Pornography and Quality of Life: An African Feminist Psychological Lens

In recent years, South Africa has featured among the countries with the highest traffic on Pornhub. In 2018, the country was ranked 20th in the world by traffic on Pornhub and second for most time spent per visit, ahead of the more technologically connected countries. The insights from Pornhub suggest that South Africans are big consumers of porn, possibly even problematically consuming it. It is important to underline that there are differing opinions in the literature relating to problematic pornography use as an addiction. As such, in this chapter, we shall refer primarily to problematic porn consumption, but we will also refer to pornography addiction in line with the components model of addiction. We will discuss the impact these behaviors might have on quality of life (QoL). While there is a small body of work on pornography, and a comparatively larger body of work on QoL, there is not much scholarship on pornography and QoL. The chapter explores the possibility that pornography use could have improved QoL for some South Africans, particularly during the COVID-19 lockdown periods. The main objective in this chapter is to expand on an African feminist psychological perspective on QoL with a focus on pornography as an example of compulsive behavior/addiction. The contribution of this chapter is to offer a theoretical lens on the potential impact of pornography consumption on QoL from an African feminist psychological perspective, highlighting the different ways of maintaining human connection and the effects thereof on the individual’s QoL.