Along with this realisation came a new awareness of how pervasive porn use was among my male peers. I became more receptive to male friends revealing the influence pornography had on how they saw and thought about women. This led to a heightened awareness of references to porn in mainstream media, and it became obvious to me that pornography is a huge part of modern culture, promoting a relentlessly misogynistic kind of propaganda. With the content of mainstream porn being so sexist, violent and degrading to women, and with an increasing number of men watching it for an increasing amount of time, pornography is one of the primary issues facing men who believe in gender equality and ending violence against women.
The year 2010 saw a huge resurgence in UK feminist activism and involvement (see Long, van Heeswijk, this volume). However, despite this renewal, there was little being done to specifically target men. Many men experience a conflict between their intellectual values and the nature of the pornography they use, finding it incredibly difficult to reconcile their use of sexist, violent and degrading material and their beliefs in equality and respect for women. However, few men openly admit such a conflict and it is difficult to find sources. There was little online that addressed this phenomenon and provided a space where men could read posts by other men talking about these issues.
In response to this, The Anti Porn Men Project was created to provide an online forum for (mainly) men to speak, discuss, and learn about porn, porn culture and the anti-porn movement. We wanted to create a space where those who were coming to anti-porn thoughts for the first time could read material that would confirm and legitimise these concerns and help them feel like part of a wider community as well as for those further along the path who wanted to develop and discuss their anti-porn perspective. The Anti Porn Men Project was launched in September, 2010 to a huge response. The Website had over 10,000 visits in its first 3 weeks and received media interest spanning 6 continents in the next 2 months. It had certainly struck a nerve.
The Project’s approach has been one of combining a user-authored blog with more traditional educational material. The Project’s mission is to raise awareness of the harms of pornography and encourage men to speak out against it with the aim of bringing about a greater level of debate and questioning of pornography in our culture. Our strategy for consciousness raising and increasing the level of questioning of pornography essentially lies in the maintenance of a growing online presence through the regularly updated multi-contributor blog and an active comment and debate section.
In accommodating both newcomers to anti-porn thought as well as more seasoned activists, we publish a wide variety of material including general opinion pieces, personal experiences, reviews, academic-style studies, comment on current affairs, news and events updates, along with a ‘Featured Posts’ section. The comment and debate section plays a significant part in the Website’s activity, and is central to the community that has built itself around the site which largely takes care of itself in answering the queries of newcomers and maintaining a healthy level of debate amongst the site’s subscribers.
The Project also hosts online educational resources and acts as a signpost for links to other organisations and Websites in the anti-porn movement. The Website (www.antipornmen.org) has a wealth of videos, audio files, pdf files, academic papers, news articles, and links. We try to cater for researchers by providing an extensive backlist of news articles on porn as well as various interviews, speeches and articles by leading anti-porn academics and campaigners. We also produce leaflets that are circulated at anti-porn events and are currently designing workshops that we intend to run at various conferences and festivals across the UK.
Despite the early success and attention enjoyed by The Project, we have become very aware of the obstacles that exist when attempting to get men to talk critically about pornography. Before The Project, those anti-porn organisations that were aimed at men were largely driven by religious concerns, or concerns about sex, family or addiction. People who speak out against porn are routinely thought to be prudish and/or deeply conservative or religious. We demonstrate that this is not the case. We are clear about the basis for our objection to porn and this is central when communicating our message.
The concept of a ‘real’ man represents another serious problem. Men who object to porn are often thought to not be ‘real’ men in some way. The accepted view of masculinity is largely built on dominance and control over women. This not only plays a huge role in shaping the aggressive nature of pornographic content but also acts as a powerful barrier to men’s openness about their usage of and concerns about porn. Challenging the macho posturing and rhetoric, so integral to porn usage and culture, is essential to engaging men in serious discussion about pornography. Aside from having the vast majority of our articles authored by men, The Project has an ‘anti-porn men’ page which features leading male anti-porn scholars and activists, as well as popular figures who have raised objections to porn. The Website also has a page devoted to ‘men and masculinity’ which seeks to challenge established concepts of masculinity.
Finally, when challenging pornography, the pervasiveness of its use and influence on our culture is a huge obstacle. The normalisation process that comes with the widespread use of pornography and the mainstreaming of pornographic imagery in the music, magazine, and advertising industries has led to a society which is accustomed to seeing women presented in provocative poses, as being essentially associated with sex and only valued for how they look. This desensitisation to the ‘pornographic norm’ renders the sexism and degradation in porn invisible and unnoticed. Remarkably, while pornography is so obviously present in the private lives of a huge number of men it remains largely absent from both private and public discussion about serious issues of gender equality and violence. For many men it is already an incredibly uncomfortable task to challenge one’s own behaviour when it comes to pornography use and this is only compounded by the normalisation of both the industry and pornographic imagery.
However, despite the difficulty many men experience when challenging their own behaviour, a visible presence of men who are openly anti-porn can only encourage more men to question it. It is for this reason that activism is essential and why activism that is conducted by men and which targets men, has such great potential. It is vital for men to get involved in the rejection of pornography and porn culture. Porn is overwhelmingly produced and consumed by men and if it is going to be effectively challenged it must be done so with the inclusion of men.
In the wider context of the struggle for gender equality and the eradication of violence against women, pornography represents the primary barrier to men’s mass engagement in the cause for women’s equality. The cultural and social impact of porn on the way in which men think about and treat women is profound. Pornography has become the principal machine of patriarchal propaganda and its use is fundamentally incompatible with genuine engagement with and respect for women, I believe that the inclusion of men in the anti-porn feminist movement is vital to its success.
The anti-porn movement in the UK is largely activist-led. This gives it the energy and freshness required to stay motivated and ready for the ever more insidious ways in which porn culture is normalised and justified. The Anti Porn Men Project hopes both its membership and contributor base will continue to grow through the use of this dynamic activist-led approach. We have plans to develop workshops for men and boys, pursue greater support for the anti-porn movement in both feminist and left-wing political circles, and push ever further for it to be socially acceptable for a man to be anti porn. The Project, unique in its focus on men and its presence online, at events, and in the media, will continue to give a voice to the growing number of men who are speaking out against pornography.