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Exposed: The Problem of Extreme Porn
An expert’s exposé on the harms of Big Porn
Extreme porn is ruining lives. What can we do about it?
'Fizzes with righteous rage' The Times
'Couldn’t be more important... Urgent, bold and unflinching.' Laura Bates, author of Everyday Sexism
Never more than a click away, porn is virtually inescapable. With minimal moderation, mainstream platforms don’t just host it, they push ever more extreme content into view, whether you want it or not.
The consequences are profound. Our most intimate relationships are being manipulated, our desires exploited. An entire generation is learning about sex not from experience or trust but from Pornhub, where fantasies are constructed by degrading, misogynistic and racist ideals that eroticise masculine dominance and normalise sexual violence. Meanwhile, non-consensual porn is destroying women’s lives, a threat now supercharged by deepfakes and AI.
We’re told we live in an age of sexual freedom, but this isn’t true. We are fighting not only for autonomy over our bodies and desires, but for gender equality itself. To move forward means confronting and dismantling both the patriarchy and the porn industry that sustains it.
'Read this book – then encourage your partner to read it too.' Glamour
Extreme porn is ruining lives. What can we do about it?
'Fizzes with righteous rage' The Times
'Couldn’t be more important... Urgent, bold and unflinching.' Laura Bates, author of Everyday Sexism
Never more than a click away, porn is virtually inescapable. With minimal moderation, mainstream platforms don’t just host it, they push ever more extreme content into view, whether you want it or not.
The consequences are profound. Our most intimate relationships are being manipulated, our desires exploited. An entire generation is learning about sex not from experience or trust but from Pornhub, where fantasies are constructed by degrading, misogynistic and racist ideals that eroticise masculine dominance and normalise sexual violence. Meanwhile, non-consensual porn is destroying women’s lives, a threat now supercharged by deepfakes and AI.
We’re told we live in an age of sexual freedom, but this isn’t true. We are fighting not only for autonomy over our bodies and desires, but for gender equality itself. To move forward means confronting and dismantling both the patriarchy and the porn industry that sustains it.
'Read this book – then encourage your partner to read it too.' Glamour
336 pages, Hardcover
Published July 7, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 9, 2026
It’s hard to rate a book that is so devastating in its impact and the message it conveys. The four stars is largely due to just how upsetting it was to read some of the things in this book and because some of the content, when discussing the legal proposals towards the end to combat the issue, went a little over my head.
Nonetheless, this book is so important that I want to throw it into everyone’s hands and say READ IT. This book does a deep dive into Clare McGlynn’s work advocating for change in the world of pornography and the harm it creates. It was so interesting to hear that something like choking used to be extreme, but now is the norm. It was as horrifying to read that when women are abused, it is often by someone they know. It is even more damningly heartbreaking to understand that the world of pornography is shaping people’s attitudes towards sex in their own bedroom. Women being choked without consent? Men thinking women enjoy being degraded? Women trying to understand that they’re supposed to enjoy the humiliation? This book discusses how the pervasive violence towards women in porn should not be normalised, and by the current landscape of the online world doing so, that it thereby normalises violence against women in the real world.
The case of Gisele Pelicot and her husband filming her asleep while he invited men to violate her shook the world. This book states that in her husband’s search history, “asleep” porn was found. The damage of the normalisation of rape and abuse in porn, and men’s inherent right to do so for their sexual pleasure and then subsequently men’s inherent right to seek out this porn for their pleasure - it is an insidious and horrifically modern way that we are upholding the patriarchy.
Cashing in on women’s abuse, and then being outraged when they protest saying that we are infringing on their rights to porn and pleasure is upholding a dangerous structure which defeats women again and again.
I can’t get over the eye opening revelations in this book. It challenges my own perceptions and it is so important to understand that none of the most commonly obscene things seen on these big porn websites should be normalised.
I cannot thank the author enough for this monumental book and the invaluable work she has done to protect women.
Nonetheless, this book is so important that I want to throw it into everyone’s hands and say READ IT. This book does a deep dive into Clare McGlynn’s work advocating for change in the world of pornography and the harm it creates. It was so interesting to hear that something like choking used to be extreme, but now is the norm. It was as horrifying to read that when women are abused, it is often by someone they know. It is even more damningly heartbreaking to understand that the world of pornography is shaping people’s attitudes towards sex in their own bedroom. Women being choked without consent? Men thinking women enjoy being degraded? Women trying to understand that they’re supposed to enjoy the humiliation? This book discusses how the pervasive violence towards women in porn should not be normalised, and by the current landscape of the online world doing so, that it thereby normalises violence against women in the real world.
The case of Gisele Pelicot and her husband filming her asleep while he invited men to violate her shook the world. This book states that in her husband’s search history, “asleep” porn was found. The damage of the normalisation of rape and abuse in porn, and men’s inherent right to do so for their sexual pleasure and then subsequently men’s inherent right to seek out this porn for their pleasure - it is an insidious and horrifically modern way that we are upholding the patriarchy.
Cashing in on women’s abuse, and then being outraged when they protest saying that we are infringing on their rights to porn and pleasure is upholding a dangerous structure which defeats women again and again.
I can’t get over the eye opening revelations in this book. It challenges my own perceptions and it is so important to understand that none of the most commonly obscene things seen on these big porn websites should be normalised.
I cannot thank the author enough for this monumental book and the invaluable work she has done to protect women.
August 3, 2026
really upsetting but definitely felt like a necessary read, it was pretty awful to realise that despite not really ever consuming porn and only having a handful of sexual partners (that are all wonderful and respectful people), my life and my sex life has still been heavily impacted by the harms of big porn.
from being catcalled in my school uniform as a kid to the way my friends talk about celebrities we fancy, from the music videos we watch to the sort of ‘kinks’ that are considered ‘vanilla’, mcglynn carefully and methodically unpacks all the different ways in which our society and desires are steered and manipulated by those making money off more and more extreme content, and how our overton window as shifted so as to be unrecognisable.
this must stop and being aware of it is the first step, a very difficult read but definitely an important one.
from being catcalled in my school uniform as a kid to the way my friends talk about celebrities we fancy, from the music videos we watch to the sort of ‘kinks’ that are considered ‘vanilla’, mcglynn carefully and methodically unpacks all the different ways in which our society and desires are steered and manipulated by those making money off more and more extreme content, and how our overton window as shifted so as to be unrecognisable.
this must stop and being aware of it is the first step, a very difficult read but definitely an important one.
July 29, 2026
In the same vein as Laura Bates’ books, McGlynn offers her expertise on extreme pornography and the intersection/enmeshment with patriarchy, from her position as an expert in law. Shocking and highly concerning reading. The idea that so many of the depictions in mainstream pornography are pervading normal life as (mostly) men use it on a near-daily basis and the lines between media and real life become ever more blurred. Don’t even get me started on the issues with virtual reality porn, I can’t fathom it.
The content is heavier on describing the problem of extreme porn in our society (or as McGlynn explains, just porn, as the majority of content on the mainstream platforms is misogynistic, racist and most critically, violent) rather than the “what we should do about it” part. McGlynn’s final chapter details her views on government-level action and regulatory change, but there is no mention at what could be done at an individual or societal level, albeit this would be a smaller contribution to change.
Regardless, a must-read for feminists and a great discussion piece for the young people in our society.
The content is heavier on describing the problem of extreme porn in our society (or as McGlynn explains, just porn, as the majority of content on the mainstream platforms is misogynistic, racist and most critically, violent) rather than the “what we should do about it” part. McGlynn’s final chapter details her views on government-level action and regulatory change, but there is no mention at what could be done at an individual or societal level, albeit this would be a smaller contribution to change.
Regardless, a must-read for feminists and a great discussion piece for the young people in our society.
Review of advance copy
This is an important and devastating book that lays out how the very design of large pornography websites is driving ever-increasing extremism in online pornography, which is having a real-world impact on how people experience sex in the real world.
I think the flaw is in how it is laid out, going through the various forms of harm coming from pornography, all of which essentially boil down to the author giving the titles of highly viewed pornography videos, how it is tagged, the algorithm driving viewers to more extreme content, and how that is increasing unhealthy behaviours in sex, and it goes without saying it's bad.
I also think it's a profound weakness in a book, looking at the harms of 'big porn' is that the author talks about meeting and speaking with senior members of tech companies and politicians, which is worthwhile, but never indicates that she has made an effort to speak directly to the women (and men) who act in pornographic films. The nature and structure of the book make it very clear that the author thinks that they must be subject to harm, but their voice being absent completely robs them of their agency and is a real oversight and disservice. For saying that indie porn has the potential to be positive, the author doesn't explore this in any depth beyond the introduction, which feels as though she wanted to make it clear this book wasn't a puritanical objection to all pornography, but it is never explored further, which is disappointing.
It is also very narrowly focused on the issue specifically of pornography, and it would be interesting to locate this issue in a broader consideration of online culture related to sex and gender and broader societal attitudes to sex and women.
It's an important book, but it feels too long for what it covers, and there are some glaring omissions that were disappointing.
I think the flaw is in how it is laid out, going through the various forms of harm coming from pornography, all of which essentially boil down to the author giving the titles of highly viewed pornography videos, how it is tagged, the algorithm driving viewers to more extreme content, and how that is increasing unhealthy behaviours in sex, and it goes without saying it's bad.
I also think it's a profound weakness in a book, looking at the harms of 'big porn' is that the author talks about meeting and speaking with senior members of tech companies and politicians, which is worthwhile, but never indicates that she has made an effort to speak directly to the women (and men) who act in pornographic films. The nature and structure of the book make it very clear that the author thinks that they must be subject to harm, but their voice being absent completely robs them of their agency and is a real oversight and disservice. For saying that indie porn has the potential to be positive, the author doesn't explore this in any depth beyond the introduction, which feels as though she wanted to make it clear this book wasn't a puritanical objection to all pornography, but it is never explored further, which is disappointing.
It is also very narrowly focused on the issue specifically of pornography, and it would be interesting to locate this issue in a broader consideration of online culture related to sex and gender and broader societal attitudes to sex and women.
It's an important book, but it feels too long for what it covers, and there are some glaring omissions that were disappointing.
October 30, 2026
Really wanted to love this as think the work and career of McGlynn is so epic. Unfortunately, I found the book quite repetitive due to the way it was structured. I think the structure just didn’t serve what I hoped to get from the book. It read like an academic textbook, with each chapter surveying another element of extreme porn in depth. This meant that there was a lot of text setting out the factual detail of what this porn looks like but ultimately relatively similar analysis on its effects per chapter.
Review of advance copy
This was such a difficult and disgusting read, but essential. It really shows what levels of exploiration and violence we have been trained to be okay with through pornography and its effects on society. I really liked how the author didn't have a puritan take on porn, but rather went into how it's gotten extreme over the years and what that means for society as a whole.
Review of advance copy
minus one star because this would’ve been so useful for my dissertation it actually made me a bit angry
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews