*READER DISCRETION ADVISED. Many May Find The Following Language Describing Porn To Be Graphic, Disturbing, And/Or Triggering.*
A recent report in Australia on Aussie teen and young adult porn habits showed some pretty concerning trends, including that young men were much less likely to identify the acts in porn as “violent” than young women.
The study was done by a team from the Burnet Institute, a medical research organization in Australia. They found that 36.5% of the more than 500 Aussie ages 15 to 29 could identify violence in the porn they watched in the past year, while only 11.1% could identify nonconsensual violence against women.
Identifying Violence
The researchers doing this particular Australian study did not tell their subjects what would qualify as violence. There wasn’t a standard to measure it against, except the consumer’s own perceived idea of what constituted violent or nonconsensual behavior, which made the study unique.
About 85% of the consumers self-identified that the porn they were consuming was “men’s pleasure” and male dominance, but the women were much more likely to identify violence toward women than men were.
Related: Study: Australians Know Porn Degrades Women, But Still Watch It
Young women and young men are watching similar behaviors in porn and yet young women were more likely to identify behaviors as violent, and most of the violence identified was done toward females. But what does this all mean?
Scary Stats
Here are a few concerns we have based off of this report. Take a look.
- 40% of these consumers stated that the porn they watched nearly always focused on men’s pleasure, while only 13.4% said that the porn they watched focused on women’s pleasure.
- 41.6% of the consumers identified nonconsensual violence toward women at least once in the porn they consumed, as opposed to only 15.6% against men, with 0% saying it doesn’t happen in every video.
- 36.5% of the consumers said that they saw violence in at least half the porn they watch or more.
- 34.3% saw women being called names or slurs more than half of the time, as compared to only 6.5% seeing men called names or slurs more than half of the time.
See the actual data table from the study here:
See the disparity here? According to these statistics, these consumers reveal the porn they’re consuming on the regular is focused on male pleasure, and more often than not includes violence or degradation toward women. It’s worth noting that even though porn focuses on pleasure, it actually ends up diminishing the pleasure of consumers in real life interactions.
An International Issue
Not being able to identify violence in porn is not just a concern for the land Down Under. In fact, a national survey in the U.S. found that almost half of porn consumers ages 13 to 25 think that pain and abuse in pornography is totally acceptable. This messed-up, unhealthy mindset is affecting porn consumers all over the world.
Related: Research Finds Softcore Porn Leads To Greater Acceptance of Rape Culture
Now, nonconsensual sexual violence is never okay toward anyone of any gender, but the fact that there is almost triple the amount of violence toward women shown in porn teens are consuming is concerning. It’s even more problematic when young women identify nonconsensual violence in pornography much more frequently than men.
Other statistics showed that things like women gagging during oral sex or someone ejaculating on their face were incredibly common in mainstream porn, though the same was almost unheard of toward men.
Porn and Domestic Violence
There are also a few other things that are concerning about these numbers. One is that only 72.2% of consumers said that they see romance in pornography less than half of the time. This speaks to the idea that porn is so far from showing consumers what healthy relationships are like in reality. And while porn shows the most explicit content possible, it doesn’t actually show real sex. Ironic, right?
Related: Data Shows Australian Domestic Violence Crisis Is Fueled By Violent Porn
Another disheartening statistic from the report: 38.6% of consumers had never seen any condom usage in the porn they consumed. So not only are these teens regularly consuming porn that normalizes violence (primarily against women), but the performers weren’t displaying the importance of using protection.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. A study in 2009 showed that only 18% of American entertainers use condoms during pornography. Not cool.
So, in the end, according to the self-identified statistics from these young Aussies, they are watching unromantic, risky sex that is focused on non-mutual pleasure and lopsided power dynamics, and a lot of the time it involves nonconsensual violence. How is that healthy for anyone?
It’s time we do better, for this generation and the generations to come, and see porn for the toxic product it is. Stop clicking porn, because porn continues to unapologetically normalize violence.
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