husbands’ use of sexually explicit material and that
this may threaten the stability of their marriage. The
survey data by the American Academy of Matrimonial
Lawyers in Chicago, Illinois, regarding the impact of
Internet usage on marriages indicate that the Internet
had been a significant factor in divorces they had han-
dled during the past year and that a majority of
divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive
interest in pornographic Web sites.
Decreased sexual satisfaction with traditional sexual
relationships has also been observed after exposure to
sexually explicit materials. One study looked at the
impact of consuming nonviolent pornographic material
on male and female participants drawn from college and
nonstudent populations from a midwestern city. As part
of the study, participants were exposed to either porno-
graphic or innocuous, nonpornographic content in
hourly sessions for six consecutive weeks. In the sev-
enth week, participants were asked to rate their personal
happiness regarding various domains of experience and
the relative importance of gratifying experiences. The
results showed that exposure to pornography negatively
affected self-assessment of sexual experience. The male
and female participants reported less satisfaction with
their intimate partner generally and with their partner’s
affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and
sexual performance. Additionally, the participants who
were repeatedly exposed to pornographic material
assigned increased importance to sexual relations with-
out emotional involvement.
The proponents of the obscenity/traditional moral
values theoretical perspective have also attempted
research into whether the compulsive behavior associ-
ated with repeated exposure to sexually explicit mate-
rials is psychologically damaging. This research is
inconclusive, and there is skepticism among psychia-
trists and other mental health professionals regarding
the case for including pornography addiction as a
mental disorder.Theoretical Perspectives
on Pornography
Some feminists have argued that pornography both dis-
criminates against women and provokes violence
against women. Catherine Mackinnon and Andrea
Dworkin proposed not a criminal obscenity law but
an antidiscrimination civil law designed to confront
pornography. As an alternative to obscenity law, several
communities revised their discrimination laws to reflectthis concern. Such a law was adopted in Indianapolis in- The law declared that works that portrayed the
graphic, sexually explicit subordination of women,
whether in pictures or in words, were pornographic if
they also included scenes or pictures in which women
are presented as sexual objects who enjoy pain or
humiliation; experience sexual pleasure in being raped;
or are tied up, cut up, or mutilated or in which women
are presented as being dominated, violated, exploited,
or possessed through postures or positions of servility
or submission. Women could sue on behalf of all
women or a group or themselves for damages.
The Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that the law was unconstitutionally vague and that the
kind of expression it sought to bar was protected by
the First Amendment. The court noted that under the
Indianapolis law, sexually explicit speech or expres-
sion is pornography or not depending on the perspec-
tive of the author; this is viewpoint discrimination.
According to the court, speech that subordinates
women is pornography no matter how great the liter-
ary or political value of the work. On the other hand,
according to the law, speech that portrays women in
positions of equality is lawful no matter how graphic
the sexual conduct.
Research testing feminist sociolegal theory has
examined pornography’s effect on attitudes that jus-
tify violence against women, such as rape myth accep-
tance, and undermine viewer sensitivity to victims of
rape and violence. The research literature examining
the association between acceptance of rape myths
and exposure to pornography has been examined in a
meta-analysis. This analysis shows that nonexperi-
mental studies show almost no effect—exposure to
pornography does not increase rape myth acceptance.
The laboratory experimental studies have found that
exposure to pornography does increase rape myth
acceptance; however, this effect occurs primarily for
violent pornography rather than nonviolent pornogra-
phy. The generalization of the finding causes some
concern because of the difference demonstrated
between experimental and nonexperimental research.
Neil Malamuth and his colleagues have conducted
research testing feminist sociolegal theory that has
also examined sexual arousal to depictions of rape.
A series of studies examining the effects of exposure
to sexual violence in the media on perceptions of
rape victims have been conducted. Specifically,
these studies have been concerned with the impact of
positive- versus negative-outcome rape in pornographic
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