let's talk about the effects of porn

"Las tres Gracias" by Pedro Pablo Rubens, 1630-35

So I have a problem with people who're unwilling to address the potentially negative effects of porn, because if we can't acknowledge those, we also can't acknowledge the potentially positive effects of any visual imagery and narrative. Tell me: have you never been moved by an image or a text? Haven't you ever felt particularly empowered and inspired after looking at an image, or soaking in a narrative? I know I have. Countless times. And including from the transformed porn by women I write about in my book (forthcoming this fall from Zero Books).

Anti-porn feminists have for fear of censorship for decades refused to address the potentially negative effects of porn. At the same time, much time and money has been wasted by researchers trying to determine a causal link between porn and violence. No research has been able to back up anti-porn feminist Robin Morgan's infamous slogan "pornography is the theory, and rape the practice." (With the exception of a small "at risk" group of audience where violent porn does seem to be the final spark of fuel to ignite the fire.)

But what about research investigating the positive effects of porn? In my book and in various posts (for a starter, see here and here), I have written about porn that has empowered and inspired me. Porn that has encouraged me to take charge of my body and self-image: to claim, own, enjoy and explore my body and sex on my terms.

Good art can help us do this. Because art, image, text, words, narrative: they affect us.

So let's not be so quick at dismissing the potentially negative effects of mainstream porn where women's bodies and sex are misrepresented. And especially not when these potential effects are presented so carefully, thoughtfully, and hypothetically, with the authors carefully adding that it only "may affect in such and such a way" in every sentence suggesting we do consider the potentially negative effect of porn saturated by naked Barbie Doll women characterized by a low BMI, narrow hips, a prominent bust, and hairless, undefined genitalia resembling those of a prepubescent female (I'm referring to the Evulvaution article I post about here).

Sure porn, popular media, art, what have you, aren't the only things that affect us. But they do affect us.

In response to the suggestion that we blame not the media but our upbringing for how we feel about our bodies and sex, I'd say: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Clearly, my mother's body issues and sexual shaming affected me. But where did she get that from? Before Twiggy, what did we have? And I'm not just thinking Marilyn Monroe. Look back through history at how women have been represented, and they look nothing like the Barbie doll ideal that saturates mainstream (and especially softcore) porn today. (Hint: it takes only a single look above for a preview.)

(This post was written in response to an online discussion in response to the Evulvalution article I wrote about at my Love, Sex, and Family site here.)