ABSTRACT
Violence in pornography is mainstream. One kind of extreme violence in pornography is acting out a rape. Pornography has moved from a lucrative underground business with ties to organized crime to a huge corporate-capitalist industry that operates openly. Pornography is also the “quietest big business in the world”, and it is difficult to accurately determine the growth and value of this industry because its profits are not usually monitored through conventional business authorities. There may be a strong international emphasis on pornography as a hate crime and as a violation of women’s human rights, but, as B. McPhail puts it, in North America, “Gender as a status category has taken a detour on the road to hate crime policy acceptance but is traveling the road nonetheless”. Reputable studies reviewed by leading experts in the field show that many women are harmed by their current and former male partners’ use of pornography.
