Imagine a scenario where two people are out on a date. Toward the end of it, one of them is interested in sex, the other clearly isn’t and has vocalized this. As she calls an Uber to leave, he takes her phone and cancels it and pressures her into a naked massage, and then coerces her into sex. Afterward, she leaves, distraught and disengaged.
Later, the other—let’s call him “Rob”—crafts a detailed and explicit description in a private Facebook group with thousands of members. He posts photos he secretly took of their encounter, and includes enough information for someone to be able to track her down.
Think this isn’t something that actually happens? We’ve got some bad news for you.
According to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), this is the norm for many people who live to have sexual encounters—many of them coerced—and write and post “lay reports,” complete with images that are often taken and shared without consent.
The terms are simple: Get someone to agree to have sex with you by any means necessary, write up what happened in graphic detail, then post it to a closed Facebook group for like-minded users around the world to see.
“Lay reports” and the users who post them
The ABC has seen dozens of reports, which often include images of women that group members claim to have had sex with, along with potentially humiliating details of their actions during private encounters.
In some posts, the victims of revenge porn—all of them women—are clearly identifiable, while in others their faces have been obscured. In many lay reports, images of women’s dating app profiles are offered up for discussion, often with little effort made to protect their identities.
Related: Study Shows Porn Consumption Is Connected With Everyday Forms Of Objectifying Women
It’s not unusual to privately message and trade explicit videos and images of these private encounters to other group members. For example, according to the report, Rob is understood to have posted a graphic video of a woman performing oral sex on him.
When the video was removed from Facebook, he began sending it to members via private message.
The same group hosts several other graphic posts made by Australian men, and the angle of the images and videos in some posts suggest the women are unaware of the camera’s presence.
Read the full report on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s site.
What does this have to do with porn?
Where else in our society is sex seen as currency, and explicit images are considered as consumable and discardable as the people photographed? Where else in society is coercion and lack of consent considered an invitation for further advancements? Where else in society is objectification, degradation, and humiliation considered sexy?
Porn.
Without more information, we can’t say that these members embark on their “lay report” conquests directly because of their frequent porn habits. However, because of decades of research, we know that porn does not help to shape a healthy or respectful perspective for consumers, and the concerning behavior reported in studies sounds exactly like that of the “lay report” groups above.
Related: Their Private Photos Were Shared Non-Consensually To Pornhub, And Now These Women Are Fighting Back
Study after study has shown that consumers of violent and nonviolent porn are more likely to use verbal coercion, drugs, and alcohol to coerce individuals into sex. [1] In 2016, a team of leading researchers compiled all the research they could find on the subject. [2] After examining twenty-two studies they concluded that the research left, “little doubt that, on the average, individuals who consume pornography more frequently are more likely to hold attitudes conducive [favorable] to sexual aggression and engage in actual acts of sexual aggression.”
Sometimes, this sexual aggression can consist of persistent but unwanted sexual advances whether online or in real life. For example, one study showed how porn use and other variables uniquely predicted a guy making unwanted sexual advances toward women, including objectifying them and aggressively pursuing them online. Not cool.
Consumers might tell themselves that they aren’t personally affected by porn, that they won’t be fooled into believing its underlying messages, but studies suggest otherwise. There is clear evidence that porn makes many consumers more likely to support violence against women, to believe that women secretly enjoy being raped, [3] and to actually be sexually aggressive in real life. [4] The aggression may take many forms including verbally harassing or pressuring someone for sex, emotionally manipulating them, threatening to end the relationship unless they grant favors, deceiving them or lying to them about sex, or even physically assaulting them. [5]
When will society wake up and see how unacceptable behavior, especially toward women, is perpetuated, celebrated, and fueled by porn and the culture it creates? It’s becoming clearer all the time that porn is anything but harmless personal entertainment. It’s time we all speak out about the facts.
