Violence

Open Access: No.

Abstract

Racism and sexism were examined in interracial (Black/White) X-rated pornography videocassettes. Five female coders coded 119 White and 133 Black women and 98 White and 126 Black men in the sexually explicit scenes in 54 videos. Characters were coded on aggregate measures of physical and verbal aggression, inequality cues, racial cues, and intimacy cues, as well as other specific indices. Sexism was demonstrated in the unidirectional aggression by men toward women. Racism was demonstrated in the lower status of Black actors and the presence of racial stereotypes. Racism appeared to be expressed somewhat differently by sex, and sexism somewhat differently by race. For example, Black women were the targets of more acts of aggression than were White women, and Black men showed fewer intimate behaviors than did White men. More aggression was found in cross-race sexual interactions than in same-race sexual interactions.

Relevance

This is an old but important research article.

“More acts of aggression were perpetrated by White men against Black women than against White women, and by Black men against White women than against Black women.” The same was true for verbal aggression. Furthermore, among women, “Black women were significantly more verbally aggressive toward White than Black men…but White women did not verbally aggress against Black men significantly more than against White men.” More generally, “Blacks were portrayed as having lower status than were Whites.” Additionally, Black men were shows as having less or lower intimacy than White men. And more racial stereotypes were present with Black performers than with White performers. In sum, pornography reinforces both sexism and racism.

Citation

Cowan, G., & Campbell, R. R. (1994). Racism and sexism in interracial pornography: A content analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18(3), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00459.x