Porn: Seen by some as an outlet for the creative feminist and by others as a social ill, poisoning society and families. While the pornography debate has been raging for millennia, the Internet is presenting new challenges in the creation and consumption. Now explicit images are more available than ever before—for better or for worse, the whole world is watching.
Pornography and feminism
The question of how to even define porn and what porn is versus what pornography is, are some of the key questions professor Bobby Noble specializes in at York University.
“There’s some tensions arising in the practice and the discourse between porn, a four-letter word, and pornography, a much longer word,” he says. “Both of those involve and signify different kinds of materials.”
Noble studies self-identified feminist porn, the four-letter word, which is a newer trend of pornography made by and marketed to young women. From Erika Lust in far-off Barcelona to more home-grown Canadian talent like Billy Castro and Justine Mii, Noble says these feminist porn-makers are making waves around the world.
“I wouldn’t even call it a business anymore, I think it’s more a social movement,” he says.
While feminist porn advocates and academics wouldn’t accuse those against porn of not being “real” feminists, Noble says he thinks “the claim gets made in the other direction a great deal of the time.”
“How do we justify saying what is feminist and what isn’t? And I think that’s something we’re starting to track in our research is thinking about the politics and the ethics of saying ‘that isn’t what real feminism actually is or is not.’”
He says anti-porn feminists argue that society is becoming “pornified” or increasingly sexually explicit. Yet, Noble says porn has never been tucked away, nor has it ever been a secretive back door deal.
“Porn has never been anything other than a mainstream industry,” he says.
In fact, as Noble points out, porn has always driven change in society. Technologically, it was one of the main drivers behind the VCR market, then the DVD market, and now the Internet, he says.
Demographics for feminist porn are changing too, Noble says.
“Men are watching it, women are watching it, there’s a huge presence of trans porn in feminist porn that everyone’s watching,” Noble says.
Strange bedfellows: Porn and the law 
Despite its profitability and prevalence, porn and pornography are difficult terms to define. Noble says there is no consensus in academics as to what the term means.
There’s also no consensus among legal scholars, which creates a whole other area of difficulties.
Legally, Canadian courts have not managed to censor porn.
R. v. Butler is the Canadian legal decision that deals with the issue. The decision found laws against obscenity would breach freedom of expression.
Yet Noble says R. v. Butler has backfired and resulted in border services targeting gay and lesbian porn at the border, despite the decision being considered one of the most feminist obscenity laws in the world at the time.
“I don’t think that law or any set of laws has ever been able to accomplish what it imagines it should accomplish,” he says.
“Laws don’t regulate the availability of sexually explicit material, they never have.”
Titillation through technology
Gone are the days when looking at dad’s Playboy was sexually thrilling.
With technology becoming ever-prevalent, children as young as 10 are turning to smart phones to look at porn, according to Lori Stinson, a contract instructor in Carleton’s women’s and gender studies department.
“Kids have always been really curious about sex but what’s different now is they can access it on their smart phone,” she says.
“Young people are constructing what they think is their sexuality, their sexual needs and identity, based on what they see and what they think they should like, from pornography.”
Stinson studies pop porn, or in other words, mainstream porn. A simple Google search for “porn” pretty well sums up her field, she says.
It’s on the first search page, maybe two or three links down and it’s terrifying. Stinson calls this type of porn, “gonzo porn.”
“It’s a whole new ball game,” she says. “
What your average ten-year-old is looking at on their smart phone makes what we used to call hardcore a boring old sex-ed film.”
She says the market drives this new type of porn.
“In order to keep carving out their niche in the market, it’s increasingly horrifying, it’s increasingly violent.”
This “how-many-penises-can-you-stick-in-a-woman” style porn is also increasingly addictive, Stinson says.
Porn addiction is far more prevalent in men, Stinson says, and it’s leading to erectile dysfunction in men in their late 20s and early 30s.
“They can’t have sex with real women,” Stinson says. “And as with all addictions, not everyone is going to be equally susceptible or equally vulnerable.”
The nay-sayers
With a greater prevalence of porn, some women’s rights groups are taking a decidedly anti-porn stance, saying the industry harms families.
REAL—realistic, equal, and active for life—Women of Canada, is a group that says it’s standing against an intrusion into the family.
Diane Watts, a spokesperson from REAL, says pornography is a threat to Canadian family life.
“It doesn’t contribute to the strengthening of bond between husband and wife, it doesn’t contribute to the preparation for parenting, and it doesn’t contribute to the role of the family which is to create the next generation of Canadians,” she says.
She says the organization is noticing an increase in the availability of porn and is worried about the effects it will have on Canadians.
“There’s increased concern with the availability of pornography to young people,” Watts says.
She says she believes porn is inherently harmful and “when the family is harmed, society is harmed. It’s a societal consequence.”
The organization backs the family and the well-being of the family, but this doesn’t run counter to their position as a women’s rights group. In fact, Watts says opposing pornography is a definitive part of advocating for women’s rights.
“If society judges and if medical professionals judge that something is harmful, we don’t see that as a right,” she says.
While REAL Women of Canada has been opposed to pornography for decades, recently the group has been saying the addictive qualities of porn affects the family and in turn, children.
Watts says when a parent views porn, it results in decreased parental time with children, and can create financial difficulties and the possibility of divorce.
“Unfortunately, it’s very lucrative,” she says. “We need firm laws to protect the family and protect those who are drawn into the industry.”
In the United Kingdom, the federal government recently announced measures to require all major Internet providers to put in porn filters so that those wishing to view sexually explicit material would have to opt in.
Watts says REAL Women of Canada now wants to see more family-oriented perspectives from the federal government.
“There’s been a greater proliferation of pornography and the industry has been allowed to grow,” Watts says.
“We’re seeing the fallout from laws that were too liberal or too weak to send the country in a proper direction.”
Sex-ed revamped
However, Stinson says these harmful effects, such as porn addiction, are difficult to study thoroughly and accurately because it’s hard to find control groups of people who have never been exposed to porn.
Stinson says if children received better sexual education and they felt more open to discuss issues around sex, this market would be cut off when people realized the damage it does to human sexuality.
“Contemporary porn is making our vision of human sexuality really, really narrow,” she says.
“Feminist porn, and a lot of gay, lesbian, and transgender porn, is doing the opposite.”
Stinson says feminist porn is something that’s breaking boundaries, but is still a minority market. She says this is the type of porn that values the bodies of those who participate in it.
“I wouldn’t have a problem with my kids watching it in sex-ed class,” she says.
While gay, lesbian, and transgender porn doesn’t compare with mainstream porn, Stinson says it gives those who view it an alternative to violent gonzo porn.
Stinson says she doesn’t like to define porn as either inherently good or bad.
“It’s driven by an uncurtailed and completely open market through free access on the Internet,” she says.
“The funny thing is, the fact that kids are on the Internet looking at porn now could give us an opportunity to discuss sexuality in a more open and honest way.”
