Introduction
This paper argues that the sexualized images and messages presented in pornography are affecting the development of children and young people and influencing cultural norms in such as way that teenaged boys that spend hours watching pornography on the Internet are learning to treat their girlfriend as if they were sexual objects.
Discussion
Pornography has been around for a long time but now it is being distributed in even greater amounts through websites and other avenues across the Internet (Joyce 75). The Internet has become a popular way for people to view pornography because it is cheaper than other forms and it can be accessed by people, such as children and teenagers, who otherwise would not be able to view pornography because of legal or social restrictions (Jensen 15).
However, pornography accessed via the Internet has been hard to regulate for several reasons particularly related to the nature of the Internet (Joyce 74). This is seen as a problem because psychologists believe it is possible to become addicted to online viewing of pornography, which can potentially lead to cause problems in other aspects of a person’s life such as friendships, sense of self-esteem, and relating to the opposite sex (Kimmel 48).
It is argued in this paper that pornography on the Internet is exploitative because it trains those that watch it to treat some people as simple sexual objects instead of seeing them as individuals with feelings and distinctive personalities. From this it has been argued that Internet pornography represents a greater threat because of the large amounts available (Kimmel 15).
Penny Marshall reports in the Daily Mail in March 2010, “When I spoke to many teenage girls in researching the subject, they told me these demands are both ‘disturbing and upsetting,’ and they are certain they’re being fueled by what their boyfriends are watching online: hard-core, explicit porn.”
Additionally, research indicates that boys and young men that watch pornography – especially those that watch pornography before they have had sex – are left with sexual ‘scripts’ and behave towards women based on these scripts (Jensen 22). Linda Papadopoulos’s 2009 government sponsored report on the Sexualization of Young People has caused her to be concerned. As reported by Marshall (2010), Papadopoulos commented:
A recent survey showed that 54 per cent of boys found porn ‘really inspiring’ in terms of sexual performance. This worries me, because of the nature of the material they are now watching. The type of pornography… that [young people[ are seeing today is very often violent, and it has no intimacy, no respect, no kindness, no context of sex within a loving relationship.
In his book on Pornography and the End of Masculinity, Robert Jensen uses the example of porn site ‘Slut Bus,’ which depicts men driving drive around with a video camera offering women money for sex. He argues that “There are men who buy videos with that simple message: women are for sex” (Jensen 105).
Michael Kimmel also uses this website as an example, arguing that even the websites openly refer to their use of ‘models,’ “none of the guys I spoke with thought these were staged events; instead, they saw them as documentaries, as reasonable depictions of reality” (Kimmel 103).
Conclusion
Overall, this indicates that Internet pornography is more prevalent than ever and that the sexualized images and messages are affecting young boy’s development, leading teenage boys that watch hours of porn to use these as scripts telling them to treat their girlfriends as purely sexual objects.
Works Cited
Jensen, Robert. Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007.
Joyce, Robert A. “Pornography and the Internet.” IEEE Internet Computing, 12 (2008): 74-77.
Kimmel, Michael. Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. New York: Harper, 2008.
Marshall, Penny. (2010). Teenage Boys Watching Hours of Internet Pornography Every Week are Treating their Girlfriends like Sex Objects.” Daily Mail.
Papadopoulos, Linda (2010). Sexualization of Young People Review. Home Office.