It may be tempting to think that watching online pornography is an innocent activity. But the reality is that today’s online pornography is much darker and more exploitative than ever. It’s also rife with racist stereotypes.
Despite attempts to capitalize on hot-button social issues, popular pornography websites that host billions of hours of pornography continually host videos with violent and overtly racist titles such as:
- “Black Slave Punished by White Master”
- “White Cops F— Black Chick, Force Boyfriend to Watch”
- “Gang Banged by Blacks”
- “Black Slave Girl Brutalized”
And that’s just scratching the surface of the truly horrific collection of racist content that mainstream pornography regularly condones and promotes. Some videos also have the N-word in their title.
With 42 billion online visits per year, Pornhub’s algorithm actually gives search suggestions such as “black slave” and “African slave” to some users. In addition, many videos portray racist themes, racial stereotypes, and violence and abuse toward black women. And shortly after the killing of George Floyd, Pornhub monetized his death by partnering with and promoting a website called “BLACK PATROL,” hosting pornography themed on police brutality.
Despite the blatant evidence of racism in pornography and the commercial sex industry in general, online pornography continues to fly under the radar of the public’s usually critical eye, and research tends to ignore the issue altogether.
However, a new study published by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington looked into how black men and women are portrayed in online pornography. The study, which examined 1,741 pornographic scenes from two of the largest global online porn streaming sites, found that black women were consistently more likely to be the target of aggression when compared to white women, while black men were significantly more likely to be shown perpetrating acts of aggression compared to white men. The researchers also pointed out that “depictions of aggression towards women are highest in scenes featuring Black couples compared to all other racial pairings including interracial pairings.”
The study takes care to point out the effect of social learning theory: that we learn behavior and habits from the society around us and especially from the media we consume (including online pornography). Research has consistently linked negative attitudes about women, body image issues, objectification, and risky/harmful sexual behavior with the consumption of pornography. So, what exactly are people learning about race and sex when they consume online pornography?
It is abundantly clear that pornography profits from (and even revels in) disgusting and harmful racist stereotypes wherein black women are treated as sexual objects to be beaten, while black men are depicted as aggressive and dangerous. If white women are portrayed as mere objects, black women are portrayed as animals or aggressive sexual sirens.
And these stereotypes are evident even at increasingly young ages for black women. The controversial Netflix film Cuties, which centers on a young black girl who goes through a transformation of hypersexualization at the tender age of 11, is a recent case in point.
These stereotypes and depictions are not harmless or innocent. They should not be waved away as fantasy or dismissed because “sex sells.” Pornography is rife with racist material that celebrates the degradation of black women, men, and children. Commercial sex buyers are predominantly white men, while victims of sex trafficking are disproportionately women and girls of color. Predators prey upon the people that society has marginalized, meaning that minority communities are a prime target.
If we are to embrace the mission of fully combating racism in our modern societies, the pornography industry must be held to account. Through the #Traffickinghub campaign, more than 2 million people have united in a call to shut down Pornhub for hosting videos of sex-trafficked individuals, child sexual abuse victims, non-consensually shared images, and extremely racist content.
Online pornography is far from innocent. It exemplifies the worst of humanity.
Sommer Porter is the development coordinator and research associate at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (www.EndSexualExploitation.org).
