Kristen Hancock
English 1010 3B
4/9/12
A Response to “Pornography”
It’s spreading like wildfire in movie theaters, work offices, and even in family living
rooms. Not only is it spreading, it’s growing uncontrollably like weeds in your own
neighborhood. Pornography can be easily accessed from almost anywhere in the United States,
and it holds no limits. Why has pornography become so popular and what effect does it have on
our society?
Margaret Atwood answers just that in her essay “Pornography,” published in Chatelaine
(1988), which focuses on the issue of our nations escalating violent pornography. She describes
pornography to be, “Death, messy, explicit, and highly sadistic” (30). According to Atwood,
pornography has become a problem due to a strong belief in freedom of expression and a
backlash against the women’s movement. It has become a multibillion dollar industry that
provides entertainment through many forms of media, intensifying the problem. She argues the
explosion of pornography has negative effects such as increasing hatefulness, improper sex
education, distorted perception of acceptable intimacy, ruined relationships, and growing
addiction problems. Although Atwood presents many strong and factual points and remains
neutral and objective throughout most of the essay, she presents a biased statement about
how teens today learn sex education, as well as stereotypes men backlashing against the
women’s movement.
In her essay, Atwood writes to all American adults, but particularly those who do
not view pornography and are unaware to what extent pornography has reached. Her purpose
is greater than merely bringing awareness. Atwood is hoping to elicit readers to form opinions
as to what extent pornography should be limited. In addition, she also hopes to reduce the
escalating violence and prevent further addiction. Atwood writes with detailed description and
emotive language. Her powerful language makes the issue easy to understand and hard to
ignore. She asks multiple questions to engage the reader, eliciting empathy with the sensitive
topic and encouraging answers.
Most of Atwood’s points for the use and negative effects of pornography have valid
evidence to back her claim. For example, when Atwood suggests that pornography can be like
an addictive substance she explains the chemical changes that occur in the body while a person
views porn making it exciting and pleasurable. It becomes habitual for the “hard core” viewers.
In addition to presenting porn as addictive, she compares porn’s effects to alcoholism
explaining the tolerance that develops and the cycle for always needing more to overcome the
escalating threshold. I feel Atwood’s factual comparison of pornography to alcoholism helps the
reader understand the addiction process.
In addition to the strong points made in the essay, Atwood remains neutral when
addressing the issue of censorship versus freedom of expression hoping the readers will make
their own opinion about what seems more reasonable. Censorship and freedom of expression
are both very sensitive opinions that need to be observed. I felt more convinced by Atwood
when she gave both extremes. Atwood points out that the decisive division does bring groups
together that normally would not be in agreement on other issues. I agree that this observation
shows the strong feeling and extremes associated with both issues.
In contrast to Atwood, I disagree that sex education in schools is rapidly being phased
out. Her statement that “ The buck has been passed, and boys are being taught that all women
secretly like to be raped, and that real men get high on scooping out women’s digestive
tracts”(33), presents bias and overgeneralization without any valid facts. Growing up in Utah,
one of the most restricted states when it comes to teaching sex education in schools, I was
given full education about the anatomy and process of intimacy. Never was I introduced to
violent and/or unnatural sexual activities seen in violent pornography. There are currently
seven out of our fifty states that do not provide sex education in high schools, but that does not
mean these teens are viewing pornography to get information on sex. Atwood fails to mention
the variety of resources teens view to learn more about sex besides pornography, including
websites such as plannedparenthood.com, books at local libraries, and advice from doctors and
other trusted adults.
Furthermore, Atwood stereotypes men as being viewers of pornography since they
can’t relate to women in this generation. She feels that pornography is, “A backlash against the
women’s movement by men who are threatened by uppity female behavior in real life” (31).
She gives the impression that men view violent pornography because they are threatened by
women’s success, but I believe there are other underlining reasons such as women being too
busy or too tired to engage in sex after a long day at their career. In today’s society, when
searching for pornography, it is easy to click on a violent porn website rather than the intended
site to meet their basic needs. Men may also view pornography simply because it is predictable
and controllable, a comfort when the real world has a lot of stress and uncertainty. Men aren’t
necessarily backlashing against women, they may merely be interested in seeing what is not in
their reality, watching in disbelief the cruelty inflicted by others.
Atwood’s essay provides many factual examples about how the issue of violent
pornography may have negative effects. She tries to introduce the issues of pornography in
both perspectives, remaining as neutral as possible so the reader will make his or her own
decision. Although the information in the essay is relatively accurate, it includes bias, stating
teens are educated about sex through pornography, failing to recognize other resources for sex
education. Atwood also stereotypes men as being afraid of the women in their roles today.
Even Atwood has not fully depicted the reasons why our society views violent pornography and
what the outcome of it may be, but she is right about the need to take a stance and tame the
images that are burning through society and creating unknown destruction.
Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. "Pornography." Chatelaine. 1988: 29-35. Print.