There is also significant evidence that early exposure to pornography is harming the developing sexual templates of children, contributing to damaging stereotypes, the development of sexist ideas and the normalisation of violence against women and girls. Adolescent males are now identified as the largest cohort of sexual offenders in general and sex offenders against children.
Australia is in the midst of a renewed debate on the national scourge of violence against women. This debate is to be welcomed. However what has not been adequately acknowledged is the role of pornography as a driver of this violence.
Melinda will explore what the research tells us about how pornography eroticises and legitimises violence against women and share young women’s experiences of sexual assault, physical injury from porn-inspired sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, demands for sexual ’selfies’, and other out-workings of harmful porn inspired behaviours. She will then look at what we can do personally and politically to change this.
Melinda is an author, speaker, media commentator, and advocate for young people. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women.
