The EFC just made a four-page submission to the standing parliamentary Committee on the Status of Women, which is studying violence against girls and young women in Canada.
Over the last several years, as we have researched, consulted and networked broadly on prostitution and human trafficking, we realized that these issues are part of a tangled web – a web that includes pornography. You just can’t dig very deeply into any one of these areas without bumping into the others. They’re all interconnected.
Pornography fuels the demand for paid sex and therefore exploitation. But more than that, there’s a wealth of research that shows some serious public health impacts associated with porn – especially internet porn. Among these are the links between the use of internet porn and sexual violence, especially when it’s viewed at younger ages – how viewing violent, degrading porn shapes and influences what youth – boys and girls – see as acceptable sexual behaviours and attitudes.
Pornography today has become far more violent and degrading than it was in the past. What is now mainstream in porn is aggressive, violent and dehumanizing. The themes of dominating and humiliating women are common, and much of what is out there is steeped in hatred for women.
What pornography teaches about relationships and sexuality is dishonest, inaccurate and harmful
And never before has it been so readily accessible to children or to adults. The internet feeds it into our homes and to our mobile devices 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in ever more violent and degrading forms. Today porn is actually more difficult to avoid than it is to access.
But what pornography teaches about relationships and sexuality is dishonest, inaccurate and harmful. It teaches that sex is detached from intimacy, love, mutuality or respect. That it is impersonal and adversarial. So much of what is available at the click of a mouse teaches that violence in sex is normal and desirable.
In our submission we argue that any study of the kind of violence faced by young women and girls today must look at how the messages and lessons of widespread, accessible, free online pornography are contributing.
We are asking the federal government to study the public health impact of porn and to take measures to restrict its harms, especially to children.
To learn more, visit www.TheEFC.ca/PornographyResources. You can also view and share a short EFC video related to this post.
Author:
Julia Beazley