Free Adult Internet Web Sites: How Prevalent Are Degrading Acts?
Full Article Name: Free Adult Internet Web Sites: How Prevalent Are Degrading Acts?
Open Access: No
Abstract
Russell (Dangerous relationships: Pornography, misogyny, and rape, 1988) argued that essential features of pornography were the inclusion of more female than male nakedness and the portrayal of men in dominant roles. Utilizing a sample of 45 Internet adult web sites, a content analysis was conducted to see if free and easily available Internet adult videos may generally be described as pornography in line with Russell’s (1988) work. A majority of videos in our sample portrayed more female than male nakedness as well as much higher representations of men in sexually dominant positions. The prevalence of violence in this sample of video and the presence of various acts (name calling, ejaculating on the face, submission, and eagerness to participate in any sex act) were also content analyzed and used to establish prevalent themes. We found a significant difference in the likelihood of a video having a theme of exploitation or domination and whether or not the video portrayed one of these acts. If the video had a theme of exploitation or domination, 92% of the videos also included a minimum of one of these acts while those videos that had themes of reciprocity or autoeroticism were significantly less likely to contain such acts. This study contributes to the literature on gender and pornography by examining issues of degradation and power relations within the context of a rapidly expanding cybersex industry.
Relevance
“More than half of the videos in our sample (55% of all videos with two actors present) were more likely to show naked women than men and 55% of all videos had a main theme of either exploitation or domination where the male actor was portrayed as being in control. Therefore, a majority of the free internet videos in our sample may generally be described as degrading.”
“Women’s acts of submission, or an eagerness to perform any sexual act, were present in over half of the videos viewed. The message that women are naturally willing to perform almost any act may be, in part, why force was not common in sample videos. It is not necessary.”
“Ultimately, this content analysis had the intention of providing a glimpse into the type of material readily available to those performing adult searches on the internet. Over half of the sample videos revealed more female than male nakedness. Further, we found that videos which featured one of these acts (name calling, ejaculation on the face, submission or willingness to participate in any sex act) were significantly more likely to have a theme of domination or exploitation. Male pleasure is emphasized in sample video whereas the pleasure of female actors is not. Rather, female actors appear to be in the video only to serve another.”
Citation
Gorman, S., Monk-Turner, E., & Fish, J. N. (2010). Free adult internet web sites: How prevalent are degrading acts? Gender Issues, 27, 131–145. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-010-9095-7
