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Exposed: The Rise of Extreme Porn and How We Fight Back
Not yet published
Expected 7 Jul 26What would porn look like without patriarchy?
Around half of British men watch it regularly. With minimal content moderation, porn sites proudly showcase the most horrifying aspects of the human imagination for all to see – whether you're searching for it or not.
The consequences transcend our screens. Porn addiction runs rampant. ‘Revenge porn’ is ruining women’s lives – a threat only magnified by the development of deepfakes and AI. Boys are bored by physical intimacy. Girls are being choked. An entire generation’s sexual education is being delivered via Pornhub; fantasies moulded and manipulated by violent, degrading, misogynistic and racist ideals. This isn’t just porn, it’s patriarchal porn. And it’s everywhere.
Big Porn casually platforms the most extreme content you can think of. By allowing this in the mainstream, we are sustaining the conditions under which sexual violence thrives in the real world. If we care about gender equality, we have to address this now. KC Clare McGlynn has already helped criminalise ‘rape porn’ as a searchable category. In Exposed, she explores how we can realistically resist this exploitation of desire despite Big Tech’s limitless greed.
Around half of British men watch it regularly. With minimal content moderation, porn sites proudly showcase the most horrifying aspects of the human imagination for all to see – whether you're searching for it or not.
The consequences transcend our screens. Porn addiction runs rampant. ‘Revenge porn’ is ruining women’s lives – a threat only magnified by the development of deepfakes and AI. Boys are bored by physical intimacy. Girls are being choked. An entire generation’s sexual education is being delivered via Pornhub; fantasies moulded and manipulated by violent, degrading, misogynistic and racist ideals. This isn’t just porn, it’s patriarchal porn. And it’s everywhere.
Big Porn casually platforms the most extreme content you can think of. By allowing this in the mainstream, we are sustaining the conditions under which sexual violence thrives in the real world. If we care about gender equality, we have to address this now. KC Clare McGlynn has already helped criminalise ‘rape porn’ as a searchable category. In Exposed, she explores how we can realistically resist this exploitation of desire despite Big Tech’s limitless greed.
- GenresFeminismNonfiction
336 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 7, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 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.
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.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews