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According to this logic, porn viewers — who are mostly men — become desensitized to “soft” pornography. This forces producers to increasingly generate videos that are more hard-core, creating a growing demand for and supply of violent and degrading acts against women in mainstream pornographic videos.
Testing the claims porn is more violent
And then, there’s porn that depicts violence and rape fantasies. It’s easy to see how this may be read by the anti-porn narrative as degrading to women, playing into sexist and racist stereotypes, and very much made for the male gaze. Yet, by stigmatising BDSM and any sex media that plays out aggressive or violent sex acts as something that’s not for women, and is always to their detriment, we ignore their role, agency, and pleasure in enjoying porn.
Cindy talks of an experience she had watching a male-dominated group sex scene involving one woman and becoming uncomfortable, because it felt “redolent of gang rape”. She strongly disagrees that all violent porn is degrading to women, but points out that the “dominance of the male lens isn’t benefitting anyone”.
Its failed business model drives the “explosive growth of extremely violent porn”, as directors scramble to find new ways to entertain their audience by one-upping each other. Cindy doesn’t feel this is reflective of consumer demand.


















