In our digital age, there seems to be an assumption amongst those on the left of politics that pornography can be empowering, creative, or even artistic. These views align with the concept of ‘choice feminism’, emphasising individual freedoms over collective political action. But what we as socialists must understand is that the porn industry operates as part of the capitalist system like any other.
This skewed liberal outlook of ‘choice’ regarding porn goes against the most basic of socialist principles. Porn exploits the labour of its worker for the profit of the few. The vessel of work, in this case, being the bodies of (primarily) women. Pornography is more than simply a personal choice or an unseemly habit, but a global multi-billion-dollar industry built on a foundation of inequality and exploitation; and as such it follows a classic corporate logic. Moreover, porn is changing how us young people develop our understanding of sex, relationships, women, and power. The issues with porn are layered and through further analysis it is clear that they feed off of one another.
Sexual education is being prefaced by pornography. In 2023, a study conducted by the charity Dignify surveyed 4,000 children aged 14-18 and found the average age at which they first encountered pornography was 12. The youngest was 3 years old. Educators are losing the race to influence children’s attitudes and to therefore set realistic expectations about sex and relationships. Most young men and boys are exposed to pornography before they have the chance to enter real relationships, warping their views on consent, adult bodies, dominance, and performance. This generates feelings of anxiety, entitlement, and a lack of proper emotional or physical literacy. A generation already suffering from a mental health crisis and the rise of incel culture is being sold a twisted visual of intimacy by an industry profiting from our isolation. With the rise of the far right’s influence in Scotland it is crucial that we tackle the gaps in our curriculum and society that let these toxic attitudes towards women and relationships seep in, and that we do so quickly. It is easy to learn, but not quite as simple to unlearn.
Porn is capitalism in its purest modern form. It is the commodification of human bodies, turning intercourse into content and people into products. It is reliant on unethical labour and coercion disguised as willing and free consent. As socialists we must oppose an underground industry that offers no real worker rights or protections and that profits from the movement of human beings as if they were simply goods being shipped around the globe. We can connect the porn industry to aspects of Karl Marx’s theory of alienation. Firstly, the product: the sex worker is alienated from their product the moment it is produced, it is subsequently owned and distributed by a wider platform or number of individuals. The labour process: porn is often heavily scripted and directed. In this sense the worker is alienated from the labour process, with little to no control over the final product. Our human nature: what makes us individuals is our ability to shape the world around us, pursue our collective interests and inclinations. The porn industry creates a vast divide between the worker and the consumer, alienating them both in favour of profit and societal division.
As socialists, we pride ourselves on a tradition of collectivism and community. Pornography is adverse to this in its active encouragement of hyper-individualism. Porn functions for lone consumption in total private, undermining the basic concept of sex: an intimate act shared (typically) between two people experiencing mutual love or passion, or simply because they both felt like it. Neoliberalism in Britain has actively destroyed our community centres, music venues, and youth programmes, the means young people once relied on to meet one another and to form connections. This is a conscious and deliberate attempt by successive governments and a ruling class to isolate our generation further and create lines of division between us, whether that be class, gender, race, or sexual orientation. Without the opportunity to meet people different from us, there is a lack of debate, discussion and subsequently growth.
And so, our attitudes go unchallenged, a group of teenage boys affirm each other’s fallacies, particularly on the subject of gender. Porn normalises power imbalances. It places men in the position of the consumer and women as the ones providing a service. Pornography normalises violence against women during sex: acts like choking, slapping, and spanking are presented as a natural progression of often consensual sex, without nuance. Research has found that more than two in five sexually active under 18’s in the UK has either been strangled or strangled someone else during sex. One study found that a third of women under the age of 40 had experienced unwanted slapping, choking, gagging or spitting during consensual sex. Another study found that 13 per cent of sexually active girls ages 14 to 17 had already been choked. The content we are exposed to, or feel a need to seek out, alters our view on what is normal or expected. Especially for an age range that is so incredibly impressionable and in such a vivid transitional period. Violent porn sells, it functions as almost a spectacle; but it comes with a physical cost for women in Scotland and the rest of the world. It is not a young girl’s job to educate her male peers, but our attitudes can be shaped by those that we surround ourselves with.
Reading this you may look to your friends and think that none of it applies to them, that your self-proclaimed ‘feminist’ boyfriend is the exception, but this imbalance makes it harder for men over all walks of life to see women as their comrades, equals, and partners. Any socialist movement that ignores this fact risks reproducing misogyny often associated with solely right-wing movements inside their own left ‘inclusive’ spaces. You cannot argue for liberation only when it is convenient for you.
Sure, porn is an awkward topic, but it is one of importance. The harm it causes to both individuals and wider society is palpable and must not be ignored. This is not a piece written from the perspective of blame or hatred but a call for understanding. It is about unlearning the capitalist teachings of sex and providing a socialist alternative. A society in Scotland that is built on respect, care, understanding and community, and most of all love.
