There are a couple of things.
One is that for the last two years I have immersed myself, for good or bad, in studying the effects of pornography, particularly on children and teenagers. As far as I can tell, and I think it's safe to say—I've probably read over 300 studies in the last year—there is nothing conclusive about that.
What I find the most interesting, though, is that the effects of looking at sexually objectified women—whether it is in pornography or sitting on the bus on the way to work—are generally the same. That's what I'm most concerned about in terms of freedom of expression and civic participation. The effects are that pornified women are considered less moral, less ethical, less competent, less intelligent, baser overall, and are dehumanized.
When men are sexually objectified, people do not respond in the same way. There's no equivalence. We can dismiss any equivalence that people have when they say, “Oh, but there are objectified men on my bus too.” We know that's not the effect that is happening. The question to me is that if we really are concerned about women's status in society, we need to think overall about sexual objectification in general. Whether it's violent is a whole other issue.
The problem with a lot of pornography is that it's eroticizing male dominance, and very violently. The issue is how we talk to boys and girls about their relationships and about sex, because pornography is not going to go away any time soon as far as I can tell.
When boys are consuming this content, which they tend to do in much greater numbers because it's calibrated to appeal to them—we also know from other studies that when porn appeals to girls, they're just as happy to watch it—what do we say to them? How do parents talk about that? That contributes to whether or not you send a picture of your girlfriend to your friend.
I had a 19-year-old college boy in a room of 50 people say to me with a straight face, “Well what's the difference if I send a picture of my toaster to a friend or a picture of my girlfriend?” He really meant it too. He actually meant, “I have the picture and she gave it to me, so it's mine.” I think it's meaningful that by that age, the level of dehumanization and objectification we are tolerating in this society is resulting in this violence.