Women and Pornography Addiction
Texto em Português: Clique Aqui
Texto en español: Haga clic aquí
Introduction
Pornography consumption causes four significant social problems: psychosocial behaviors (addiction), female objectification, encouragement of practices legally prohibited by the State and sexual exploitation. Given the scarcity of time and resources, as well as personal experience as former consumers, this text focuses on providing guidance on rehabilitation strategies in relation to pornography addiction.
Written by two black women who started consuming pornography at a very young age, between 10 and 12 years old, the text highlights the lack of specific material for girls and women on this topic.
Data About Pornography: In the World, in Brazil and in Your Body
According to Similar Web, the most visited porn sites in September 2021 included Pornhub, XVideos, and XNXX. In Brazil, XVideos is the third most accessed website, preceded only by Google and Youtube. The Sexy Hot Channel, in 2018, revealed that 76% of accesses to pornographic websites were made by men, while women represented 24%. There is a lack of research focused on female pornography consumption, highlighting the need for specific approaches to improve understanding of this group.
Why does anti-pornography feminism discuss this topic?
Anti-pornography feminism addresses the issue for four fundamental reasons: female objectification, reinforcement of practices prohibited by law, sexual exploitation and psychosocial behaviors resulting from excessive pornography consumption.
What are the behaviors linked to excessive pornography consumption?
According to Your Brain On Porn, these are the main behaviors linked to pornography consumption:
- Hypersexuality;
- Excessive Masturbation;
- Worsening of anxiety and depression;
- Social Reclusion;
- Loss of Libido: losing libido while having sex;
- Dissociation: thinking about pornographic scenes when having sex or masturbating, instead of thinking about real scenes or focusing on the moment of the event.
- Low self-esteem;
- Sexual Dissatisfaction;
- Body dysmorphia;
- Sadism.
What are the rehabilitation strategies for pornography consumption?
Recognition of damage, Reboot, support network, therapy, pleasure alternatives, blocking applications and studying the topic are strategies mentioned by Your Brain On Porn and articulated by the women who wrote this text.
Recognition of damage
Two surveys carried out in Europe, Research Highlights for Children’s Online Safety (England) and “Dá o Clique” (Portugal), showed that the average age at which pornography consumption begins is 11 years old.
The younger you are exposed, the greater the damage and your rehabilitation process.
Regarding the context in which you find yourself, a common scenario that precedes compulsive consumption for many women is being alone at home, at night.
You may be feeling anxious, depressed or bored and “cover” these feelings with masturbation and pornography.
Another standard point of this damage is dissociation, that is, thinking about pornography during sex to feel horny or reach orgasm.
The following questions serve as guidelines for you to understand the effects caused by pornography consumption on your body:
- At what age did I start consuming pornography?
- How old am I now? How long did I consume it?
- What is related to my consumption?
- What are the events that occur right before I consume?
- What about the events during?
- What about the events that occur afterwards?
- Do I have difficulty feeling horny for sexual situations in real life?
- Can I only masturbate to porn?
- When I’m having sex with someone, pornographic images come into my head?
- When I’m having sex with someone, do I need to think about pornographic videos to feel horny or come?
Reboot or Reboot
This technique consists of resting the brain from sexual stimuli for 90 days, partially or completely. In addition to stopping watching, avoid having sexual intercourse and masturbation.
The reboot is based on the principle of Brain Neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to expand and shrink with stimuli, so it is possible for the areas of the brain that were affected by pornography to return to their “initial state”.
In the reference of this research we leave available the link with further descriptions about Reboot.
Find or build a Support Network
Being alone is one of the great stimuli for consuming pornography.
Telling a friend or trusted person about what is happening to you is a guarantee of support in times of instability and desire to consume.
Seek specialized help from a professional who understands pornography addiction
Recommend this booklet to your psychologist.
Look for alternative pleasures:
Physical exercise, playing video games, reading, playing sports, producing art, etc.
Use applications that can block pornographic websites and help you count the days without consuming, to monitor your performance.
Applications such as Remojo and Reboot are recommended by the authors.
Read and understand about addiction
Build conversation circles, listen to podcasts, follow anti-pornography pages, read academic or anarchic texts, talk to women who are in the process of overcoming addiction and write about your own procedures.
References in Portuguese (use the google translate to read)
Refuse to Click: https://medium.com/recuse-a-clicar
The reason why porn actresses keep dying (text by Gail Dines and translation by Malena Sandim): https://medium.com/recuse-a-clicar/a-raz%C3%A3o-do-porqu%C3%AA- porn-actresses%C3%B4-keep-dying-2319313b747c
Your Brain on Porn: https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/pt/
Letícia Balducci: https://www.youtube.com/c/EspecialistaX
Pornography and Sexuality — a denunciation of the female condition. Raisa Duarte da Silva Ribeiro, Marcela Siqueira Miguens: https://www.indexlaw.org/index.php/garantiasfundamentais/article/view/4003
