to experience dilated genitals and lubrication from the vaginal walls (NHS, 2016; NHS, 2016). However, psychological changes also occur. fMRIs revealed that when men watch porn, elevated activity in the ventral striatum can be observed where the brains reward-system releases dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure (Hess, 2017; Simpson, 2017). The amygdala (the brain portion responsible emotional behaviour and motivation), also activates when viewing porn (Gola et al., 2015), both of which activates the brains reward-pathway which influences conditioning towards desiring a certain stimulus again - a process which can lead to pornography addictions (Hess, 2017). Furthermore, those who view greater amounts of porn also have lesser volumes of grey matter (The Guardian, 2014). Whilst this finding does not suggest causation, it is important to note that the average age of males who start viewing pornography for the first time is 10 years old – an age where critical brain-development is still in the process (Hess, 2017). Therefore structural brain differences/damage could reflect consequences of pornographic use.
Pornography is often use to satisfy sexual fantasies, fetishes and kinks (Levay & Baldwin, 2009), content of which consists of 25% of all pornographic material (Levay & Balwin, 2009). Whilst only some atypical sexual-desires are classed as diseases, problems can still arise if desires begin dominating lives and relationships, inflict distress or break the law. The Internet has significantly accommodated the development of progressively unconventional fetishes and whilst liberating for some, obsessions can not only negatively impact female objectification, sexual identities and gender-roles, but can also cause physiological and psychological impairments in sexual interest and performance - impacting pleasure, arousal and ability to achieve orgasm (Levay & Baldwin, 2009).
Furthermore, prolonged pornographic use can cause habituation (Zillmann, 1986), boredom and sexual dissatisfaction with partners (Weaver, 2004; Zillmann, 1988) causing the viewer to build a “tolerance” to what they view and consequently require progressively-more explicit content to achieve the same levels of satisfaction (Zillmann, 2000) which can encourage greater sexually permissive behaviours (Lo & Wei, 2005). Gradually, pornography distorts and exaggerates one’s perception of social-reality and sexual-activity, influencing overestimations of what is “normal” or should be accepted by partners (Fagan, n.d). Consequently, women become objectified, which gradually infiltrates mainstream language (Murnen, 2000), music (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011) and film (Israelsen-Hartley, 2017) as demonstrated by the “headless woman” across Hollywood, highlighting the prolific dehumanisation of women (Horan & Gil, 2018; Hinde, 2016).
Objectification and double-standard issues have also negatively impacted court trials, such as the famous 2018 case where a rapist was acquitted due to victims “provocative” underwear, triggering the social media movement “#ThisIsNotConsent’ in action against victim blaming (BBC, 2018). These issues reflect historical stereotypical characterisations of women being “mindless”, “passive” and secretly “wanting it”, reinforcing “slut-shaming” narratives and thereby making it ‘justifiable’ to further degrade them.
Pornographies distortional effects encourages beliefs that sexual relationships are recreational in nature, that men are primarily sex-driven, and that women are sex-objects and their bodies commodities (Ward, 2002). This invites the porn-viewer to think that the behaviour is thereby normal, acceptable and victimless (Layden, 2004). These beliefs get positively reinforced by the act of masturbation whilst viewing the material (Boies, 2002). Viewers don’t typically believe that their actions impact their personal behaviours or attitudes (Daluga, 2002; Cameron et al., 2005), however research shows that a vulnerability is created towards internalising abnormal sexual attitudes which consequently increase the risk of engaging in those behaviours viewed in real life (Layden, 2004). This significantly impacts perceptions of sexuality and relationships, affecting social life and can become an addiction (Layden, 2004; Goldberg et al., 2008; Daneback et al., 2006).
Prolific pornographic use additionally reduces self-esteem, sexual-satisfaction and feelings of control in life (Levay & Baldwin, 2009), further causing distress, sexual-dysfunction and compulsion - impacting quality-of-life (Black et al., 1997), triggering clinical depression (Ybarra & Mitchell, 2005), sexual aggression (Vega & Malamuth, 2007) and callousness (Zillmann, 2000), as well as notably reducing sympathy towards real-life sexual-abuse victims and increasing individuals trivialisation of rape-crimes and paedophilic abuse (Zillmann, 1988, 2000). Psychotic males are significantly more vulnerable to these affects as they are more likely to act out sexual-impulses (Weaver, 2004).
By contrast, some scholars attest that pornography is positive as it empowers women (Martin, 2007; Quinlivan, 2013), satiates boredom and shows no reliable evidence in turning people into “sexual maniacs” or that it encourages sexually manipulative/abusive behaviour or negatively impacts attitudes against women (Masters, Johnson, Kolodny, 1995). These points may have been important and reflective of society back before the turn of the century, however it is critical to note that since many of these original studies, the rate and severity of violent porn has increased considerably, potentially undermining societal efforts for gender equality (Shor & Seida, 2019).
These points demonstrate more severe consequences of pornography in the degradation against, and objectification of, women, gender-roles and identities. However there are also some more common consequences that can play a significant impact on lives such as erectile dysfunction (ED) and premature ejaculation (PE). PE may be due to young men’s “excitable nervous systems”, priming rapid ejaculation which can become a conditioned reflex and cause significant anxiety. However it can also be due to excessive exposure to pornography (Castleman, 2010). PE can negatively impact sexual performance, satisfaction, intimacy and self-esteem of both parties. PE is treatable through various relaxation and breathing exercises which can also ameliorate the opposing bodily effects of pornography, as men are encouraged to employ more leisurely and sensuality-based ‘whole-body’ arousal with their partner, as opposed to rapid orgasm when viewing explicit material as focus is intentionally shifted towards the pleasant shared experience of sex, rather than the man’s personal gratification (Castleman, 2010). Men who reduce their porn use and adhere to PE treatment practices reportedly have more fulfilling sex-lives as do their partners, as sex lasts longer and teaches men to be more attentive to the needs of their partners, increasing pleasure and satisfaction (Castleman, 2010).
Furthermore, porn is highly stimulating and rapid in its messaging due to fast changing of scenes and navigation between content. This is quite opposite to real-life sexual-engagement. If dependency and usage of pornography is great, the rate of blood-flow to penis can be impacted and restrict sexual performance, regardless attraction as individuals become conditioned to only sexually respond when viewing highly stimulating porn (Simpson, 2017). Tensions and frustrations can result, effecting intimacy and closeness between partners. It can also cause body image issues, anxiety, confusion and distrust, creating disenchantment between partners (Simpson, 2017). Treatment is available for sexual dysfunction and psychological distress from porn-abuse. Treatment is effective as human brains have plasticity and capacity to change and adapt, however reconditioning can take time and can be a frustrating process (Simpson, 2017).
Pornography is generally made for men, by men, and therefore greatly matches heteronormative ideals and is hegemonic-masculiniclly inclined, depicting men as sexually skilled, powerful and dominant and women as passive, “mindless” and plastic looking, with actresses/models frequently having augmented breasts, labia’s and hairless pubic regions. Porn thereby manipulates wider sexual perceptions by encouraging expectations for women to look and act as they do in porn. This not only exacerbates disenchantment between the sexes and damages female sexual identities, but also poses health risks as frequently condoms are not featured in pornography, which if emulated in real life may lead to unwanted pregnancies, STIs and STDs (Simpson 2017).
In sum, it is evident that many aspects of life, behaviour and beliefs have the potential to contribute towards the objectification of women, the commoditisation of women’s bodies and sex which can have significant negative consequences on jurisdiction, healthcare, criminal trials, and society more widely. However, not all patriarchal practices and beliefs cause men to go on to abuse or degrade women, nevertheless, such exposure and engagement does appear to reinforce existing stereotypes and prejudices about men and women, femininity and masculinity, gender-roles and heteronormativity as various negative attitudes become reinforced, impacting sexual-freedom and social inequalities between the sexes in Western society.
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