Pornography refers to intimate images or videos depicting sexual imagery. Although its consumption is seen as the reserve of men, in recent times there has been an increase in radical feminist circles of how pornography impacts even feminist leaning women.
To further interrogate how porn addictions impact women’s rights and how women navigate relationships with men who watch porn, Urban Woman Magazine asked some women to share their thoughts on pornography and its relationship with women.
Read their thoughts below.
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Personally, I think pornography negatively impacts the perception of women.
Men who are addicted to pornography view women as sex objects. Even when they are not addicted, if they have a likeness for it, they see women as something that can be controlled through sex.
Now, watching pornography, there is no way it is educational. People say, “Oh, you watch porn to learn various things.” But no, it is more entertaining than educative. Entertaining to anybody that is addicted to it.
There is no way in porn where you see a woman being treated well. A lot of the time, she is being choked, slammed, tied up. They are doing nasty things to her, peeing on her, and doing all of those other fetishes to her.
Now, I am not against those fetishes. But I feel like people who consume a lot of porn tend to idolize those things and feel like it is normal. And then they pick up a habit of practicing those things. When they are addicted to it, they always want to try it.
If you check most pedophiles and rapists, 98% of them are addicted to pornography. Because pornography, what it does, it causes a dopamine boost. When you are not getting a dopamine boost in your brain, you always want to go back to pornography. And when you cannot have access to pornography, you want to try out what you have experienced.
This is to the detriment of women.
Personally, I don’t think I have encountered a woman who is addicted to pornography. I know there would be, but it is always men. It affects their sexual life. It affects how they view women. So women are seen as sex objects. Women are seen as tools that can be controlled.
And when a woman rejects a man who is addicted to pornography, sexually, rejects his sexual advances, they feel their masculinity is being threatened. So thereby, they want to take out their anger on her. Because, “You are supposed to do this stuff for me.” They feel like women are created to satisfy men’s pleasures. And it is not supposed to be so.
At the end of the day, this has both negative effects on women, because they are at the receiving end of the abuse and all the negative things men get from porn. And for the men, it has a negative impact, because they are addicted to it, and their brain would always want to get dopamine from it. And when they are not getting it, they can commit harm.
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This is a hill I will die, reincarnate, and die on again. PORN IS HARMFUL and platforms like PORNHUB can go to blazes for what they do to women and minors.
Angel Nduka-Nwosu is a writer, journalist and editor. She moonlights occasionally as a podcaster on As Angel Was Sayin’. Catch her on all socials @asangelwassayin.