The Over-Sexualization Of Adult Entertainment

Adult entertainment has had a profound impact on the United States, influencing and shaping its culture ever since the sexual revolution began in the early 20th century, and because of the clout this form of entertainment has, it can cause the country to stray from its Puritan roots and potentially “ruin” its society. This graphic form of media helps create an exclusive, self-centered mentality which disrupts the hopeful image of an inclusive, equal future that all successful societies strive for. The consequences the highly addictive sex industry induces upon society are highly destructive, leading to over-sexualization of women, racist ideologies and escapism from reality-- all of which having the ability to devastate the morality and therefore

While some may claim this sexualization gives women the key to their sexual liberation, porn does not normalize sex, but rather sensationalizes it, causing it to increase the social stigma towards it. Instead of exposing society to healthy, normal female sexuality to reduce the adverse perspective American culture maintains towards it, adult entertainment confirms the prejudices against it by degrading it to a socially taboo subject. By glamorizing sex, adult entertainment takes women’s control over their own bodies away by not portraying them as individual beings with their own agency but instead as products meant to be sold. Marilyn Monroe had the potential to make a lasting feminist impact on a world on the verge of loosening the corset laces of sexuality, but instead of viewing her celebration

The inherently racist industry of adult entertainment is the only major business that allows for the exclusion based on race, with an influx of performers divided by racial and “interracial” categories. These categories lead to further racial divisions in an already divided industry instead of united the actors regardless of race, which influences the viewers’ perspectives of race. Damaging, historic stereotypes are also perpetuated in adult entertainment that actively inflict harm on people of color while in mass media, these kinds of stereotypes would be frowned upon by the public. However, because adult entertainment is shunned by mainstream media and therefore does not face the same scrutiny, the industry can easily exploit these racist ideologies. Black men are painted with a broad brush, being inaccurately portrayed as violent and “taking advantage” of white women, reflecting the historic fear the KKK had of white women being violated by black men. Black women are also depicted as being promiscuous, overbearing and angry, all of which have historical and damaging roots in slavery. These racist ideologies promoted through adult entertainment ultimately lead to the ruin of society as they divide