Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kelly Highum
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
The context in which people consume erotic material has drastically changed within the
last twenty years due to the emergence of the internet medium. This technological change in the
way individuals consume pornographic material has caused a shift in sexual norms and sexual
emotional, and physical effects on those consuming internet pornography, and on the consumers
interpersonal relationships with other individuals. Cooper (1998) argued that these technological
advances have created a triple A-engine that fuels the increased trend of pornography
consumption. The triple A-engine trifecta includes: accessibility, affordability, and anonymity
of pornographic materials on the internet. These technological changes have allowed for the
widespread societal normalization of the sexual and interpersonal scripts presented within
internet pornography.
The average American child is first exposed to pornographic images online when they are
twelve years old (UCLA, 2003). However, 87% of youth that intentionally seek out pornographic
material are 14 or older, with only 5% of self-identified speakers being female (Ybarra et. al.,
2006). By age 14, 66% of males and 39% of females reported having seen at least one piece of
sexually explicit media in the past year (Brown & LEngle, 2009). The accessibility,
affordability, and anonymity presented by the internet has allowed for young viewers to be
exposed both unintentionally and intentionally to pornographic material, often years before their
first sexual encounter. This exposure to pornographic material has profound effects on the way
people especially young heterosexual boys and men (ages 14-25) approach sexual situations,
women.
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
The scenes that these young people young heterosexual men, in the majority of cases
(Carroll, et. al, 2008) are exposed to display unequal power balances between men and women.
Despite the prevalence of misogynistic themes within other modern forms of media, online
pornography is one of the primary forms of media that sexualize these unequal power balances,
stereotypical depictions of racial and sexual minorities, and aggressive sexual tendencies.
Bridges and colleagues (2010) analyzed the content of 304 popular pornographic videos; 88.2%
of the scenes analyzed contained physical aggression, including spanking, gagging, and
slapping; 48.7% of the scenes analyzed contained verbal aggression (Bridges, et. al., 1075).
Within the scenes analyzed, the most common perpetrator of both verbal and physical aggression
was the male, while the receivers of the aggression were female (Bridges et. al.). The receivers of
the aggressive behavior often showed pleasure or responded neutrally to the displays of
hyperfeminine, hypersexual, whose worth stems from womens ability to fulfill mens desires
and accept sexual aggression without complaint. When young men are exposed to online
pornographic media from a young age, their own physical and interpersonal attraction
preferences will shift to conform to the stereotypes about women enforced within pornographic
material.
there has been a distinct lack of sociological research focused on the subject. I intend to focus my
graduate research and doctoral thesis on internet pornography; eventually, I intend to lead a
research team solely focused on this subject. Research about the social, psychological, and
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
physiological effects of pornography has been underfunded and largely ignored. I intend to
change that. Pornography slowly eats away at the humanity of men and women, and normalizes
the filmed prostitution, violence, and degradation of both men and women. I am going to lead a
research team in examining how human behavior has been affected by pornography, and how
capitalism has contributed to creating this unfortunate phenomenon. I will become a sociology
anti-porn advocate, and a research team leader. Within the following literature, I will describe a
foreseeable situation that will occur within my professional career: working with university
students who are skeptical about my anti-pornography position. In the following text, I will
utilize transformational leadership theory, and will apply the theory to the stated hypothetical
Transformational Leadership
individual followers (Northouse, 161). This process includes assessing followers motives, needs,
goals, emotions, ethics, and values, and treating them as full human beings. A leader practicing
transformational leadership aims to influence and assist his followers into accomplishing more
than what is usually expected of them; for this reason, transformational leaders are often
charismatic and driven to accomplish a given goal. A transformational leadership engages with
his followers in order to gain a connection that increases the level of motivation and morality in
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
There are a specific set of leadership factors associated with transformational leadership,
for a leader to motivate followers to do more than expected. Charismatic leaders, or ideal
influencers, raise followers level of consciousness about the importance and value of a specific
goal or situation through the use of inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and
influence and engage followers in order to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of a
Discussion
Within my future career, working with university students who are skeptical, or oppose
and distribution of internet pornography is highly normalized within our society, and many
people refuse to critically analyze the violent, misogynistic themes within pornography because
they believe these narratives do not have wider societal effects. It will be my goal as a professor,
a researcher, and an anti-pornography advocate to transform students, peers, and wider societal
goal. I will engage with my followers as a leader to increase their levels of motivation and
morality in order to combat the normalization and societal acceptance of online pornographic
material. Specifically, I will be a charismatic leader, intent upon raising my students, my peers
and wider societys consciousness about the importance of understanding the detrimental effects
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
of pornography, both at an individual and societal level. The transformational leadership style
that I will use in order to complete this goal will focus on inspirational motivation, intellectual
inspiring them through motivation to become committed to and part of the shared vision to end
the consumption of pornography. I will create a movement culture that values human sexuality,
sensuality, and romantic relationships free from the toxic, violent influence of pornography. As a
leader, I will be authentic and consistent within my professional research and personal life. I will
truly believe what I preach and what the feminist anti porn movement stands for, and will
therefore remain credible to others who hold the same values and the same movement culture. In
this way, I will practice inspirational motivation within my own leadership style.
As a leader, I will challenge my students, peers, and society at large to challenge their
own beliefs and assumptions about pornography. I will challenge them to debate the validity of
my claims, and to defend their positive outlook of online pornography. I will encourage my
followers to come to their own conclusions about pornography after completing their own
independent research, and considering both sides of the anti-porn argument. In this way, I will
followers to come to their own conclusions about pornography after completing their own
independent research, and considering both sides of the anti-porn argument. In this way, I will
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
I will make it a point within my own professional career to listen carefully to the
individual needs of followers. As a leader, I aim to act as an advisor to my followers in order for
them to become fully actualized in their beliefs and values. Individualized transformation and
evolvement cannot take place without the individualized consideration of my followers needs. In
order to recruit them as anti-porn advocates, I need to become the leader each individual student,
and peer needs. The challenge of this component of my expected leadership style will be to
There are two ways to influence human behavior: through manipulation, and through
inspiration (Start With Why, 2011). Within my own career, I will use the latter. There have been
attempts to influence people to reject porn through fear and manipulation; I think the most
obvious and well known example of this is devoutly religious groups claiming everyone who
watches porn will go to hell. This will not be my tactic as an anti porn leader. I intend to lead this
type of research and movement for the good of humanity. Personally, I value ethics, morality,
equality, and respect for all people. That message will be the overarching theme in my research
and teaching career. I am going to reach out and inspire other people who also value ethics,
morality, equality, and respect for all people in order to create a movement based on those
principles. The narratives normalized within online pornography are directly opposed to these
principles, both in the way the consumption of pornography affects individual human beings, and
I will exemplify these ethical principles and values through my position as a research
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
perceptions about pornography that my students, peers, and society as a whole holds by
critically about the normalization of pornography through debating the topic, research, and
individual introspection. In this way, I will motivate and influence others to examine their own
Conclusion
The emergence of the internet brought about a technological change in the way
pornography within a specific set of circumstances: being alone, practicing voyeuristic sexual
tendencies, multiple videos with new sexual simulations, and constant novelty. These
circumstances do not resemble interpersonal sexual situations, and the repeated dopamine surges
that consumers experience when watching online pornography cannot be recreated within the
reality of sex with another person (Koukounas & Over, 62). In this way, the emergence and
prevalence of online pornography has caused a shift in societal sexual norms and individuals
sexual activity.
The transformational leadership model I will utilize within my own professional career is
Legally censoring online pornography will not solve this issue. A grassroots movement based on
transforming individual and societal perceptions about pornography will directly confront the
normalization of the misogynistic, racist, homophobic, and violent narratives presented within
mainstream pornography. The followers I will influence need to come to their own conclusions
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
about pornography through individual introspection, and intellectual stimulation. I will motivate,
support, and consider each individuals needs, in order to become a successful transformational
leader, and motivate my followers to transcend their own self-interest for the good of society as a
whole. The eradication of online pornography will cannot be achieved through censorship, but
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Allen, M., Emmers, T. M., Gebhardt, L., & Giery, M. (1995). Pornography and rape myth
Koukounas, E., & Over, R. (2001). Habituation of male sexual arousal: Effects of attentional
Siebel Newsom, J. & Congdon, J. (2015). The Mask You Live In. The Representation Project.
Sinek, S. (2011). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Penguin
UK.
Sinek, S. (2014). Leaders Eat Last Deluxe: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don't.
Penguin.
Weisz, M.G., & Earls, C. M. (1995). The effects of exposure to filmed sexual violence on
Ybarra, M. L., & Mitchell, K. J. (2005). Exposure to Internet pornography among children and
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Running Head: ADVOCATING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
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