Pornification is the absorption by mainstream culture of styles or content of the sex industry and the sexualisation of Western culture, sometimes referred to as culture.
Effects on culture
Bernadette Barton, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Morehead State University, cites as examples of "raunch culture" there being little consequence for
Donald Trump's own words regarding his treatment of women; or his wife's past behavior as a model.
Pole dancing has become a form of exercise for suburban women, and sexually suggestive words find their way into everyday public statements.
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Effects of media
Advertising
Advertising by Carl's Jr. in 2016 featuring scantily clad women and suggestive language were replaced by a "food-centric" approach in 2019, the change attributed to the
MeToo movement.
Books
Literature which people read for sexual satisfaction is one of the earliest forms of media portraying sexuality. Now, there are various websites to satisfy most people's varied sexual preferences and tastes. As
erotica was a form of social protest against the values of the culture at the time, as was with the famous book
The Romance of Lust, written as a few volumes between 1873 and 1876. Described in the book are
homosexuality,
incest, and other socially unacceptable concepts. The values of the
Victorian era perpetuated purity and innocence. So this book offered a new perspective.
In recent years, erotica has become the new norm, and is extremely popular. The most recent commercial success was
Fifty Shades of Grey, describing in detail scenes of
sadomasochism and other forms of kink.
It sold over "31 million worldwide", and has been adapted into a film starring
Dakota Johnson and
Jamie Dornan.
Film
The real-life effects of watching film sex and violence have been heavily disputed. While some groups argue that media violence causes viewers to be more violent,
there is no academic consensus on this and indeed large studies suggest that there is no causative link between images of violence and violence in spectators,
nor between images of sex and sexual behavior. The links between films and spectator behavior are complex and while pornography undoubtedly plays a big role in how people view sex and relationships, we should always be wary of attributing a single source (e.g. pornography) to a single action (e.g. sexual violence) as human behavior is so much more complex than this.
Television
Teens who were exposed to highly sexual content on TV were more likely to "act older" than their age. If what was being shown on TV was educational, it could yield a positive result on teenagers. For example, on one specific episode of
Friends, which had nearly 2 million viewers at the time, one of the characters had gotten pregnant even after using
contraception. After the episode, teens were actually more likely to engage in
Safe sex, and as much as 65% remembered what was in that episode.
See also
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Female Chauvinist Pigs
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Rule 34 (Internet meme)
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Sexualization
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Sexual objectification
Further reading
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Pdf.
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Paper presentation at the conference 'Nordic Forum', Tallinn, Estonia 8 June 2005. (Sørensen is project manager, The Nordic Institute of Women and Gender Studies, (NIKK), Oslo University.)
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