New, award-winning research disproves the feminist-promoted notion that pornography increases misogyny. In reality, it likely decreases misogyny and increases egalitarian values concerning gender.
The findings of the study indicate that pornography users held more egalitarian attitudes toward women in positions of power and toward women working outside the home than non-users
According to radical feminist theory, pornography serves to further the subordination of women by training its users, males and females alike, to view women as little more than sex objects over whom men should have complete control. Composite variables from the General Social Survey were used to test the hypothesis that pornography users would hold attitudes that were more supportive of gender nonegalitarianism than nonusers of pornography. Results did not support hypotheses derived from radical feminist theory. Pornography users held more egalitarian attitudes—toward women in positions of power, toward women working outside the home, and toward abortion—than nonusers of pornography. Further, pornography users and pornography nonusers did not differ significantly in their attitudes toward the traditional family and in their self-identification as feminist. The results of this study suggest that pornography use may not be associated with gender nonegalitarian attitudes in a manner that is consistent with radical feminist theory.
Link to the journal article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2015.1023427
The study, which puts the lie to the bleating of feminists such as Andrea Dworkin and Catherine MacKinnon, concludes: “the current evidence, on balance, appears to indicate that pornography use may not be associated with nonegalitarian attitudes toward women in the manner implied by radical feminist theory. In light of this evidence, continued anti-pornography rhetoric proclaiming that ‘‘pornography is what the end of the world looks like’’ ([R.] Jensen, 2010 , p. 105) appears unjustified.”
