The stigma around pornography being a negative thing can be lifted if discussion about its positive effects can be encouraged, writes Emily Wolter.
IT’S A MAJOR TOPIC that researchers and experts can continue talking about tirelessly: How does porn affect the everyday viewer?
To begin to understand how it might affect us, it’s important to highlight in what contexts porn is being viewed.
Why are we watching porn?
The 2022 Hims & Hers Sex Report, released late last year, indicates 32% of Americans use pornography as their main source of sex education. I polled my podcast listeners to understand how they use pornography.
The 85 respondents reported as follows:
- 14% use it as a main source of sex education;
- 59% use it for pleasure only;
- 28% use it as a secondary source after sex education;
- 36% of the respondents said it has changed their perception of sex (64% said it hasn’t); and
- 21% of respondents said pornography gives them unrealistic expectations, and the same number said it inspires new ideas and/or fantasies.
Of major importance in the above statistics is the number of people who are using pornography as a major source of sex education. It’s a pressing conversation, with most countries having only loosely structured the sexuality and relationships education curriculum to cover the information required for students to understand what positive, healthy, pleasurable sexual experiences look like.
It’s something we simply don’t see examples of and the conversation is oftentimes taboo. At the same time, we’re sexual beings. No other human activity has as much shame built around it as sex does. So, we can’t blame people, nor can we be surprised, that they get education and inspiration for what humans are inclined to do – have sex – from what they can get access to. And that, in many cases, is porn.
The effects of porn
We know the media has highlighted the detrimental effects of porn, particularly the fact that it’s become increasingly violent. In fact, research on over 300 porn scenes found 88% of them featured physical aggression. What’s more, viewers are learning these behaviours prompt positivity and pleasure from a partner in the act, creating a dangerous and potentially very detrimental sexual experience.
However, there is conflicting research that tells us we can’t necessarily directly correlate negative sexual experiences and body image to pornography viewership. For example, a major research piece from 2012, based on over 20,000 people in Australia, tells us adverse effects are reported by only a small minority of viewers and a very small percentage of participants self-reported having an addiction to pornography.
While we may not always be able to directly correlate viewer habits with sexual behaviours and inclination, we know violent behaviours and unrealistic expectations of how bodies should appear and move, and how humans should act during sex, are affected by what we see in porn. Research tells us the more we watch porn, the more we have ‘higher body-related cognitive distractions during sex’, lower self-esteem, more of a negative attitude towards one’s body and even an increased uptake of anabolic steroids.
We know the power of the mind when it comes to sexual satisfaction/pleasure. Body dissatisfaction and self-consciousness lead to decreased sexual pleasure as one’s thoughts might be anywhere but on what is feeling good and/or right for them. Additionally and scarily, there has been a major increase in labiaplasty, a surgery that modifies the appearance of one’s labium in an effort for them to look more like what they may commonly see examples of. From 2015 to 2018, there was a nearly 75% increase in the uptake of labiaplasty worldwide.
A positive direction forward
People aren’t going to stop watching porn and this isn’t to say people should. There are healthy and positive effects of watching people engage sexually, including increased feelings of arousal and the development of new ideas and fantasies as mentioned earlier. But we need to prep viewers to use it in the best way possible.
First and foremost, “real porn”, porn that features real people having realistic sex, is the closest we can get to the actual experience. Supporting real porn websites and creators allows us to better understand what these experiences actually look like. Keep in mind there are laws that prohibit the marketing of adult content, so finding real sites can include a bit of research.
Secondly, violent activity, while made to look pleasurable in porn, is not safe. Conversations around consent and safe ways to act out activities one may desire are vital to moving us in a positive direction forward. Encouraging abstinence is not effective; we need to acknowledge people will play out their desires and we, therefore, need to educate them on how they can do so safely.
Thirdly, we need to highlight the positive aspects of such activities. Yes, there are most definitely adverse effects reported from porn viewership. However, if we can better understand the context in which people are viewing this content and support real people and real acts, while removing shame and the taboo ideas we’ve construed around sexuality, we can move forward more positively.
Lastly, we need to encourage people to shift the conversation to a more body-positive, supportive manner. Each body is made differently and therefore each one moves, acts and sounds differently. It’s in our individuality and uniqueness that we are all beautiful in our own right.
Stepping out of the fantasy world, having raw conversations and opening the lid on a positive mindset around sexuality and the range of experiences one desires will support us in moving forward, away from violence and towards pleasurable experiences with real humans.
Emily Wolter is a sexologist and podcast host. She holds a Master of Research (Education), focusing on intersex issues in sexuality education.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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