WDI USA Takes a Stand Against Pornography

Exposing the Harm: Why Pornography is a Critical Women’s Rights Issue

The exploitation of women and girls through pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking represents a grave violation of our sex-based rights, as outlined in the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights. These practices perpetuate violence, commodification, and the degradation of women, treating our bodies as objects for consumption and profit. Pornography both harms individual women and also reinforces the systemic oppression of women as a class. All women have a vested interest in bringing an end to the woman-hating industry of pornography.

How Pornography Perpetuates Violence Against Women
Article 8 of the Declaration emphasizes the need for the elimination of violence against women, noting that “violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women as a sex are forced into a subordinate position compared with men as a sex”. Pornography fuels violence against women in multiple overlapping ways.

First, the human rights violations against the women involved in the production of pornography are massive. These violations include having sex with partners who are not desired and engaging in acts that are not desired; being paid does not vitiate the fundamental absence of enthusiastic participation. Pornography is, therefore, filmed rape—recorded acts of coercion and exploitation that are presented as entertainment, perpetuating and normalizing sexual violence.

Second, the consumption of pornography impacts the way males view and treat women and the way they conceptualize sex. It also influences how women perceive themselves and their role in sexual relationships. Pornography, which frequently portrays women not only as the sex that is to be sexually dominated but as victims in violent and degrading scenarios, normalizes and perpetuates violence against women. It is sex-role stereotypes on steroids, where the power difference between the sexes is normalized and eroticized.

A Call to Action
In alignment with the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights, WDI USA advocates for the complete eradication of pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking as interconnected forms of violence against women. We urge governments, organizations, and individuals to acknowledge the inherent link among these harmful practices and to implement concrete measures that safeguard the physical and reproductive integrity of all women and girls.

Read the full WDI USA Anti-Pornography Statement, here.