Kathrine Carrick
English 1010
October 29 2014
Responding to Pornography
“By ‘pornography,’ I meant women getting their nipples snipped off with garden
shears, having meat hooks stuck into their vaginas, being disemboweled: little girls being
raped: men being smashed to a pulp and forcibly sodomized.” This quote is merely one
example of how Margaret Atwood vividly describes the violent behavior of pornography
to shock readers around the world.
Published in Chatelaine magazine (1988), her essay “Pornography” discusses a
type of entertainment most people are unaware exists. By “violent pornography” Atwood
is clearly not referring to what normally comes to mind, but behavior that is sadistic,
abusive, and even torturous. Many times in the essay she refers to devices such as hooks,
ropes, muzzles, knitting needles, and chains in an attempt to paint a picture of how brutal
pornography can be. Atwood goes on to cover topics such as the opposing views of
pornography, its addictive qualities, and its affects on young boys as well as society as a
whole and much more. She takes the side that a dividing line needs to be determined
between pornography and down right abuse, or else it will continue to degrade our
society. Atwood closes with the idea that if respect and love towards one another were
more abundant, pornography could go away on its own. However, she claims that for
this to happen we need to act as a society and make “informed decisions about how to
deal with it.” Although Atwood overgeneralizes when she states that young men learn
how to treat women only from pornography, she does make several valid points regarding
the topic such as its addictive qualities as well as the harm it can cause to our society.
As Atwood discusses the effects that pornography has on young men ages 16-21,
she states that this becomes the only source from which boys learn how to treat women.
“Now porn has been added, and sex education out – 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.” Again painting a very graphic vision, however, she forgets to consider that the
roles of family figures, female companions, religious beliefs and much more are still very
relevant. For example, many young men learn from the way their fathers treat their
mothers, or they may learn from the relationships with their sisters, if they do not have
sisters they may learn from female friends. Another huge aspect is religious beliefs: most
religions despise pornography and advise young men to treat women with respect and
kindness. As a person of LDS faith, I know that this is true. The LDS church completely
frowns upon any form of pornography or disrespect towards women and advises young
men against viewing, engaging, or even thinking about it. Additionally, it is an
overgeneralization to assume that all boys watch this type of entertainment. Surely most,
if not all men have seen pornography but that does not mean that they seek to watch and
learn from it. Therefore it is quite naïve to assume that pornography is the sole origin of a
boy’s education on how to treat women.
With that being said Atwood does make several valid points when discussing how
pornography can become an addiction that spirals out of control. She refers to frequent
viewers as “hard core” users that experience chemical changes in the brain similar to
alcohol or drugs, which can lead to addiction as well as a tolerance. This in turn leads to a
tolerance being built where porn watchers will not only crave more in quantity but more
in the violence and abusiveness in content. By direct quote she says, “For the ‘hard core,’
pornography may function as alcohol does for the alcoholic: tolerance develops, and little
is no longer enough.” In all honesty this created a connection that had never crossed my
mind. Throughout my life I have known several alcoholics and drugs addicts who sport
this type of behavior but I never thought of pornography as having the same type of
addictive qualities. This claim becomes quite relevant to anyone who understands how
addiction works and will recognize the similar pattern of wanting more and more as
usage continues which just as alcohol, has the potential to hurt the user.
Lastly, Atwood goes into depth with the question, “what is the harm?” which as
she puts it, is all of the negative impacts it has on our society. One of the affects Atwood
describes is that pornography can entice people to more violent and abusive crimes. She
uses Ted Bundy as an example, “We only hear about extreme cases (like Ted Bundy) in
which pornography has contributed to the death and/or mutilation of women and/or
men”. Since each of absorb situations differently, as a society, it is impossible to
determine the affect is will have on others. This then leads to her point that the
acceptance of rape and abuse will become a social norm. Atwood’s claims that our
environments and the place us we live in molds who we are. If we few grew up in a place
that glorifies and even condone rape, then it will start to become socially acceptable.
Thirdly, she explains that a clash between genders will occur by saying, “What happens
when boy educated on porn meets girl brought up on Harlequin romances?” There have
always been some misunderstandings between the genders but Atwood is right, what
happens when pornography takes that to a whole new level? The result may very well be
that boys will have different expectations of girls than vice versa. As Atwood raises the
harms of pornography is becomes obvious how drastically it could effect our society and
not for the better good.
In conclusion,