ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two common assumptions that often appear in the academic literature and in popular media, though typically without the backing of systematic empirical support. It examines the common claim that the vast majority of (popular) pornography contains aggression. The chapter evaluates the validity of claims that mainstream online pornography is getting “harder and harder,” that is, that it contains a steadily growing amount of aggressive acts. The sense that mainstream pornography is gradually becoming aggressive was also evident in our interviews with online pornography viewers. Beyond noting whether a given video included aggression or not, it is also important to assess how central aggression was to the narrative of the videos in which it appeared.
