Portions of this post were written by Alanna Vagianos and originally featured on Huffington Post. It has been edited for content. Header image a screenshot from YouTube.com/BeFrankChannel.
Disclaimer: Fight the New Drug is a non-religious and non-legislative awareness and education organization. Some of the issues discussed in the following article and linked video are legislatively-affiliated. Including links and discussions about these legislative matters does not constitute an endorsement by Fight the New Drug.
Porn or #MeToo?
That’s the question two filmmakers asked a group of men for a video project titled “Be Frank” (link trigger warning for graphic language). Created by Dutch natives Damayanti Dipayana and Camilla Borel-Rinkes, “Be Frank” is a seven-minute film featuring men discussing the recent #MeToo movement and the role men can play in combating sexual violence.
“The project aims to close that gap and enables men to be part of the conversation and the solution,” Dipayana told HuffPost. “Additionally, being Dutch may have something to do with it … we’re known to be quite frank about any and every topic.”
In the “Be Frank” clip, Dipayana and Borel-Rinkes asked men to read different storylines and then guess whether the situation was from a pornography script or a #MeToo story. The #MeToo campaign, originally created by activist Tarana Burke, has recently sparked a (long overdue) cultural reckoning with how we deal with sexual violence around the world.
The scenarios start kind of humorous and cliche, like a plumber showing up to a house with the obvious porn scenario ensuing.
And then the scenarios get a little darker, and less funny.
And then the storylines evolve to be a little more sinister and abusive.
Eventually describing a scene where a sleeping college girl is taken advantage of by a couple of guys, and another where a stepdad punishes his step-daughter by raping her.
Spoiler alert: it’s revealed at the end of the clip that all of the stories are porn scripts, many of the guys have trouble discerning which ones are porn and which ones are sexual assault.
The last still in the clip features a statistic that sums up the issue well: “88.2 percent of porn scenes contain some form of physical aggression against women.”
The depiction of violence against women in porn has long been a point of contention. Some people believe porn perpetuates rape culture and violence against women by repeatedly portraying women in demeaning or nonconsensual sexual situations. Others believe porn can be a healthy and necessary sexual outlet for many viewers.
Mostly, it comes down to the fact that porn serves as a stand-in for sexual education for many young people.
“The statistics and #MeToo stories are disheartening and overwhelming, but also resulted in my determination to speak up and help find solutions,” Borel-Rinkes told HuffPost. “Damayanti and I both firmly believe that this is not just a story for women to tell. There’s many concrete things ‘good guys’ can do to help improve the climate for the women around them, and the time has come for them to join the conversation.”
Click here to watch the whole video (trigger warning, the video describes pornographic scenarios).
_______________
Why This Matters
The point of this video isn’t to say that porn is the direct cause of all #MeToo stories, but to point out that porn paves the way for us to take the behavior that happens in #MeToo stories less seriously as a society.
“If we want these #MeToo experiences to decrease, we must begin to change our culture… We must recognize that objectification, rape culture, pornography, sexual violence, prostitution, sex trafficking must be addressed and the links between them made known,” says Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
Related: Is There A Connection Between Porn Culture And Rape Culture?
This includes considering what we consume and watch, and what sexually exploitative material we have allowed to be normalized in our lives. This includes considering when we have been upset by a #MeToo status, yet not when we’ve seen abuse and objectification of men and women in pornography.
In addressing the issue of sexual exploitation, harassment, and abuse in our society, it is necessary that we address the ways that porn promotes inequality and feeds into the damaging narrative that women are objects to be used or sexual means to an end. And it won’t be easy to change the culture that surrounds us, but it is important that we do.
Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Most kids today are exposed to porn by the age of 12. By the time they’re teenagers, 75% of boys and 70% of girls have already viewed itRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy —often before they’ve had a single healthy conversation about it.
Even more concerning: over half of boys and nearly 40% of girls believe porn is a realistic depiction of sexMartellozzo, E., Monaghan, A., Adler, J. R., Davidson, J., Leyva, R., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2016). “I wasn’t sure it was normal to watch it”: A quantitative and qualitative examination of the impact of online pornography on the values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of children and young people. Middlesex University, NSPCC, & Office of the Children’s Commissioner.Copy . And among teens who have seen porn, more than 79% of teens use it to learn how to have sexRobb, M.B., & Mann, S. (2023). Teens and pornography. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense.Copy . That means millions of young people are getting sex ed from violent, degrading content, which becomes their baseline understanding of intimacy. Out of the most popular porn, 33%-88% of videos contain physical aggression and nonconsensual violence-related themesFritz, N., Malic, V., Paul, B., & Zhou, Y. (2020). A descriptive analysis of the types, targets, and relative frequency of aggression in mainstream pornography. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(8), 3041-3053. doi:10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy Bridges et al., 2010, “Aggression and Sexual Behavior in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis,” Violence Against Women.Copy .
From increasing rates of loneliness, depression, and self-doubt, to distorted views of sex, reduced relationship satisfaction, and riskier sexual behavior among teens, porn is impacting individuals, relationships, and society worldwideFight the New Drug. (2024, May). Get the Facts (Series of web articles). Fight the New Drug.Copy .
This is why Fight the New Drug exists—but we can’t do it without you.
Your donation directly fuels the creation of new educational resources, including our awareness-raising videos, podcasts, research-driven articles, engaging school presentations, and digital tools that reach youth where they are: online and in school. It equips individuals, parents, educators, and youth with trustworthy resources to start the conversation.
Will you join us? We’re grateful for whatever you can give—but a recurring donation makes the biggest difference. Every dollar directly supports our vital work, and every individual we reach decreases sexual exploitation. Let’s fight for real love: