Ryleigh Repass

Hampshire College

Positive and Negatives of Porn

Pornography in the 21st century has come a long way. Porn dates back as far as 25,000
years ago with the Venus of Willendorf found on the banks of the Danube river in Australia
(BBC, 2006). This small statue of a nude female body and is one of the earliest known depictions
of sexually explicit material. The Greek and Roman empires also produced many images of nude
and sexually explicit material often portraying gods and goddess having orgies or sex with
animals. However, porn only recently became a booming industry with the first wide theatrical
release of the film in 1969 (Canby, V., 1969). Even with thousands of years of use, porn remains
a controversial topic.
Porn is an ever growing topic of concern in terms of behavioral studies. There are
thousands of articles that attempt to address the possible controversies surrounding porn.
Unfortunately, many of these studies lack a large enough control group and some have no control
group at all. With the ever growing rise in internet accessibility comes the rise in accessibility to
sexually explicit materials. Anyone that owns a computer now have access to pornography. The
effects of such material on adolescent behavior are not well known. There are researchers that
argue that porn has a negative effect on attitudes and behaviors of adolescents and even adults such as less progressive attitudes towards gender roles. Alternatively, there are some that argue
its positive effects on attitudes and behaviors - such as a way to allow people to feel sexually
liberated. The following is a review of these opposing views as well as an overlook at the
evolution of research into sexually explicit material.
The earlier studies on pornography address the question of who is searching for porn,
what type of porn they are searching for, attitudes towards porn and frequency of searching. For
example, Goodson and colleagues (2001) questioned a series of students attending a public

university in Texas in the hopes of better understanding the population surrounding pornography
use. Interestingly, internet use was a recent phenomena among the individuals questioned with
only 8% using the internet for more than three years prior to the interview. At this time, 43.5% of
the students reported having used the internet for sexual entertainment. Contrary to popular
belief, the number of male students who reported masturbating while watching porn was not
significantly different than the number of female students.
This lack of significance varies greatly from a meta-analysis study completed just a few
years prior. In 1993, Oliver and Hyde found that across 177 studies, although the perception of
masterbation was not different between the sexes, males reported a higher incidence of
materbation compared to females. This difference is important to note because it shows
behavioral changes possibly associated with the rise in the accessibility to porn. In the following
paragraphs, both negative and positive effects of greater exposure to sexually explicit materials
are presented.
Negative Effects:
A 2006 article by Peter and Valkenburg draws from a survey of 745 adolescents
questioning their exposure to sexually explicit material and the correlates of this exposure. They
found a correlation between personality, developmental characteristics, and internet use to
exposure to sexually explicit materials. Personality characteristics such as a stronger need for
sensation, dissatisfaction in life, and a stronger sexual interest were positively correlated with
desire to search for sexually explicit materials. Adolescents with predominantly younger friends
were significantly more likely to seek out sexually explicit materials than adolescents with older
friends. Finally, as expected, adolescents that used the internet more often were more likely to be
exposed to sexually explicit material than those who did not. This study is significant towards the

understanding of evolution of porn use because it shows direct correlations between individual
traits and their likelihood of watching sexually explicit material. Furthermore, this study provides
a stepping stone for future studies because it sets the precedent for characteristics associated with
pornography use.
Over the next few years, porn studies shifted away from examining the traits associated
with porn use and started investigating behavioral changes in adolescents after exposure to
sexually explicit material. A common theme amongst protesters of porn use in adolescents is that
porn provides an unrealistic view of sex and thus affects sexual behaviors and expectations.
Brown and LEnge (2009) addressed this by performing a longitudinal study on 967 adolescents
(mean age of 13.6 years) over a two year period. Their findings were so revolutionary that they
have been cited by over 300 articles since publication. They found that males with increased
exposure to sexually explicit materials had more personal sexual norms two years later
(p=0.004). Additionally, the researchers found that increased exposure to sexually explicit
materials had no influence on attitudes regarding gender role. Interestingly, amongst females,
Brown and LEnge (2009) found that increased exposure to sexually explicit materials predicted
less progressive gender role attitudes two years later (p=0.013). The researchers found that males
who had greater exposure to sexually explicit material exposure were more likely to perpetrate
sexual harassment (p=.05). In terms of sexual behavior conduct, males were more likely to have
oral sex or sexual intercourse with increased exposure to sexually explicit materials (p>.001,
p<.001 respectively). The same was true for females and sexual behavior conduct (oral sex:
p=.047, sexual intercourse: p=.031). With the accessibility of porn on the rise, the implications
that this paper provides are quite worrisome.

Owens and colleagues (2012) researched adolescent development and exposure to

sexually explicit material through a review of the recent literature (2005-2012). The paper brings
to light many different viewpoints. For example, Owens and colleagues (2012) quote a study in
which adolescents were found to relate sexually explicit material too closely to real life
relationships, thus causing unrealistic ideals. Furthermore, a relation between level of exposure
to sexually explicit material and sexually permissive attitudes was documented in multiple
studies. Owen and colleagues (2012) review of the current literature brings together related
studies which shed light on the negative effects of pornography.
Positive Effects:
Although the literature has found statistically significant negative effects of sexually
explicit material, there is also data on the positive effects of sexually explicit materials. LofgrenMartenson and Mansson (2010) present a study on young adults that finds that the subjects are
able to separate pornagraphic ideology from real life situations. This directly opposes the
common belief that sexually explicit material causes unrealistic views of real-life relationships.
Scientists argue that interest in sexually explicit materials is part of normal development towards
an interest in sexuality but the implications of this need to be further examined (Sabina, Wolak,
and Finkelhor, 2008).
Pro-pornography advocates argue that porn often has a benign or positive effect on
attitudes - specifically in the sexual liberation of women. Beggan and Allison (2002) write that
with the Third Wave Feminist Movement, women were able to expand their boundaries,
including their consumption of porn.
Weinberg and colleagues (2010) question the possibility that pornography provides a
level of education and empowerment to viewers. They included 172 participants in their study of

varying ethnicity and sexual preference. The first half of their study was a close-ended
questionnaire to provide quantitative data regarding the frequency of viewing pornography and
variables reflecting normalization and empowerment. The second half was an open-ended
questionnaire to provide students with the opportunity to describe in their own words the effects
of pornography viewing on their lives. Interesting the responses given for the open-ended
questionnaire regarding how pornography viewing changed their attitudes were mostly related to
how pornography influenced their views about sex. For example, one woman claimed that anal
sex became normalized through pornography: I think porn has helped to open my eyes.Anal
sex no longer seems mysterious, [it] just seems normal (Weinberg et al., 2010). Whether or not
this is a positive effect of sexually explicit materials is an entirely personal belief. For this
woman, she seems to view it in a positive light. An interesting future study for this would be to
see if women like this, that are normalized to certain sexual acts, report higher satisfaction in
their sex lives. If they do, then one could presume that this is a positive effect.
A reported positive effect in the Weinberg et al. (2010) study is the acceptance of their
sexual nature. Men and women that grow up in strict or religious households are often told that
sex is dirty or wrong and that any deviation from the norm is not okay. One man reports that
pornography helps me to know that what I see is not an abnormal act like my parents told me
(Weinberg et al. 2010). Furthermore, there were many reports of higher confidence associated
with a higher frequency of porn use. Both women and men claim that pornography not only
allows them to feel more comfortable when performing sexual acts but they also report being
more willing to try new things. One man claimed that without pornography, he would have never
gotten the courage to perform cunillingis on a female partner.

The courage provided through pornography is also supported in a study amongst black
youth homosexual men. In this study, Arrington-Sanders and colleagues (2015) question young
black homosexual men ranging from 15-19 years of age on the effects of their use of
pornography. Many men reported watching sexually explicit material prior to their first sexual
encounter to fulfill their curiosity about sexual function and development. Common themes
explaining the primary use of sexually explicit material were to learn about the appearance and
function of sex organs, the mechanics of same-gender sex, and exploring their own sexual
identity. The outcomes from this study are helpful in explaining how porn can result in a
healthier and happier sexual experience. Even in families where sex is openly discussed and
sexuality is accepted, many heterosexual parents of same-sex attracted children are not educated
well on the dynamics of same-sex intercourse - thus causing a gap in education for these
individuals. A positive outlook on the accessibility of sexually explicit material is that children
of all sexualities are able to educate themselves on sex regardless of how willing their parents
and schools are to educate them.
Discussion:
Future studies should aim to include a better control group and look more deeply into the
effects associated with a greater accessibility to porn. It would be interesting to see a connection,
if any, between sexual violence and rate of porn use. An interesting thing to note is that with the
rise in availability to sexually explicit materials also comes the rise in the availability of other
internet use such as researching feminist movements or education on sexual conduct. In the
recent past, media has begun to present more cases of sexual misconduct such as misogyny and
rape than ever before. The importance of sexual education and persistence towards conviction of
abusers has also steadily risen in the past few years.

I argue that with the rise in porn use and accessibility in addition to the openness about
sexuality also comes the movements towards sexual justice. The best way to approach the topic
of porn is to understand that there are both indirect and direct detrimental and beneficial effects
of pornography. The effects of sexually explicit material have become such a widely discussed
topic that even the most conservative people are forced to openly talk about sex. In a way, I
believe this will end up benefitting the discussion regarding human sexuality.
Parents cannot control everything their child sees. Like it or not, children are exposed to a
variety of sexual explicit material through many different mediums. Instead of trying to condone
and/or hide sex from curious children, it might be beneficial to try and provide better education
on both the positive and negative effects of sex. For example, expanding knowledge on safe-sex
and the negative effects of not having safe sex creates an informed population of young people
that are better equipped to handle future relationships and a sex life.

References:
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http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/human/venus/
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10,
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