Pornography: As A Form Of Sexual Violence

Avantika Hebbar, Christ Deemed to be University, Bangalore

ABSTRACT

The word pornography means photos or videos showing two individuals or more engaged in sexual activity. Sexual violence is forcefully sexually abusing someone or making someone engage in sexual activity without their consent. Somewhere around the 1950s porn started being introduced, after 20 years is when video cassettes were made and surprisingly almost 75% of the cassettes that were sold were porn tapes1. Porn videos are essentially supposed to be consensual otherwise the videos that are uploaded online are nothing but videos recorded while raping someone, that is without their consent and against their will. But there are a number of researches stating and supporting the idea that most pornography content is a direct form of sexual violence against women.

Lately, the rape cases in our nation have been increasing and increasing and the way rapes are committed is also getting brutal and very inhuman. This also might be because of how sexual activity is shown in the pornographic2 content and the usage of force, objects, and subordinating as well as demeaning the woman may lead up to a situation where these things are just normalized in the mind of people who watch it without appropriate sex education. Women’s rights should be protected and sexual violence is a direct infringement of the same.

Keywords: Pornography, Sexual violence, Sex education, Rape, Women’s rights, Crime, and Sexual activity.