SAN FRANCISCO—A recent study out of James Cook University in Australia shows pornography use is not associated with sexist views.
JCU psychology lecturer Dr. Dan Miller and fellow researchers surveyed more than 300 heterosexual men on their pornography habits and attitudes towards women.
“The idea that pornography promotes sexism is frequently proposed by the media and in academic discourse,” Miller said. “Not only was there no link between overall pornography use and sexism, use of violent and humiliating pornography specifically was also not associated with greater sexism."
Indeed, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (formerly Morality in Media) website claims, without evidence, that “Pornography fosters aggression by normalizing and depicting verbal and physical violence as enjoyable.”
But the research belies these claims. In “The Sunny Side of Smut,” Melinda Wenner Moyer points to several studies showing that moderate porn consumption does not promote sexism. “Contrary to what many people believe, recent research shows that moderate pornography consumption does not make users more aggressive, promote sexism or harm relationships,” Moyer writes. “If anything, some researchers suggest, exposure to pornography might make some people less likely to commit sexual crimes.”
In fact there is research showing that men who watch more porn have more gender egalitarian views than men who watch less or don't watch porn. Miller described the study in question, by Taylor Kohut and colleagues, as “one of the most important studies on the association between porn use and sexism.” Its data is based on part of the General Social Survey, which he calls “a really good, large-scale survey.” The major limitation of that study is that it measures porn use in a very blunt way, without differentiating viewing clips on tube-sites or still images and asking whether participants have viewed porn in the past year or not, rather than taking frequency into account. “This kind of dichotomous measure isn't going to capture the cumulative effects of frequent use of porn. And those who claim that porn use promotes sexism are generally talking about the effects of frequent exposure.”
While Miller’s study uses a much more limited sample, it measured frequency of porn use and used an existing measure of sexism.
The James Cook University researchers did find that men who thought that pornography realistically depicts sex and relationships were more likely to hold sexist views. It’s not clear whether porn is more likely to cause sexism in naive men or whether more sexist men are less familiar with real-life sex and relationships.
Researchers are still trying to measure whether and to what extent many or most porn users internalize messages from porn.
Miller performed a correlational study that found that men's porn use was associated with interest in engaging in "porn-like" sex. “However, this didn't seem to be a driver of feelings of sexual dissatisfaction with one's sexual relationship,” he said.
In an experiment by Kohut and colleagues, women who watched porn depicting clitoral self-stimulation were more likely to later engage in this behavior compared to the control group.
Perhaps most worryingly, another study found that university students who frequently viewed porn judged their peers to be less likely to use condoms, and were themselves more likely to engage in unprotected sex.
On the other hand, all available evidence indicates crime against women is declining worldwide. And there’s research showing that rather than porn or fantasy changing people’s attitudes or behaviors, it seems like people tend to be turned on by things they ideologically oppose. For example, research by Dr. Justin Lehmiller, detailed in his book Tell Me What You Want: The Science of Sexual Desire and How It Can Help You Improve Your Sex Life, showed that progressives are more likely to have sexual fantasies in which women experience violence and humiliation. Conversely, conservative men tend to fantasize about sharing their wives.
Image by Sammy-Williams from Pixabay
