ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the debate surrounding the potential harmful effects of pornography. It outlines the evidence regarding pornography’s effects on gender inequality and sexual violence, looking at both experimental and correlational research designs as well as the various moderating factors in this relationship. The chapter examines pornography’s role as a source of sexual education for adolescents and youth and its part in creating sexual norms and scripts, particularly pertaining to sexual aggression and violence against girls and women. Anti-pornography positions hold that pornography is created almost exclusively by men and for men, and thus reflects and sustains male dominance. Mainstream heterosexual scripts, which dominate mainstream pornography, are largely derived from wider gendered cultural scripts. The relationship between pornography use and aggression is further complicated by moderating factors, primarily individual characteristics such as antisocial or aggressive tendencies.
