Pornography and prostitution represent the commercialized use of women (and children) for men's sexual pleasure. The Latin roots for the word porne and graphos mean the graphic depiction of female sexual slaves. Force, domination, humiliation and objectification are common themes of most pornography.

In abusive relationships, men may use such images to force a woman to perform acts she finds unwanted or perverse. The pain of many women in the sex industry (participants in pornographic materials or prostitution) becomes sexual entertainment. Once viewed, the acts may become the source for sexual fantasy and lead to threats to repeat them, putting them on a normal footing with consensual acts.

The key element most apparent in pornography, but present in all the types of men's violence against women described here, is objectification. One author has simplified the term objectification to thingifying.

Hurting another is not a normal human act. In order to bring harm to someone else, a person must first reduce the other person from her full humanness to something less, a thing or object.

It is through objectifying that he calls her names such as b----, c--- or my old lady. It is often a short step from objectifying words to abusive or violent acts.

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