You’re in a prison in Starke, Florida, sitting across from Ted Bundy, noted serial killer, rapist, and necrophile. This man, who has just confessed to more than 30 homicides, gets weepy-eyed as he tells you “most damaging kinds of pornography are those that involve sexual violence . . . The wedding of those two forces, as I know only too well, brings about behavior that is just, just too terrible to describe." The two forces that Bundy described are that of sex; Eros, human nature, and its terrible juxtaposition with the horrors of violence.

When you think of a child trying to convince their mother to purchase them a video game that is rated as “mature” or “explicit” for “graphic depictions of violence”, many people will agree that the child should not be exposed to the gore the game may contain- yet an abundance of equally violent or even more violent pornography is readily available on the internet for anyone to view, regardless of age.

A GREATER NEED

People need to stop viewing violent pornography in order to protect their loved ones, the image of femininity and preserve the positive truths about sex and human nature. Jane Gaines, professor at the University of Columbia School of the Arts and author of multiple notable books on film and violence, points out that pornography constantly invites the viewer to treat it not as an image, but a real scenario whose outcome is to be immediately replicated, asserting “pornography requires the breach of real world/fantasy world separation, asking its viewer to ‘really’ come.” Hence, violent pornography invites the viewer to do the same: be erotically satisfied at the sight of violent acts. The blurring lines between real life and fantasy that pornography welcomes and invites the fear in us that users may learn from pornography and “thus cause physical harm to others in the pursuit of sexual satisfaction.”

The proliferation of violent pornography, even in an estimate, is staggering in size and increases due to the growing demand for it. While most frequently estimates suggest that pornography makes up around 40% of the internet, more recent studies have shown that it is more likely to make up 90% of all space on the internet. Statistically speaking, the amount of violent pornography must increase at a similar rate to the amount of pornography available.

SO WHAT?

Women of the world would benefit from the decreased use of violent pornography. As of right now, pornography consumption is highly privatized in a space that is owned and controlled by men and designed not to make women feel comfortable, but more often than not, terrified. While more and more pornography that makes women feel comfortable may be readily available, violent pornography depicting the abuse of women is much more common and has been around for much longer. While pornography use is often viewed as a form of sexual liberation, as the female body, a symbol of the power of nature, is repeatedly abused and destroyed in erotica,violent pornography reveals itself not to be any sort of liberation but the exact opposite: a representation of fear for that stated power.

CA$H MONEY

Consumers of pornography would benefit from knowing the truth about where all the money involved in the industry goes to. Pornography is one of the most lucrative industries in the world, raking in over ten billion dollars each year, and is produced by well-known companies, such as General Motors, AT&T, and even Time Warner. Despite being so lucrative and pervasive, those who usually benefit from the consumption of pornography are of a small demographic: heterosexual men are catered to in this industry far more than anyone else.

These large companies that seem to dapple in nearly everything still retain the rights and liberties that big businesses are wont to defend, and the goodness of the wealth maintained by the production of pornography trickles down to nearly no one.

WHAT IF…?

It's basic economics, people!

If the demand for violent pornography falls, the production of such harmful images will also fall, and hence the supply of it. The addictive properties of pornography would be combatted greatly and many would find themselves able to carry on with their lives and become productive in other ways. Consider this:

The less time you spend watching violent pornography, the more likely you are to actually enter into a meaningful relationship with more benefits than simple sexual satisfaction.

Logically, the number of violent crimes that are replications of pornography would decrease as well.

Women could feel much safer in their daily activities knowing that the fetishization of their brutal rapes and murders was largely dispelled, and could live with a new sense of peace they had not experienced since being ignorant to the notion of pornography in its entirety. Since not only women are the victims of violent porn, anyone could benefit from the secure feeling of knowing that violent pornography aimed towards their demographic had become socially unacceptable instead of being treated as some odd sort of sexual liberation.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

In order to make the women, children, transgender, ethnic, and other victims of violent pornography feel more secure, as they are entitled to be even in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we must fight against the proliferation of violent pornography by boycotting it.

By discontinuing the consumption, use, and viewing of violent pornography you are not only ensuring that the world becomes a safer place, but giving yourself more time to pursue matters of greater importance, and combatting the revenues raked in by big business that benefits few but those who are already billionaires.