How Pornography Shapes Masculinity — and Why It Matters for Everyone

Highlights from a Culture Reframed Webinar with Dr. Jackson Katz, Byron Hurt, Dr. Gail Dines, and Dr. Mandy Sanchez

What does it mean to “be a man” in a culture where pornography, social media, and online influencers increasingly shape how boys learn about relationships, power, and identity?

That question was at the center of Culture Reframed’s recent webinar, Raising Boys in the Age of Porn Culture, featuring founder and CEO Dr. Gail Dines, Director of Programming Dr. Mandy Sanchez, educator and author Dr. Jackson Katz, and filmmaker and activist Byron Hurt. Drawing on decades of experience in gender violence prevention, media literacy, and work with boys and men, the panel explored how pornography, hypersexualized media, and online misogyny are influencing young people’s understanding of masculinity, femininity, relationships, intimacy, and gender equality.

The conversation examined the connections between pornography, the manosphere, and male violence, while also offering practical insights for parents, educators, and community leaders.

How Pornography Shapes Young People’s Culture

The panelists argued that pornography is a powerful cultural force that teaches young people about gender, relationships, power, and sexuality.

According to Dines, today’s children are growing up in a digital environment saturated with hypersexualized content that previous generations never experienced. She described it as “a new visual landscape” that many parents, educators, and caregivers are still struggling to understand.

The concern, the speakers emphasized, is not simply that young people can access pornography. It’s that pornography increasingly presents degradation, domination, and violence against women as normal parts of sex and relationships.

“Porn provides a steady stream of visual narratives that normalize men’s cruel sexual violence against women.”

As Katz explained, pornography and the online manosphere often reinforce one another. “Porn provides a steady stream of visual narratives that normalize men’s cruel sexual violence against women,” he said, while influencers in the manosphere offer ideological messages about male dominance and resentment toward women.

These lessons don’t remain confined to porn sites. They become part of the broader culture that young people encounter online every day.

“It’s not anti-sex to say any of this,” Katz noted. “It’s not against sexuality. It’s against an industry and a way that sexuality has been hijacked.”

Understanding pornography as a cultural influence, not simply a private behavior, is an essential first step toward helping young people navigate it critically.

The Manosphere and Pornography Are Reinforcing Each Other

One of the webinar’s central themes was the growing influence of the “manosphere”: a network of online influencers, creators, and communities that promote rigid ideas about masculinity and gender.

According to Katz, many boys are drawn to these spaces because they’re searching for answers about identity, belonging, and what it means to be a man. Influencers like Andrew Tate offer a sense of certainty, presenting themselves as the few people willing to tell boys “the truth” about the world.

A key message of the manosphere, Katz explained, is that women have gained too much power and that boys and men need to “take back control.” At the same time, pornography provides visual reinforcement of those same ideas. While the manosphere promotes narratives of male dominance and female submission, pornography often depicts those dynamics as normal, desirable, or even expected.

Together, these influences can create a worldview rooted in resentment and entitlement rather than mutual respect.

“If you’re an adult man in a position of guidance and leadership with young men and boys,” Katz said, “tell them to stay away from porn and stay away from Andrew Tate and the manosphere, because it’s absolutely catastrophic.”

The speakers stressed that boys deserve healthier models of masculinity grounded in empathy, accountability, and genuine connection rather than dominance over others.

Boys Are Also Being Harmed

Throughout the conversation, both Katz and Hurt emphasized that challenging pornography and misogyny is not about attacking boys and men. In fact, they argued that many of the same forces harming girls and women are harming boys as well.

Restrictive ideas about masculinity often teach boys to suppress vulnerability, avoid emotional expression, and distance themselves from anything perceived as feminine. The result can be isolation, anxiety, depression, and a diminished ability to form healthy relationships.

Reflecting on his own journey, Hurt said, “Feminists are men’s best friends,” explaining that feminist ideas helped him better understand how gender expectations shape men’s lives and limit their emotional well-being.

Katz expanded on this idea through what he calls the “triad of men’s violence”: men’s violence against women, men’s violence against other men, and men’s violence against themselves. “The same system that produces men who abuse women produces men who abuse other men,” Katz explained. “And lots of men have experienced violence at the hands of other men.”

“The same system that produces men who abuse women produces men who abuse other men.”

He noted that violence turned inward, including self-harm and suicide, is part of the same broader pattern. Rather than seeing these issues as separate, the speakers encouraged participants to recognize how rigid gender expectations can harm everyone. Creating healthier models of masculinity, they argued, is not only essential for girls and women — it is essential for boys and men, too.

Why Media Literacy Has Become Essential

The speakers argued that young people need more than warnings about pornography; they need the skills to critically analyze the media they consume every day.

According to Dines, schools have largely failed to keep pace with the realities of today’s digital environment. While young people are growing up surrounded by pornography, social media, and hypersexualized content, many classrooms still offer little guidance on how to evaluate the messages embedded in those images.

Hurt described how studying media transformed his own understanding of race and gender. A college course examining representations of African Americans in media taught him to “read images” the same way people read books or articles, recognizing the stereotypes and assumptions hidden beneath the surface.

That experience shaped his belief that media literacy should be a core part of education. Young people, he argued, need opportunities to question who creates media, whose interests it serves, and what messages it communicates about power, relationships, and identity.

The panelists suggested that pornography should be understood as both a public health issue and a “text” to be analyzed, much like a book or a piece of art. If young people are regularly exposed to harmful messages about gender and sexuality, they need tools to recognize and challenge those messages rather than simply absorb them.

As Hurt put it, education is key. The more young people learn to critically evaluate the media around them, the better equipped they are to navigate a culture saturated with images.

Why Men Need to Speak Up

Throughout the webinar, both guest speakers returned to a succinct but powerful message: Changing culture requires men to speak up.

According to Katz, many men recognize sexism, misogyny, and harmful behavior when they see it. The problem is that speaking out can come with social consequences. Men may worry about being mocked, excluded, or criticized by their peers, making silence feel easier than intervention.

But silence has a cost.

“Being one of the guys takes nothing special whatsoever,” Katz said. “What takes leadership, what takes courage, is turning to your guy friends and saying, ‘Hey, that’s not cool.'”

Both Katz and Hurt emphasized that men do not need to be perfect to be part of the solution. In fact, presenting yourself as having all the answers can make these conversations less effective. What matters is a willingness to learn, reflect, and engage honestly.

Hurt spoke about the importance of sharing personal stories and creating spaces where men can talk openly about their experiences, mistakes, and growth. Those conversations, he argued, help other men see that healthier models of masculinity are possible.

The speakers encouraged parents, coaches, teachers, mentors, and community leaders to model that courage. Progress begins when men are willing to have uncomfortable conversations, challenge harmful behavior, and show boys that strength is measured not by dominance, but by integrity, connection, and intimacy.

Watch the full webinar here: