Let it sink.

[Ms. Toad]

71. Some of pornography is actual physical violence

The meat grinder of Hustler fame I mentioned in my first post being one of the primary examples. Most is based on domination - a main theme in pornography - and rape is usually a lot more about anger and domination than it is about violence, most of the time. In the 10 years I spent holding survivor's hands in the hospital in the aftermath of rape, an average of once a week, I remember only two women who were severely injured - the rest were raped without significant physical force (or use - rather than threat - of a weapon) involved.

And, there is no sharp line between pornography, advertising, and the portrayal of women (and the relationships between men and women) in the media - which was the dominant theme of the show we created based on images taken from pornography, advertising, and popular TV, movies, etc. Virtually every image we found in pornography showing dominance, submission, disrespect, etc. was matched by virtually identical images in mainstream culture.

It has been a while since I did the research - so I don't have it easily on hand- but some of the challenge in demonstrating a link is the lack of a clear dividing line. If mainstream portrayal of women and their relationship to men leads naturally into more express, but not grossly more express, versions in pornography it is hard to distinguish precisely what was caused by the background noise v. what was caused by the more explicit porn. Looking at it from the back end, though, I recall a clear correlation that men who raped tended to be heavy users of pornogaphy. Correlation isn't causation - but often when there's smoke there's fire.

Against Our Will (Susan Brownmiller), and Men on Rape (Timothy Beneke) good, resources - more persuasive than definitive since they are out of date in terms of research. I don't remember whether Men on Rape expressly addresses pornography - but it is an extremely valuable series of personal reflections of men on rape.