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Becca Bagley
March 22, 2015
English 1010
A Response to “Pornography”
Mass Murderer Ted Bundy shared that his many rapings and killings were all started by
his watching pornography. This one man viewing pornography lead to the death of hundreds of
women. Pornography. That word can have a hundred meanings. In Margaret Atwood’s essay
“Pornography” she discusses the different perceptions and types of pornography. Atwood tells
readers how some think of porn as harmless entertainment, while others shutter merely at the
mention of the word. She shares that pornography has become too wide of an umbrella term.
Atwood continues to discuss possible reasons for the violent change in porn over the last several
decades. Her reasons for possible change are: a backlash against the womens’ movement,
underlying power trip, the format of entertainment, and avid advertisement. She also addresses
the issue of boys being educated by pornography, giving many men an obscured sexual reality.
The harmful and addictive side of pornography is also brought up in the essay when Atwood
compares porn to drugs and alcohol. Her intent in writing this essay seems to be to educate
people on the topic. Her audience is everyone who will listen. I agree with Atwood when she
shows that pornography is addicting and harmful by destroying relationships. However, she does
not give nay solutions to fix these problems.
In Atwood’s essay she shares that one of the biggest problems with pornography is that it
can often be very addictive. She gives readers the fact that pornography can change chemicals in
your brain, similar to the effect of strong drugs and drinking. Atwood takes something the
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audience is familiar with, an alcoholic, and compares it to something we may not know.
“Pornography may function as alcohol does for the alcoholic: tolerance develops, and a little is
no longer enough.” Atwood effectively associates the two to make a connection with the reader.
The idea of something familiar grouped with a new idea helps readers to understand and be more
likely to agree with the author’s point. Continuing to use this comparison Atwood says that
alcohol is not illegal, but it is monitored and has laws. Again she uses laws on alcohol to echo
what should be done with pornography. Doing this makes someone more inclined to think that
pornography should be censored. Atwood’s use of comparison is very successful in this aspect. It
helped her get her point across in a more direct and understandable manner. Although Atwood
made some very good points, she left us with more questions than answers.
Throughout her essay Atwood brings up many problems with pornography. She tells us
that it is: “dangerous, violent, destructive, addictive, gives false realities, gives higher tolerance
of violence and violent acts” and more. Atwood gives readers all the information about what is
wrong with pornography, then leaves us with no solutions. She gives readers a key question,
“what’s the harm?”, then leaves us with no answer. Reading all this new content on the subject
of pornography was very informing, but at the end of the essay when there was no solution to the
many problems I felt very upset and that there should be more to the essay. It seemed that the
paper should include answers to all the questions it brought up. I was left thinking how could we
stop this rush of violent pornography? Atwood gave the idea of the government regulating it, but
goes no further with the idea. How would the government regulate pornography? Reading this
essay left me with several questions like, is there a way to make pornography less addictive? Is
there a safe way to view and make “violent” pornography? Why is pornography so popular? It
was veryfrustrating to raise all these new questions and have no solution to them. Atwood was
probably trying to makes readers think with all her questions, but instead it seemed I was more
focused and concerned with thinking about the explanations rather than the questions. One of the
main points that Atwood made that she did give some answers to was that pornography is
harmful.
The harm in pornography is one of Atwood’s main topics in her essay. She helps readers
see the harm in porn by giving us valid examples. Atwood is very blunt while she shares her
view of pornography in her essay. She uses pathos when she described very graphic images in
her paper, which left a very strong impression on me as a reader. One of the ways Atwood
strongly makes her point is by using powerful pathos examples such as, “little girls being raped.”
She intensely appeals to the emotion of readers by using this kind of example. She continues
when she tells about further abuse and assault of children. Atwood continues to tell of the
exploitation and degradation of women through pornography. She also uses strong example of
how pornography can lead to other harmful acts, such as the serial killer Ted Bundy. She tells
readers that he started out watching pornography and that has contributed to the death of many
women. This example, though extreme, was very effective in grabbing reader’s attention and
getting them to agree. Atwood seems urgent to get her message out to readers as fast as possible.
She almost seems to be scaring us into the idea that pornography is harmful, which worked on
me. The concept that pornography suggests that these acts of violence are socially acceptable is a
scary one. Using fear was very smart of Atwood because it is one of the strongest emotions
people have.
One of the biggest harms of pornography is that it doesn’t just affect the viewer. Lives
and families have been destroyed on both ends. Atwood makes this clear when she tells us about
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the women, men, and children being abused to make these videos. Children used in pornography
are troubled for the rest of their lives along with their families. In my church community one of
my leaders told me a story that has stuck with me for a long time. Her cousin, who was a young
father of three, began to watch pornography. It started out seemingly harmless. Over time he
grew distant and unkind to his family, spending less and less time with them. He no longer found
joy in activities he used to loved or being with people he loved. His watching pornography
became so destructive that his wife divorced him, taking their three children with her. He was no
longer stable, pornography was all he cared or thought about. Pornography not only ruined his
life, but also his family’s. Pornography took away the father of those children, it destroyed a
family. The long term affects of pornography more often than not effect more that just the
viewer.
In Atwood’s essay she makes some very strong points and gives us a lot of information
about the harm and addictive side of pornography, however in doing this she ends up giving us
more questions that she answers. She left me wondering if and how we can help eliminate
violent pornography. If we don’t fix these problems that pornography brings will society receive
more people like Ted Bundy, who end up murdering people as a result of viewing pornography?
What is the harm in the bigger picture? Atwood’s essay does very well in explaining the high
possibility of becoming addicted to pornography. Her graphic quotes engrave themselves in your
mind, making purpose of spreading awareness impossible to forget. She also does well in
showing readers what some of the possible harms. Atwood explains and describes many topics
and problems well in her essay, although she doesn’t give us any solutions to those problems.
Atwood’s essay was very interesting to read. Learning all the affects that pornography can have
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is very important. She did a very good job backing up the reasons she did give. Her way of
shocking readers was very effective.