Gender, Race, and Aggression in Mainstream Pornography

Abstract

The role of aggression in pornographic videos has been at the heart of many theoretical debates and empirical studies over the last four decades, with rates of reported aggression ranging widely. However, the interaction between gender and race in the production of aggressive pornographic contents remains understudied and undertheorized. We conducted a study of 172 popular free Internet pornographic videos, exploring gender and racial interactions and the depictions of men and women from various ethnic and racial groups in online pornography. Contrary to our theoretical expectations and to the findings of previous research, we found that videos featuring Black women were less likely to depict aggression than those featuring White women, while videos featuring Asian and Latina women were more likely to depict aggression. Our findings call for a reconceptualization of the role of race and ethnicity in pornography.