Anal sex. Oral sex. Role playing. Repulsed by these images? Embarrassed to talk about them with your friends or your partner? Why not just download some commercial porn?
Dr. Sharon Abbott, a sociology professor who teaches a variety of women’s studies classes including “Sociology of sexuality,” said although porn has negative aspects, research has shown there are also several positive aspects of watching porn for both men and women, and within a sexual relationship.
Porn can be educational by providing new ideas and can make people feel okay about some of their fantasies, according to Abbott.
“It could just give you something new to do,” she said. “And that’s OK.”
Interviews with more than 30 Fairfield students, both male and female, agreed that watching porn can be a learning experience, providing them with knowledge of new sexual ideas.
“Even if it doesn’t offer women any pleasure, I guess they could pick up a few new tricks,” said Steven King ’06.
“Porn can give you some new ideas, which should always be welcomed,” said Mike Falzone ’06. “Even when it involves someone being upside down.”
Fairfield women held the same perspective.
“I definitely learned some positions that I didn’t even know existed,” said Katie O’Brien ’06.
Watching pornography with a partner can also be beneficial within sexual relationships because it might provide a means for couples to have a discussion about pleasure and fantasies and/or likes and dislikes, according to Abbott.
“If you’re with the right person, who likes it too, it can amplify the experience,” said Pat Carney ’05.
Heather Izzi ’06 agreed, although she found that watching porn with a partner might have the possibility of a negative effect.
“If they are an open couple and really secure in their relationship, then it could spice things up a bit to watch it together,” she said. “But not if your boyfriend seems to like the porn and gets into porn more than you.”
Wendy McElroy, author of XXX: A Woman’s Right to Pornography, argued that pornography is liberating for women because it breaks cultural stereotypes and can provide sexual therapy. Porn strips away shame from women who love doing something but feel guilty about it, such as oral and anal sex.
However, Abbott has challenged this argument.
“We still live in a country of profound double standards for men and women,” said Abbott. “Women who enjoy sex are still in danger of being called a slut or whore, so one could imagine that women may be less inclined to be public about their consumption of porn.”
Janelle Buckley ’06 said that there are definitely girls who watch porn and don’t admit to it.
“Girls don’t admit they have seen it or watched it because it’s not really considered a ‘girl thing,'” said Buckley. “Society seems to look down on a girl more for watching it and it is considered normal for a guy.”
Abbott suggested the way males and females are socialized in this society may cause women to be embarrassed and ashamed to watch porn.
“Sociologists have found that watching porn or even looking at a Playboy magazine is often a rite of passage for boys, whereas girls are more likely to be socialized in messages of romance,” said Abbott.
The porn industry, including major companies such as Vivid and VCA, also make it difficult for women to experience porn as much as men.
Research has shown that women watch less porn than men because there is a significantly lesser amount of porn marketed for women. Also, visual stimuli and sexually explicit materials play a much smaller role in women’s sexual socialization than in men’s, according to Abbott.
Although watching pornography has several benefits, negative aspects include the cumulative effects of viewing women as sexual objects and the disconnection between living in the real world and living in the fantasy world of porn, Abbott said.
Izzi put it more bluntly.
“It could be negative if guys watch it all the time and become sleaze balls,” said Izzi.
Abbott suggests that people should not rely solely on pornography for knowledge and ideas about sex and sexuality; understanding of sexuality should come from many sources.
“If you get all your information from one source, be it porn, your religion, or a textbook, you are going to end up with a skewed and incomplete picture,” she said.
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