Hollywood makes thousands of movies each year, but a lot of those aren’t just the action, drama or horror films you see in theatres.

Pornography is in the mix, too.

From fetishes to fantasies, you can find it all by typing a few words into Google. Sometimes porn is homemade, and other times it’s made in a studio in Los Angeles.

The porn industry has flourished since the advent of the Internet, and it is one of the fastest growing industries out there.

Statistics from GOOD Magazine state there are 266 pornography sites that go online everyday.

According to Top Ten Reviews, a new porn film is being made every 39 minutes, and $3,075 is spent on porn every second.

Annie Sprinkle, who has been involved in directing and performing in the porn industry for over 30 years, said there is a lot more variety in porn today.

“In the old days, there were maybe 100 different kinds of porn,” she said. “Now there are 10,000 kinds,” she said, “but the most extreme stuff is often brought out.”

There seems to be a never-ending amount of pornography, and as time goes on, directors are pushing boundaries to fulfill consumer demands.

In his article “Pornography and Sexual Violence,” Robert Jensen, a journalism professor at the University of Texas, quotes one pornography director as saying “people just want it harder, harder and harder … what are you gonna do next?”

In this new era of hardcore porn, the debate is whether violent pornography can cause violence on screen to transfer over into real life.

While some say there could be a connection, most critics disagree. Others question whether it’s possible to make porn at all without objectifying women.

The stats

According to Statistics Canada, from 2003 to 2009, the number of reported sexual assault cases has dropped from 23,425 to 20,931.

While it could be argued this decrease means pornography isn’t the problem, it’s also important to note that many sexual assaults go unreported.

Jessi Fischer, a sexuality writer, said the statistics can’t point to an ultimate truth.  

Not all men who watch porn are rapists, and even if pornography is a factor in sexual violence, it certainly isn’t the only one, she said.

A male-dominated world

In a recent controversial ruling in Manitoba by Justice Robert Dewar, a man who sexually assaulted a young woman only received a conditional sentence, when others argued he should have received three years in prison.

Dewar’s reasoning was based on what she was wearing — a tube top and high heels — and the fact that she wanted to party.

In cases like this, Meghan Murphy, a member of the Feminist Media Collective and a master’s student at Simon Fraser University, said pornography could potentially play a role.

She said that in pornography, there is no discussion of consent — rather, it is assumed.

“The messages around consent are really cloudy,” Murphy said. “We’re dealing with so much victim-blaming discourse around rape.”

Murphy said that in porn, women are treated as sexual objects, and their pleasure isn’t made central.

“It’s always focused on penetration, it’s always focused on male orgasm,” she said.

Although Murphy said she doesn’t believe porn encourages sexual violence, she does believe it is tied into rape culture.

She said pornography sexualizes violence against women, making rape acceptable in society.

The stereotype of the male as the sexual aggressor and the notion that biologically, men need sex, advances an idea that men should always have access to women, Murphy said.

“There is this sense of entitlement, that men have the right to have sex with women,” she said.

Pornography is fantasy, but Murphy said people have a hard time separating that fantasy from reality.

“The images that we see obviously impact our world view,” she said.

“If men are seeing these kinds of images all the time . . . then that’s going to impact what they do and see in real life, and how they feel about women and how they treat women.”

Fischer said she doesn’t think pornographic images can alter men’s perceptions of rape and rape culture.

“Porn is simply images of people fucking. That’s it,” she said.

“To think that a single image, taken in with all the other imagery . . . would alter a person’s perception as if it were a drug is silly.”

Although Fischer said she doesn’t think there is an explicit connection between porn and rape, she said the two are culturally connected.

“We’re still a long way from accepting female sexuality in many Western cultures,” she said.

“But allowing images of unbridled, non-procreative sex with females enthusiastically participating is one sign that we’re starting to allow women sexual autonomy.”

Alternatives

In the world of pornography, there is a lot to choose from, and not all of it is violent.

However, Jennifer Evans, an associate professor at Carleton University who specializes in the history of sexuality, said a lot of what is out there is directed at men.

“There are so many different things available at a moment’s notice, a click away, that counts as porn,” Evans said.

“Much of that is crap.”

In an industry dominated by males and made for males, Evans said a lot of the material is really about men’s desires and needs.

But, with a little digging, there is something more beneath the surface.

“There are feminist pornographers who are actively making porn differently, and are sort of trying to put women’s needs [and] women’s pleasures front and centre,” Evans said. “Those pornographers unfortunately aren’t really very well known to a mainstream audience, which is sad because their work is quite credible.”

Although there are alternatives to porn directed at men, others, like Murphy, have a different idea of what it should be.

Murphy said she doesn’t believe there is such a thing as feminist pornography, and if there is to be porn made for women, it needs a new title.

“If we’re going to try and start making something that would look different, that would be feminist…I would prefer that we come up with a different name,” Murphy said.

“I feel like this idea that there is such a thing as feminist pornography or that it can be empowering or that women can enjoy it now is totally warped.”

Evans said that since the industry is in the hands of males, making porn for women can be difficult.

Even though it’s out there, the majority of those looking at porn are looking at the material that objectifies women.

Big-screen violence

The issues of violence in porn are often raised, but Annie Sprinkle said porn isn’t the only place that portrays violence against women.

Sprinkle said she is shocked by the violence in some Hollywood films, and she has mixed feelings towards it.

She said society is very misogynistic, and this is not only reflected in porn, but in mainstream Hollywood cinema as well.

“There is a lot of extreme porn, and a lot of people enjoy it,” she said. “But Hollywood films are much more violent, I think.”

Sprinkle said the amount of violence in porn isn’t as great as some people might think.

“A small percentage [of porn] is violent,” she said. “And [I] wouldn’t even call it violent … [I’d] call it fantasy.”

A societal issue

While it is impossible to determine if pornography is a cause of violence against women, Evans said that in society, a lot of things can contribute, not just pornography.

“I think there [are] a lot of things that make rape very inviting, [or] make rape an alternative…I see the argument that pornography operates with that front and centre,” she said.

“But by saying that, we’re almost discounting the other things in our society, the sort of more structural imbalances that really position women as objects.”

Fischer said that there are plenty of other examples that portray women in negative ways and porn should not be considered the only culprit.

“[Porn is] not nearly as problematic as the portrayal of women in more ubiquitous and socially acceptable media like television, films and advertising” she said.

“We cannot consider pornography a ‘special case’ removed from the rest of our culture.”