ABSTRACT
In contemporary mainstream pornography marketed to heterosexual men, hostile and humiliating acts against women are commonplace. Consumers of such pornography routinely see women treated in ways that most people would neither choose for themselves nor accept for those they care about. While some of these consumers may be sociopaths or utterly unregenerate misogynists, I assume that the majority are neither. Thus, many consumers must experience ethical qualms about at least some of the pornography they encounter and about themselves in so far as they enjoy such material. These qualms pose a threat to their continued enjoyment of pornography. Thus, if they are to continue consuming pornography, they must find ways to silence their ethical concerns. They must, in effect, be groomed to accept sexual dominance and sadism against women. To groom someone for some practice or function is simply to train or prepare
them for it. While this process can be benign, it becomes sinister when one is trained to accept the unacceptable. For instance, individuals who are to be used sexually on a routine basis must be groomed to regard such use as normal: the grooming process employed by pimps and molesters typically involves isolating a victim, undermining her perceptions of reality and breaking down her limits through whatever combination of manipulation and force may be needed. Not only victims require grooming, however; people of normal empathy and conscience must also be groomed to accept and enjoy abusive thoughts, emotions and actions. The abuser too must be groomed – even if he is only a vicarious abuser. Robert Jensen has observed that ‘the danger of pornography is heightened
exactly because it is only one part of a sexist system and because the message it carries about sexuality is reinforced elsewhere’ (2007a: 103). In a culture that normalizes male sexual aggression against females in a variety of contexts, the typical consumer is pre-groomed to accept such aggression before he ever begins using pornography. In this article, I argue that many pornography consumers
undergo further and more specific grooming as they acclimate to rougher and more openly sadistic materials. This grooming is a co-operative effort involving both the industry and the individual consumer. Both, after all, have something important at stake: for the industry, continued profits; and for the consumer, an important way in which he has come to experience sexual pleasure. In this co-operative grooming process, I will contend, the male porn user becomes both abuser and abused, consumer and consumed.1
