Ava Sandoval

Rachel Gift

English 1110

November 22, 2021

Hardcore Porn: Fantasy or Reality?

Roleplay? BDSM? Mommy-Dom? Lesbian? The possibilities are endless when it comes

porn genres. In efforts to analyze porn and its harmful effects, with a primary focus on one of the

most popular genres, hardcore; Additionally, how hardcore porn with a focal point of domination

over a female subject, translates to violence and dehumanization towards women off the screen.

Studies have shown that the rapid development in the ease of accessing porn, combined with the

growing popularity of rough, hardcore, and aggressive themes, coincides with increasingly

harmful attitudes and objectification of women in the past few decades.

Pornography through the years has progressed from 30,000-year-old rock carvings of

female genitalia (Lenz) to 30-minute long, high-definition films, recorded on equipment that

costs more than the average used car. When looking at how porn has transformed over the years,

it’s important to start from the beginning. Moving along from ancient carvings, the invention of

photography and videography brought new ways to both watch and create pornographic material.

According to Lyz Lenz of the Daily Dot, the first pornographic film entitled Le coucher de la

mariée directed by Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner was produced in 1896. Soon after these

types of films became more popularized, but not until the 1970s, almost 80 years later, that the

distribution of pornographic video started to become decriminalized (Lenz). Playboy Magazine

also played a large role in the popularization of pornography with the first issue being published
in 1953, with up to 7.2 million copies being sold by 1972 according to Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Although it was easy to snag copies of the popular American magazine throughout this time, the

ease of accessing pornography hit a peak in the 1990s due to the introduction of something that

would change the course of the porn industry forever. The internet. The internet forever changed

media consumption as a whole. Specifically, porn consumption.

With the growing popularity and normalization of the hardcore porn genre, this fantasy

has seeped into reality and those unwilling to participate are widely remarked as “vanilla”,

“prude”, and “boring” in today’s society. In an article written by Jessica Brown for BBC, she

explains the increase of violent porn over the years when stating “I the 1990s, it constituted

“making love on a bed,” and having “lovey-dovey sex”. But in 2010, researchers analyzed more

than 300 porn scenes and found that 88% contained physical aggression. Most of the perpetrators

were male, and their targets female.” Studies show that female viewers of hardcore porn have

risen exponentially in the past few years (Pornhub Insights). It can be speculated that this is due

to females being expected to accept and even enjoy degradation and violent acts in sexual

situations. These expectations derive from the growing commonality of violent and hardcore

porn. When in the past, this type of content was viewed as a “kink” or specific sexual preference,

it is now viewed as the “norm”. On the front page of every porn website you see words like;

“used”, “no mercy”, “spit-roasted”, etc. in the titles of each video (Fig. 1). As this type of

pornographic content becomes more popular, it sets a foundation for those who consume it of

what sexual relationships should look and act like. Those who have little to no sexual experience,

specifically men, see other men performing violent acts against women during sex, with positive

reactions from the women almost every time. Since the female actors in these videos show to

enjoy this type of treatment, women in real life are expected to react similarly if not the same
way. When this does not occur it can lead to disappointment or confusion from a sexual partner

that can often result in relationship issues, conflict, and sometimes aggression or violence.

There are many studies that show the likelihood of men having harmful attitudes or

behavior towards women being increased in correlation to the consumption of pornography,

especially that of the hardcore genre. Though there is little evidence of a direct cause-and-effect

relationship between anti-women aggression and pornography consumption, there are many

parallels that can be drawn between the two. A study done by Whitney L. Rostad for the

Archives of Sexual Behavior states that exposure to pornography, in general, has been linked with

adolescent dating violence and sexual aggression in teenagers. Though there is less information

regarding the link between pornography that is specifically violent and violent behavior shown in

this study, there are still many statements that support the claim of porn being related to violent

behavior. In the study, Rostad found that boys exposed to violent pornography were 2–3 times

more likely to report sexual TDV, or Teen Dating Violence, perpetration and victimization, and

physical TDV victimization (Rostad, et. al). This statistic shows that the likelihood of someone

performing violence against women is increased when they have consumed pornography. This

could also be traced back to how pornography affects the brain. Jessica Brown of BBC also

explains this effect in her article by stating “The striatum, a part of the brain that makes up the

reward system, was smaller in those who watched a lot of porn – meaning they might require

more graphic material to get aroused.” This also plays a role in the desensitization people feel

after repeated exposure to porn. When consuming the same type of content repeatedly with

pornographic material, one can become desensitized to it. The role this plays in relation to

anti-woman aggression can be the desensitization towards the violent acts performed on women

by male subjects in pornography, which leads to overall desensitization of violence overall

(Brown). Aside from violence, pornography perpetuates never-ending desensitization towards

the sexualization and objectification of women both in media and everyday life.

The way female subjects are portrayed in porn and various other forms of modern

popular media heavily contributes to the strong dehumanization and objectification of women in

today's society. Porn itself contributes heavily to the dehumanization of women in the workplace

specifically. A large number of professions and positions women hold in the real world such as;

nurses, teachers, maids, etc. are so commonly sexualized in porn that women working in these

positions are often objectified and not taken seriously due to these portrayals (Fig. 4). Since porn

is inherently sexual in nature, it’s no surprise that female porn actors are sexualized constantly,

the surprise comes in the way that it is inescapable even outside of porn. Everyone has heard the

term “sex sells”. Meaning advertisements that tend to be sexual in nature or aesthetics are likely

to sell products better. In an essay written by Yiqiao Wang, entitled Sexual Objectification of

Women In Advertising, Wang states, “Advertisers take that as an advantage of selling their goods.

A significant way of doing that is by using women’s sexualized bodies, and these pictures really

promote companies and make people buy more of their products.” Even products as mundane as

a sandwich cannot be advertised without promoting the sexual objectification of women (Fig. 2).

The women in these types of ads, whether it be to sell cologne, beer, or even promote veganism

(Fig. 3), are not meant to be viewed as intellectual, cultured women, cleverly endorsing a

product; Rather, skinny, beautiful, curvy objects (Wang) showing that the product in the

advertisement can be owned and possessed, similar to the woman advertising it.

Since the beginning of time women have been viewed as objects; objects to be shown off,

commodified for marketing, used for sex or looks. While men are viewed as whole beings,

valued members of society, and hard workers. In the types of pornographic content referenced in
this essay, women are viewed as something to use. In advertisements, they are viewed as

something to commodify. When these stigmas are perpetuated so harshly and repeatedly, it forms

a baseline standard in regards to how women should be treated. When women are minimized to

sexual objects and constantly portrayed to enjoy being treated aggressively in porn, they are

going to be treated as such in real life without a second thought. There is no meaning in

denouncing the porn industry as a whole, rather bringing to light its effect on women and how it

insights a harmful effect on the way they are treated. Porn is a fantasy. It has been proven that

there are very few positives that come from making that fantasy a reality.
 Works Cited

Brown, Jessica. “Is Porn Harmful? the Evidence, the Myths and the Unknowns.” BBC Future,

BBC, 26 Sept. 2017,

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170926-is-porn-harmful-the-evidence-the-myths-an

d-the-unknowns. Accessed 5 December 2021.

Figure 3. Burger King , (2009), Burger King’s Super Seven Incher – It’ll Blow your mind away .
http://www.themost10.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Burger-King-It-will-Blow-Your-
Mind-Away.jpg?354d8b. Accessed 21 March 14.
Lenz, Lyz. “A Brief and Incredible History of Porn.” The Daily Dot, 26 May 2021,

https://www.scrible.com/view/source/IMQO0C042G1EGINO24O3O2GO0B4CIKA2:70

4416848/. Accessed 20 November 2021.

Figure 2. “Pamela Anderson Shows That All Animals Have the Same Parts.” Peta.org,

https://www.peta.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/PAMpartsPETA72-2-602x463.jpg.

Accessed 6 December 2021.

“Popularity of Hardcore Sex Genres.” – Pornhub Insights, PornHub, 21 July 2017,

https://www.pornhub.com/insights/hardcore-sex. Accessed 20 November 2021.

(Figure 4) Porn, Nubiles, director. Teacher F**** Student. Pornhub Porn Videos,

https://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ph61683260a676f. Accessed 7 Dec

2021.
Rostad, Whitney L., et al. “The Association between Exposure to Violent Pornography and Teen

Dating Violence in Grade 10 High School Students.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol.

48, no. 7, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-1435-4. Accessed 2 November 2021.

Figure 1. Skye, Amelia. “Getting Spitroasted in Hot Hardcore Threesome .” XVideos,

https://www.xvideos.com/video59080085/regional/407/0/getting_spitroasted_in_hot_har

dcore_threesome_-_amelia_skye. Accessed 2 November 2021. Accessed 12 November

2021.
Yiqiao Wang (Author), 2016, Sexual Objectification of Women in Advertising, Munich, GRIN

Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/337767