Young Women and Pornography: A Qualitative Investigation in Australia

The digital age has made pornography omnipresent, stimulating, and easily accessible. Sarah Ashton investigated how young women make sense of this phenomenon. Her interviews with women revealed that pornography plays complex, often contradictory, roles in women’s lives, implicated in both beneficial and harmful outcomes. Of particular importance were matters of pleasure, consent, and intimate relationships. The evidence that men’s needs are prioritised over women’s alerts practitioners in public health and psychology to challenge such disparities in their clinical work and public communications. The publications arising from Sarah Ashton’s research include a refinement of the definition of pornography to incorporate consent.