Porn and rape culture: the new modes of communication of male domination

Brief presented by

Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle

to the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women

as part of its study on

Violence Against Young Women and Girls in Canada

Montreal

September 22, 2016

Introduction Established in 2005, the Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle (CLES) is a coalition of agencies and individuals that oppose the sex trade. The organization brings together some 50 member groups and more than 150 individual members who wish to offer an alternative to prostitution to women. CLES’ work is divided into three main areas: direct services to women involved in prostitution, education and training, and social and legal changes.

Continuum of violence and domination The fight against sexual violence is at the heart of CLES’ work. Women and girls involved in prostitution too often experience sexual violence. Women and girls who seek our help tell a story of incest, harassment, assault and rape. These acts of violence share similar characteristics: they are gendered, they serve to dominate, they reinforce each other and they have similar consequences on the lives of women and girls.

Violence against women in all its forms is the mainspring of inequalities between women and men. By imposing unequal gender relations and creating fear of any attempt to escape, violence imposes the power of men over women. Although not all men use violence against women, the existence of this violence taints all relations between the sexes.

Similarities between sexual assault and sexual exploitation Sexual assault and sexual exploitation are undeniably part of the violence that women experience no matter their social status, ethnic origin, citizenship, ability or sexual orientation. They are inseparable and help maintain a persistent myth of patriarchy: men should have an almost unlimited access to the body and sexuality of women.

They are also linked by the means by which they continue to exist and remain commonplace: rape culture and porn culture. The first is a tendency to minimize or even deny rape and to rehabilitate or even forgive attackers. The second is the fact of living in a culture where pornography has infiltrated our lives, our sexual practices, our beauty standards and our expectations of our sexual partners. While the first eroticizes violence against women and promotes it, the second excuses it. Both contribute to blaming the victim (victim shaming) and removing responsibility from attackers while making women bear the burden of violence prevention.

Sexual assault and sexual exploitation are also similar in terms of the negative consequences they have on the lives of women and girls. Victims of sexual assault and sexual exploitation feel guilt and fear being judged, similar to victim shaming, which is a sense of responsibility for the attack and a fear of not being believed. Moreover, women who have experienced sexual exploitation have generally experienced many other forms of violence, either before, during or after getting involved in prostitution.

Faced with the normalization of sexual violence, many women are reluctant to tell their families about being attacked. Similarly, sexually exploited women often live in secret fear of being judged and rejected by their families. The fact that certain forms of sexual exploitation are considered to be a choice makes them bear the blame of this choice and prevents them from being seen as victims.

This fear of telling people is accompanied by a fear of being pressured to formally press charges against their attacker by filing a complaint with the police. Many women fear the courts. Because of the impact of porn and rape culture, many victims who have internalized the shame of experiencing violence are convinced that they will be treated as criminals, judged or even punished by the judicial system, which itself is influenced by these cultures. As women’s self-esteem is severely affected by the experience of sexual violence, many do not feel strong enough to complain and navigate the judicial process. Lastly, many women fear retaliation from their attacker or people close to them and do not feel adequately protected by the system.

Solutions To prevent the occurrence of these forms of violence and to adequately support victims, the government must recognize, both in its official documents—through the adoption of definitions and consistent action plans—and in its actions, that sexual violence is part of a continuum of violence in women’s lives, and it must be addressed. Symmetrization (i.e., using a language or promoting a vision of violence that does not recognize its “gendered” character) only adds to the trivialization of the role of sexual or physical abuse in maintaining male dominance. It also prevents us from adopting the right solutions to end it.

It is also urgent to adopt a common definition of sexual exploitation that takes into account all of its aspects, including prostitution and pornography, and to develop guidelines and clear steps to end it. In the same vein, we believe that the application of the new Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act is an essential tool to end sexual exploitation and that its principles should be applied with the utmost urgency to the legal treatment of buying sexual acts (criminalizing demand) and to all campaigns to denounce sexual violence against women (providing support and alternatives to women involved in prostitution).