Pornography

The effects of pornography and sexual media are endlessly debated. The debate runs the gamut from fears of moral decline, through coarsening of attitudes, to the promotion and normalization of male violence against women and the rising problems of sex and/or pornography addictions. Historically, pornography has been understood in relation to the category of obscenity. In other words, it depicts actions, functions, and identities that lie on the outer edge of the permissible and have the potential to “deprave and corrupt” likely viewers. In more recent times, the focus has moved away from ideas of corruption of individual viewers toward the broader category of cultural “harms” and effects on society.