Since January, 1,274, 209,030 of internet searches have been for porn.
Today 4 percent of the most used websites contain porn and other sexually explicit material. On average porn makes up 69 percent of paid paper-view on the internet and industry generates $3 billion per year.
In the digital age where a world of information is at the click of a button porn is becoming more prevalent. Many teenagers and young adults are exposed to porn. Nine out of ten males are exposed to porn before the age of 18, six out of ten for females. Seventy percent of adult men search out porn on a weekly basis and 30 percent of women do the same.
According to research done by Covenant Eye, a website whose main goal is to hold the internet accountable, 88 percent of porn scenes contain physical violence and 49 percent contain verbal aggression. Rape jokes are told in movies, violence towards men and women seem to always be in the mainstream media, and most parents don't talk to their kids about domestic violence or sexual assault.
What does this have to do with porn?
In a study conducted by Naomi Wolf, the more people are exposed to porn the less sympathetic they are to people who have been raped. Modern culture has begun to blame the victim; 'they were dressing provocatively' or 'they shouldn't have led the aggressor on'. This, to be frank, is ridiculous. Because of rape culture and the normalization of porn, people are becoming more desensitized to the victim.
Forty-two percent of college aged men and women admitted to watching bondage porn as teenagers. As a teenager the brain is still developing. One of the strongest function that is still in development is being able to distinguish right and wrong. When teenagers and sometimes younger are exposed to bondage porn where men or women are treated as objects it begins a slow process of continuing rape culture.
Most porn scenes depicts the woman as inferior and in sensitive development stages this prompts both sexes to do the same. In porn women are only worth as the pleasure their bodies can provide. Unfortunately, this translate to the real world. Men and women see porn then think that it's what their partner really wants, most of the time that's not true.
We cannot have gender equality until rape culture is abolished. Stronger regulations, or even regulations, on the porn industry would be a large step towards ending rape culture. We must also teach boys and girls not to rape, not just how to avoid getting raped. Pressure must be put on the system to enforce laws and blame must be put on the rapist not the victims. The victims did not chose this, they did not have it coming. Continuing thoughts like this only pushes rape culture making it an even more prevalent problem.
