Study: Porn watchers think more highly of women.

[Prism]

Interesting study given it's taken in some quarters as a self-evident truth that porn leads to misogyny.

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/porn-watchers-think-more-highly-of-women

Taylor Kohut: It is often said that pornography causes users to devalue women and this devaluation is expected to contribute to gender inequality in society. This has motivated attempts to introduce—or in some places, change—legislation concerning the regulation of obscenity across the world. It's also a major assumption in a great deal of research concerning the link between pornography use and sexual aggression. With that said, the assertion that pornography users devalue women and try to maintain structures of inequality to ensure that women remain subservient to men has not received much direct empirical attention.
RG: Your hypothesis was that porn watchers weren’t into gender equality. What did you find out?

. . .

TK: You're right, according to radical feminist theory, pornography users should hold more gender non-egalitarian attitudes than non-users of pornography. We tested this basic hypothesis across five variables pulled from American General Social Survey data and did not find any supportive evidence. In fact, pornography users were more supportive of women in politics, more supportive of women working outside the home, and more supportive of women's access to abortion, than were non-users of pornography.

The researcher dips into potential explanations for the study's finding:

TK: It's important to keep in mind that evidence of correlation should not imply causation. My colleagues and I think our findings are best explained by third-variable factors. There are certain groups of people (e.g., religious, social, and political conservatives) that avoid pornography use who also tend to hold more gender non-egalitarian attitudes. If we assume that there is no relationship between pornography use and gender egalitarianism, then including these people will lead to a positive bias in the results (i.e. more supportive gender-egalitarian attitudes among pornography users). Our findings may simply reflect the presence of people who avoid pornography use and hold more gender non-egalitarian attitudes in our sample.

Anyway, thought it was an interesting analysis given the many, many conversations DU has had on the topic. Being a gay man, I don't really have any input on this.

[OregonBlue]

1. You can fool some of the people all of the time. LOL.

[whathehell]

2. +1000

[PersonNumber503602]

3. I can see how that might make sense

" In fact, pornography users were more supportive of women in politics, more supportive of women working outside the home, and more supportive of women's access to abortion, than were non-users of pornography"

I am going to guess that is because most men who are totally against porn are going to be the more conservative types, and those guys are typically less supportive of women being viewed as equals to men.

[Major Nikon]

37. I suspect most such types aren't really against it

They just are less likely to admit to using it.

[Throd]

4. I think that would depend on what type of porn you watch.

Without getting too graphic, some porn portrays women as equals during sex, and some portray women as something to be denigrated and defiled.

I have no use for the latter.

[LostOne4Ever]

23. I like your response :) Nt

[Katashi_itto]

25. Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.

[JackInGreen]

27. You keep your kink

I'll keep mine.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. The next to last paragraph makes intuitive sense. n/t

[Goblinmonger]

6. This should be interesting

There's room next to me if anyone wants snacks.

[NaturalHigh]

7. I'm sure it will be a thread of calm and well-reasoned discussion points.

These threads normally resemble peaceful debate club outings, especially in GD.

Oh wait, I forgot the

[snooper2]

13. not really a number of folks are on timeout right now

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. ... Or posting elsewhere. n/t

[Anansi1171]

8. Full of...

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. "religious, social, and political conservatives" may not be regular consumers of porn, but...

...but I've read many claims over the years that when they have conventions and such the hotels' adult channel viewing goes way above average.

[JackRiddler]

10. Natch, but they won't participate in such a study.

With all surveys you have to start with the decline rate.

[mythology]

12. Yeah but they probably don't admit to watching it

Of course why they think porn is worse than believing women shouldn't work outside of the house.

[jeff47]

26. Yeah, but when asked in a study, they will claim to avoid it. (nt)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. probably because those who admit to watching porn are liberals

and people who are not religious.

that is what likely explains this correlation

[Prism]

14. That was the researchers thought as well n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. i for one dont believe porn contributes to societal misogyny. porn has increased in its explicitness

whereas misogyny, while still prevalent, has definitely decreased. this tends to show a negative relationship and not a positive linear relationship.

[Prism]

16. I'm curious to know how the non-reporting group affects the relationship

If there were some way to account or control for people who may consume porn and not report it, I wonder if it would place the results nearer to a wash, showing that porn has very little effect on misogyny either way.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. that's likely the case

[Yavin4]

18. Just like people who smoke pot or play video games aren't lazy or violent

What most people do to relax or escape life does not really identify them as who they are. Just because you watch porn, that does not mean that you hate women. Probably, it's just the opposite. You probably love women and want to watch them doing sexual things.

[kcr]

20. A study that starts right off with "According to radical feminist theory"

Isn't going to be biased at all And of course it's published in the Journal of Sex Research. That explains it. Because all they did was take a phone survey. And ask the participants if they'd ever watched anything x rated in the last year. Then asked them a bunch of questions about demographics. From the study:

"The binary regression of feminist identification on pornography use, gender, and their interaction revealed a significant effect for gender, b¼0.89, p<.05, but not for pornography use, b¼0.30, n.s., and no significant interaction between gender and pornography use, b¼0.13, n.s. In this sample, men were 2.43 times more likely to indicate that they were not feminists than women were. In contrast, pornography use was not related to identification as feminist (see Table 2)."

So. Because men were more likely to be sexist than women, but both were just as likely to answer that they'd watched one x rated something or rather in the last year, porn isn't the problem. How sciency!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

33. why would a study that started with according to XYZ theory be biased

all hypotheses are rooted in some theory or the other

[Glassunion]

21. Yay! Pron thread!!!

[Rex]

29. I hate it when that happens.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

34. Killbot premature eradication.

[Rex]

35. I hate it when that happens.

[PersonNumber503602]

38. Saved for future unknown uses.

[Curmudgeoness]

22. I want to redesign the study.

I would like to see a study of male opinions of women without bringing up the "watching porn" question. But the respondents would all be males who had a hotel room where porn was watched at the time they were there.

Because I think that it is too easy to lie to a questioner about whether or not you watch porn, and the pious conservatives would be more inclined to deny it.

[ieoeja]

24. Another theory: misogynists typically believe that women tolerate, but do not like, sex.

I've certainly encountered more than a few of idiots expressing that idea.

Porn goes against that idea. In most porn women are equal partners. It is certainly possible that a misogynist watching enough porn might lose this idea. And with it all the other stupid shit that comes with the package.

Propaganda does work after all. Especially with weak minded individuals. I'm pretty sure "weak mind" and "bigot" go hand-in-hand.


Though I think the person in the article, and several DUers upstream, are more likely correct: liberals will more readily admit to porn use.

[Rex]

28. I am surprised in the Information Age that there are non-porn users.

With the way everything is today, I am surprised some still do not at least glance at porn pics.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

31. You can't avoid it, right? Even in this comment!

(Hot outdoor action from furnitureporn.com)

[Rex]

32. Exactly! The ads on DU are a good example!

Want to meet Hot Russian Babies!? Okay, maybe it is soft porn but still...why are we meeting again? Oh right...so we can play checkers face to face. Yup yup!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

30. I don't buy it.

Most porn is bought in red states. So you'd expect those people to think more highly of women if that was true. I think there's some confounding factor not being taken into account by the study.

Actually, thinking about it, I'd suggest that the people who admit to using porn already tend to be more liberal. So it's not the porn making them supportive of women, it's a self-selection of people who are more supportive of women in spite of the porn.