Robert Jensen has observed that "the danger of pornography is heightened exactly because it is only one part of a sexist system and because the message it carries about sexuality is reinforced elsewhere" (2007a: 103).

In a culture that normalizes male sexual aggression against females in a variety of contexts, the typical consumer is pre-groomed to accept such aggression before he ever begins using pornography. In this article, I argue that many pornography consumers undergo further and more specific grooming as they acclimate to rougher and more openly sadistic materials. This grooming is a co-operative effort involving both the industry and the individual consumer. Both, after all, have something important at stake: for the industry, continued profits; and for the consumer, an important way in which he has come to experience sexual pleasure.

In this cooperative grooming process, I will contend, the male porn user becomes both abuser and abused, consumer and consumed.