Pornography and Sexual Violence

With Britain's new Labour government already crashing in the opinion polls, let's giv credit where it's due to a rare and brave Labour MP speaking out against the porn industry.

UK Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi has called for the government to focus on pornography’s contribution to sexual violence, noting that there is “extensive evidence” that “pornography consumption fuels sexual violence” and warning that pornography distorts the consumer’s view of healthy sexual behavior and “serves to dehumanize and sexually objectify women.” Antoniazzi then called on government ministers to “rein in the lawless activities of pornography sites.” Note well: This is not a conservative politician. This is a Labour MP.  

Study after study confirms the link between porn and sexual aggression. A 2019 study from the Archives of Sexual Behavior titled “The Association Between Exposure to Violent Pornography and Teen Dating Violence in Grade 10 High School Students” found that teenage boys exposed to violent pornography – which is the vast majority of them – are two to three times more likely to victimize girls, primarily through some form of sexual assault.

A 2008 study in NeuroImage demonstrated that when men are aroused by porn, mirror neurons in the brain fire – meaning that “the brain naturally imagines the porn viewer in the scene. The man is not merely responding to a naked woman. His brain is mirroring the pornographic scene with the viewer as the main character, heightening arousal.”^[1] 

What we are seeing with the normalization of sexual violence is the culture-wide consequences of men and boys imagining themselves as the aggressor in millions upon millions of porn scenes. Consider the following: 

• A British study found that 44 percent of boys between the ages of 11 and 16 who viewed pornography said that porn gave the ideas about sex acts they wanted to try.^[2]
• A 2016 study found that 53 percent of 11-16-year-old-boys and 39 percent of 11-16-year-old girls said that they believed pornography was a realistic depiction of sex.^[3]
• A 2021 study found that 1 out of every 8 porn videos shown to first-time users on porn home pages feature acts of sexual violence.^[4]
• A 2021 study found that 24.5 percent of young adults cited pornography as the most helpful resource for learning how to have sex.^[5]

Girls and women are now entering a dating and relationship landscape shaped by pornography. Sexual violence has become normative across the West not just for adults copycatting digital porn and sexual entertainment such as Fifty Shades of Grey, but for minors and children as well. The truth is that most of the sexual violence that occurs in our society is now simply a part of the way men and women and boys and girls treat each other, and that much of this behavior takes place in the ever-growing grey zone between consent, crime, and coercion. 

Tonia Antoniazzi is right to sound the alarm. I would take it a step further, and echo those who recognize that drastic action is needed: It is time to ban pornography.