Pornification

{{Short description|Mainstream absorption of sexualisation}} {{main|Sexualization}} '''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 raunch culture.<ref name="Attwood">{{citation | last = McNair | first = Brian | contribution = From porno-chic to porno-fear: the return of the repressed (Abstract) |editor-last=Attwood|editor-first=Feona|title=Mainstreaming Sex: The Sexualisation of Western Culture|url=http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/18574/ |year=2009|publisher=IB Taurus|location=London|isbn=978-1-84511-827-3 |pages=110–130 | postscript = .}}</ref> Pornification, particularly the use of sexualised images of women, is said to demonstrate "how patriarchal power operates in the field of gender representation".<ref>{{citation|last=Woodward|first=Kath|contribution = Gendered bodies: gendered representations | editor-last = Woodward | editor-first = Kath |title=The Short Guide to Gender|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JtmaeNvWodUC&q=pornogrification&pg=PA85 |year=2011|publisher=The Policy Press, University of Bristol|isbn=978-1-84742-763-2 |page=85 | postscript = .}}</ref> In ''Women in Popular Culture'', Marion Meyers argues that the portrayal of women in modern society is primarily influenced by "the mainstreaming of pornography and its resultant hypersexualization of women and girls, and the commodification of those images for a global market".<ref>{{cite book|last=Meyers|first=Marian|title=Women in Popular Culture: Representation and Meaning|url=http://www.hamptonpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=1-57273-828-6&Category_Code=Q208 |date=May 2008|publisher=Hampton Press}}</ref> Pornification also features in discussions of post-feminism by Ariel Levy,<ref>{{cite book | last = Levy | first = Ariel | author-link = Ariel Levy (writer) | title = Female chauvinist pigs: women and the rise of raunch culture | publisher = Free Press | location = New York | year = 2006 | isbn = 9780743284288 | title-link = Female Chauvinist Pigs }}</ref> Natasha Walter,<ref>{{cite book | last = Walter | first = Natasha | author-link = Natasha Walter | title = Living dolls: the return of sexism | publisher = Virago | location = London | year = 2010 | isbn = 9781844084845 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/livingdollsretur0000walt }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sasha |first=Perugini |date=2014-01-15 |title=Femminismo, pornificazione e discriminazione |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.it/archivio/2014/01/15/news/femminismo_pornificazione_e_discriminazione-7191996/ |access-date=2024-12-07 |website=HuffPost Italia |language=it}}</ref> Feona Attwood, and Brian McNair.<ref name="Attwood"/><ref>{{cite book | last = McNair | first = Brian | title = Porno? Chic!: how pornography changed the world and made it a better place | publisher = Routledge | location = Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY | year = 2013 | isbn = 9780203134153 }}</ref> Pornography began to move into mainstream culture in the second half of the 20th century, known as the Golden Age of Porn. Several Golden Age films referred to mainstream film titles, including ''"Alice in Wonderland"'' (1976), ''"Flesh Gordon"'' (1974), ''"The Opening of Misty Beethoven"'' (1976) and ''"Through the Looking Glass"'' (1976).

== 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.<ref name="Barton">{{cite book| title=The Pornification of America: How Raunch Culture Is Ruining Our Society| first=Bernadette | last=Barton| publisher=NYU Press| date=March 2021| isbn=9781479894437 |pages=232 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BL_WDwAAQBAJ}} </ref>

== Effects of media == === Advertising === {{see also|Sex in 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.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/business/media/new-carls-jr-ads.html| title=Carl's Jr.'s Marketing Plan: Pitch Burgers, Not Sex| quote=With sales slipping, a fast-food chain notorious for featuring scantily clad women has decided on a food-centric message.| first=Tiffany | last=Hsu| date=November 13, 2019| newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

=== Books === Literature which people read for sexual satisfaction was one of the earliest forms of media portraying sexuality. There are a variety of websites to satisfy most sexual preferences and tastes. Erotica was an early form of social protest against the values of culture, for example the 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Anonymous|title=The Romance Of Lust|date=1873–1876|publisher=Grove Green|location=United Kingdom|edition=1892|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30254/pg30254-images.html | oclc = 760964009}}</ref>{{original research inline|date=May 2026|certain=y}} In recent years, erotica has become the new norm, and is extremely popular. A recent commercial success is ''Fifty Shades of Grey'', describing in detail scenes of sadomasochism and other forms of kink.<ref>{{cite book | last = James | first = E.L. | author-link = E. L. James | title = Fifty shades of Grey | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780804172073 | url-access = registration | publisher = Vintage Books | location = New York | year = 2012 | isbn = 9780872723269 }}</ref> It sold over "31 million worldwide", and has been adapted into a film starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan.<ref>{{cite news | last = Grinberg | first = Emanuella | title = Explaining ''Fifty Shades'' wild success | url = http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/13/living/fifty-shades-buzz-50-shades-success/ | work = CNN | date = 13 July 2012 }}</ref>

=== Film === {{Multiple image | footer = Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson were cast in the lead roles in the BDSM inspired film, ''Fifty Shades of Grey''. | image1 =Jamie_Dornan_January_2013.jpg | width1 = 125 | image2 = Dakota Johnson 2014 (cropped).jpg | width2 = 121 }} 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,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stopvaw.org/sexual_assault_and_the_media|title=Sexual assault and the media|date=13 July 2009|website=stopvaw.org|publisher=Stop Violence Against Women, the Advocates for Human Rights|access-date=5 December 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sapolsky|first1=Barry|last2=Molitor|first2=Fred|last3=Luque|first3=Sarah|date=March 2003|title=Sex and violence in slasher films: re-examining the assumptions|journal=Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly|publisher=Sage|volume=80|issue=1|pages=26–38|doi=10.1177/107769900308000103|s2cid=143908234}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mediaviolenceagg0000grim|title=Media violence and aggression : science and ideology|last1=Grimes| first1=Tom| first2=James| last2=Anderson| first3=Lori | last3=Bergen|date=2008|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=9781412914406|location=Thousand Oaks|oclc=123390925|url-access=registration}}</ref> 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 safer sexual activity, and as much as 65% remembered what was in that episode.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Collins | first1 = Rebecca L. | last2 = Elliott | first2 = Marc N. | last3 = Berry | first3 = Sandra H. | last4 = Kanouse | first4 = David E. | last5 = Kunkel | first5 = Dale | last6 = Hunter | first6 = Sarah B. | last7 = Miu | first7 = Angela | title = Does watching sex on television influence teens' sexual activity? | date = January 2004 | url = http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9068.html | publisher = RAND Corporation | access-date = 5 December 2016 }}</ref>

==See also== * ''Female Chauvinist Pigs'' * Rule 34 (Internet meme) * Sexualization * Sexual objectification

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== Further reading == * {{Cite journal | last1 = Tyler | first1 = Meagan | last2 = Quek | first2 = Kaye | title = Conceptualizing pornographication: a lack of clarity and problems for feminist analysis | journal = Sexualization, Media, and Society | volume = 2 | issue = 2 | pages = 237462381664328 | publisher = SAGE | doi = 10.1177/2374623816643281 | date = April–June 2016 | doi-access = free }} [http://sme.sagepub.com/content/2/2/2374623816643281.full.pdf+html Pdf.]{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} * {{cite book |last= Sørensen |first= Anette Dina |date= 2005 |title= Pornophication and gender stereotyping in mass culture in Denmark |url=http://www.norden.ee/images/heaolu/info/inimkaubandus/anette_dina_sorensen.pdf |location= Tallinn, Estonia }} 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.) * {{cite book | last1 = Paasonen | first1 = Susanna | last2 = Nikunen | first2 = Kaarina | last3 = Saarenmaa | first3 = Laura | author-link1 = Susanna Paasonen | title = Pornification: sex and sexuality in media culture | publisher = Berg | location = Oxford New York | year = 2007 | isbn = 9781845207038 }} * {{cite book |last1=Goldfarb |first1=Lilia |title=The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality |chapter=Pornification |date=2015 |pages=861–1042 |doi=10.1002/9781118896877.wbiehs354|isbn=978-1-4051-9006-0 }}

{{Pornography|state=collapsed}} {{Subject bar|portal1=Politics|portal2=Feminism}}

Category:Cultural appropriation Category:Gender and society Category:Sex industry Category:Sexualization Category:Women in society