Reports & Summaries
Facing Reality: Addressing the role of pornography in the pandemic of violence against women and girls
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
This study explores the nature and impacts of pornography, with particular attention to children and young people, and makes recommendations for strategies and actions to counter any negative impacts in the Irish context. It is intended to provide the evidence base to inform both policy and advocacy measures required to effectively address the role that pornography plays in the perpetration of violence against women and girls.
Relevance
This study demonstrates “that much of what features in mainstream pornography in fact constitutes sexual violence. It is this sexually violent content that is shaping the sexual behaviour of many pornography consumers, both adults and children in Ireland, to the extent that pornography actively distorts or even breaks the boundary between sex and sexual violence. At the same time, it is vital to understand that pornography is also a multibillion-euro global industry with incredible reach and influence. T his critique of pornography is not derived from a position that favours the censorship of erotic material, but rather from the perspective that there is an urgent need to comprehend and address pornography for what it truly is – the ‘sexual violence, torture and degradation’ of real women and girls on film.”
This study, too, argues that “to be genuinely ‘sexpositive’ is to be ‘porn-critical’ – if our goal as a society is to promote positive, healthy, mutually pleasurable sexual relationships then we must reject the violent, ‘pornified’ version of ‘sex’ that the trade has effectively forced upon us. Therefore, contrary to the silencing of censorship, this study demonstrates the pressing need to have a frank conversation about pornography consumption and its wider impacts on…society.”
Citation
Breslin, R., & O’Connor, M. (2024). Facing Reality: Addressing the Role of Pornography in the Pandemic of Violence Against Women and Girls. A study commissioned by Women’s Aid and funded by Community Foundation Ireland. https://serp.ie/research/research-findings/
