Many people contact Fight the New Drug to share their personal stories about how porn has affected their life or the life of a loved one. We consider these personal accounts very valuable because, while the science and research is powerful within its own right, personal accounts from real people seem to really hit home about the damage that pornography does to real lives.
This story shows what a toxic education porn gives consumers and how it shows little to no female pleasure. Stories like this remind us why it's important to stay away from porn as a source for info about sexual pleasure.
When I was about five or six years of age, my brothers introduced me to pictures of topless women. I initially thought it was revolting, but the powerful pictures and feelings of attraction they aroused had a lasting impact on me.
Gradually, my brothers introduced me to fully nude pictures of women who appeared to be inviting me, someone whom they had never met, to have sexual relations with them.
This was how I was introduced to the concept of human sexual “intimacy”—there was no mention that the woman had any feelings because the most important thing was that I, as a male (aged six or seven at this point), was stimulated and sexually satisfied.
I was also taught the concept of rape by my mother at this tender age, once again with no mention that a woman’s body could feel any pleasure from sexual relations.
I knew rape was wrong due to a lack of consent from the victim, but I also did not know that it was the ultimate perversion of a relationship that should otherwise bring mutual physical pleasure to both participants.
I found myself getting obsessed with pornography, so in my teenage years, I worked to kick this toxic habit.
Eventually, I became romantically involved, and still, my primary source of information about the female sexual experience was porn. I was completely lacking any awareness that a man has a responsibility to express love to a woman during sexual relations by considering her feelings and desires, not just receiving consent and then satisfying his own urges using her body as a tool for pleasure.
Those were difficult lessons to unlearn, and I wonder sometimes if that relationship would have lasted longer, or at least ended on better terms if I had not had to learn those lessons after beginning the relationship.
I definitely plan to educate my sons so they can avoid hurting women they love during sex and know that even if a woman says yes, it is better to take it as a no (but never the other way around) if the balance of pleasure is not tipped at least slightly in the woman’s favor, and to focus first on her pleasure over their own.
Today, I have a wonderful wife who loves me and is so patient with me.
We have love, and no porn affects in our relationship. But it’s taken time, and I’ve learned a lot along the way.
–J.
Lopsided pleasure featured in most porn
Porn is primarily produced for entertainment purposes, not education, but the ideas porn sells are not conducive to a healthy understanding of sex, sexuality, or mutual pleasure.
In fact, research confirms that women are the targets of aggression or violence in porn about 97% of the time,Fritz, 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. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01773-0Copy and that only 18.3% of women in popular porn videos (compared to 78% of men) were shown to reach climax.Séguin, L. J., Rodrigue, C., & Lavigne, J. (2018). Consuming Ecstasy: Representations of Male and Female Orgasm in Mainstream Pornography. Journal of sex research, 55(3), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1332152Copy
Many young people’s expectations regarding sex have been affected by porn without even realizing it.
As one young woman related to us when talking about being sexually intimate with her partner:
“We were having sex when, out of nowhere, he spit on me. I didn’t know how to react. He was embarrassed when he saw that he wasn’t getting the reaction he was expecting…. What he’d seen [in porn] had created unrealistic expectations for what sex would be like. He saw people do things to each other and get certain reactions, and assumed they’d transfer into real life.”Fight the New Drug. (2019). True story: What porn taught my husband to do during sex . Retrieved from https://dev.fightthenewdrug.org/what-porn-taught-my-husband-to-do-during-sex/Copy
Clearly, porn is not a quality tool to learn about sexual pleasure especially mutually satisfying sex. So if it’s not teaching consumers how to be good, respectful partners who are mutually interested in pleasing the other, what is it really teaching? Nothing positive or healthy, that’s for sure.
The research is clear—porn can warp consumers’ ideas about sex and relationships. But the good news is that we can limit those negative effects by raising awareness on this issue, especially to young people. So let’s refocus on healthy relationships and reject the toxic narratives porn perpetuates. Let’s consider the facts before consuming.
Taking sex tips from an industry that profits from fake (or nonexistent) orgasms is like getting culinary advice from someone who has never cooked a meal. Definitely not recommended.
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 .
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