Our generation places an emphasis on healthy, safe, and humane businesses. So many of us want our eggs free-range, our produce organic, and our makeup cruelty-free.
Research has shown that millennials are much more likely to support companies with a purpose or cause attached to them. It’s important to many of this generation and the next to know that we’re making an effort not to support companies or industries that sell harmful products, or harm workers or animals in the process. This kind of consumer activism is powerful, because it affects how these businesses operate and it affects what we buy and why we buy it. After all, the consumer is king, and what is demanded, is supplied. Right?
On the flip side, it seems as though this generation and the next don’t seem quite as specifically concerned about everything they consume on the regular. For example, have you ever thought about where your porn comes from, or what other industries you’re supporting by contributing to the demand for porn?
Study after study has demonstrated the harmful effects of porn, and yet one popular porn site reported that, in just one year, people spent nearly 4.6 billion hours viewing porn. This breaks down to 23 billion visitors, watching a total of 91.9 billion videos, all which have increased since the year before.
It’s clear people are watching more porn than ever before, but many don’t know how they’re fueling the demand for a dangerous and harmful product. So if you’ve never known before, here’s your opportunity to learn.
No “Safe” Alternative
When consumers are concerned about the dangers of a product, or have concerns about how something is created, they can most often look for a safer, better alternative that fits their standards.
However, there simply is no “safe” or “better” option when it comes to the porn industry. Some companies may claim to have great workplaces and safety regulations, but their product however consensually or nonconsensually produced still normalizes violence and abuse, is indisputably linked to human trafficking, and can lead to compulsive consumption that harms consumers. Not to mention that porn demotes real human beings into nothing more than sexual objects, to be used and discarded like products, inherently promoting objectification and exploitation.
And considering the massive popularity of violent, degrading porn, and producers’ desire to make their content as extreme as possible to keep with the growing demand, does it seem like the industry is moving in a positive, healthy direction, and promoting positive, healthy messages? No, not at all.
And worse yet, the porn industry has been proven to fuel the already existing atrocities of human trafficking—the sad fact is, global demand for porn fuels the demand for forced or coerced performances.
Unfortunately, this is the nature of the porn industry, and there’s no real alternative to this other than putting the time, money, and energy spent on porn into a real relationship. Porn and violence go hand in hand, and there’s no true, lasting way around that unless you ditch it all together.
The Problem With Porn
But how does all of this tie back to the average consumer at home? The truth is, there is no way for the consumer tell if what they are watching was made illegally or if all parties are there willingly. And even if they’re there willingly, performing on camera, were they coerced or threatened into agreement? Did they truly understand what they were getting into before it happened, and did they have the ability to safely and freely stop what was happening if they desired to without repercussions? Too often, the answer is no. And even if just one case of sex trafficking or coercion resulted because of porn, that’s one case too many.
Also, the problem with porn is that it can become a roadblock for totally capable people in taking on the challenge to build and maintain meaningful, intimate relationships. Porn doesn’t demand consideration of another person’s sexual boundaries, and it won’t help consumers understand the importance of consent or how it feels to face rejection. It can teach consumers to be selfish, sexually aggressive, and ultimately train their preferences to seek unrealistic and unhealthy fantasy. Based on this line of thinking, there is still something totally damaging about the consumption of porn, even if it were possible that it’s all produced in a safe workplace, all with enthusiastically consenting performers. (Which, pro tip, it’s not possible.)
We become a part of the problem when we contribute to a product that is damaging our generation’s understanding of healthy sex and contributing sex trafficking around the world. Stopping the demand starts here, with each of us choosing not to click a harmful product.
Time For Change
Many members of society avoid certain products because they believe that they are produced unethically or have dangerous consequences for consumers, producers, or society in general. They understand that supporting these industries is supporting the harms that they inflict.
When it comes to pornography, those harms are abundantly clear.
Even apart from the harm to a porn consumer’s brain, their relationships, and the world around them, porn remains unethical and unhealthy in its very impact on our world. Fighting against porn means fighting for love and rejecting the unhealthiness that the industry breeds in our culture.
If you’re looking for a cruelty-free, fair-trade and ethical product, you likely won’t find it in the porn industry.
Get Involved
Pornography is an inseparable part of sexual exploitation in our society. SHARE this article to stop the demand and make a real difference in the world.
Spark Conversations
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