How Porn encourages Body Shaming?

Pornography is the portrayal of sexual activity in the form of movies, pictures, comics, or podcasts mainly for sexual arousal. It is used by people to arouse themselves and as a way of enjoyment to mainstream television. People use it to influence, learn sex, view sex and compare sexual activities.

Porn Viewership:

Recently, porn viewership all around the world has observed various shifts in the trend. Statistically speaking, kids as young as 10 have access to porn and view it frequently without their /guardians ‘ knowledge. There can be a problematic impact on watching porn at a young age sans effective sex education – a perpetual cycle of conditioning & internalization may take place which can be detrimental for the individual’s overall mental & emotional health. One such prominent effect that has been looked into is about the body image concerns in porn viewers.

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Mainstream cishet porn has never failed to present a skewed image of how sex is like, or how it should be. From a feminist standpoint, there is ample objectification and subordination of womxn, and their bodies are sexualized to gratify the male gaze. There is a “perfect body” – comprising features such as sculpted breasts, a particularly thin waist & wide hips far from how we see ourselves.

For women, the issue is trifold. First, their body image is under a direct attack due to this false belief of a unique “figure” that seems unattainable yet drives them to perceive their bodies as imperfect. Second, the subjugation shown in porn depicts men as hypersexual beings channeling themselves through the female body and thus having full control over it with negligible or no space for a woman’s sexual needs or desires. Finally, the worldview of mainstream porn remained limited to the patriarchal structure while also reinforcing it for the longest time, and thus setting up seemingly redundant expectations.

Identify Root Cause:

Today, as I look back, I understand how a lot of people around us harmed us without realizing how they could affect somebody’s life. I acknowledge the conditioning that plenty of us have been subjected to, mostly subconsciously, leading to the internalization of several faulty belief systems – how all of its essentials the importance of a feminist discourse while addressing issues such as body image since it is so deeply rooted into and emerging from patriarchy. Hence, before we advocate for the cause, we need to account for what reinforces such beliefs and challenge their very existence, one step at a time.